Anyone tried a Planet Waves NS micro tuner?

[Johnny60]

Hi folks,

Has anyone tried one of those tiny Planet Waves NS micro tuners? They look very neat and compact compared to my big blue Snark, but does anyone know how they compare, especially in a jam situation?

Sometimes, in a bigger jam, the Snark picks up resonant frequencies from other instruments (and that's without a microphone). Just wondering if there's an alternative solution?

Talking about mandolins here, rather than guitars.

Cheers

Johnny

[Ron McMillan]

There have been a number of discussions about the NS Micro. I rate it very highly, and consider it to be at a superior level of design and quality when compared to the ugly, visually intrusive, over-sprung Snark.

[guidoStow]

I use the PW NS micro. Works great, very unobtrusive. So small it doesn't need to be removed when putting the instrument back in the case. I leave mine on all the time. I can't comment yet on the jam isolation though...

[Johnny60]

Thanks guys!

[Paul Busman]

I bought a two pack of those at Elderly a few years ago and liked them so much that I bought enough for all of my instruments. They work great, even at a noisy pub session. From the front you can barely see them.
I recently saw a picture of Chris Thile with one of these on his Gibson, if that tells you anything.

[Bertram Henze]

The intrusion from ambient sound is a feature of the instrument, not of the tuner. The instrument becomes the tuner's microphone, so to speak. The more output the instrument has, the more input it must therefore have, too.

[Manfred Hacker]

I like them a lot. Also have the fiddle version.
And I think they eat less batteries than the SNARK.

[onassis]

The intrusion from ambient sound is a feature of the instrument, not of the tuner.

This.

All tuners that work via vibration of the instrument will have this problem. Extremely responsive instruments might have even more issues.

[pops1]

This.

All tuners that work via vibration of the instrument will have this problem. Extremely responsive instruments might have even more issues.

If you are having this problem lightly dampen your top with your arm, it should stop the vibrations from the room while letting the stronger vibration of your string reach the tuner.

[Paul Brett]

I've used both snark and planet waves, I generally play mando and tenor banjo in sessions. I couldn't pick a winner with regards to tuning my instruments however other people seemed to ask to borrow the snark more with the result that I would lose the snark.

I now use an NS Micro Soundhole Tuner on my mando (A type with soundhole) and an NS Micro Banjo Tuner on the tenor banjo. It's too awkward to take them off so no one borrows them. Both the snark and the ns tuners both picked up resonance from fiddles or accordions sitting next to me, like above I think this is due to a good responsive instrument and not the tuner.

I keep a snark around the house for tuning the kids guitars and basses, it's easier to clip on and off whatever instrument.

[dhergert]

I use the PW NS headstock mount tuner all the time on both of my main playing mandolins... I like them a lot. Very discrete, not very noticeable, they never have to come off the instrument, and they are actually quite useful on mandolins. I also have them on all of my main-playing banjos (with my own design of mounting system), and also my wife likes the headstock version on her guitars.

Regarding picking up background sound, I usually tune using harmonics to electronic vibration based tuners, the higher, muted tones tend to be picked up better, and the harmonics are low enough volume that most of the time they are not objectionable to other people who may be playing.

[EdHanrahan]

... feature of the instrument, not of the tuner. The instrument becomes the tuner's microphone ...

Just a thought: Moving to a different spot on the headstock could make a difference in the external resonances that get passed to the tuner.

In any case, I've use a PW NS on both mandolin and guitar and it works well for my needs. OTOH, I don't actually have a Snark to compare it against.

[Bertram Henze]

If you are having this problem lightly dampen your top with your arm, it should stop the vibrations from the room while letting the stronger vibration of your string reach the tuner.

Interesting - I'll try that tonight.

Just a thought: Moving to a different spot on the headstock could make a difference in the external resonances that get passed to the tuner.

No chance for me trying that. There is only one spot on the headstock of my OM where even the tiny PW NS fits, the rest of the headstock is full of GOTOHs.

[Johnny60]

Fellers - as always, this place is mine of great information! I learn something new every time I come here! Thanks to you all.

[Chris Daniels]

Have three NS micros and will eventually get one for each instrument I own because they're awesome. Don't recall any issues at the few jams so far.

If you are having this problem lightly dampen your top with your arm...

For some odd reason, when reading this my brain immediately used definition #1 as listed below instead of the actual #2, which caused a brief but disturbing image of how and why you would do such a thing:

Dampen

verb

1. make slightly wet.

2. make less strong or intense.



C.

[DHopkins]

If you're not already convinced: I have four of them. I bought the first two when they first came out. They unobtrusive, accurate and the batteries last a long time. You can mount them under or on top of the head because the display can be inverted. I've always used them on top.

[Shelagh Moore]

I have a couple of them and prefer them to the Snarks I used to use (I still have one of those too). I find them fairly accurate (I always final tune by ear anyway), light and unobtrusive.

[zedmando]

I find them difficult to adjust to see clearly--where the Snark has more flexibility.

(And as for the mic issue--some of their tuners don't have the mic issue)

[MikeEdgerton]

I'm using the internal soundhole mounted guitar tuners. I love them I've switched over to them on all my guitars. I have the banjo mounted model and although it works the blinking light is really annoying. What I did to fix that I won't share. The small single units are pretty good but I still reach for my Intelli out of habit. I could probably live with the ns on my mandolin, I just haven't gone there yet. It is a great product.

[bratsche]

Never having used one before now, I wondered if any clip-on tuner could be smaller than the one I received with a used baritone ukulele I recently bought. So I looked up the Planet Waves NS micro, and realized it's the same thing, although the one I have says D'Addario on it. The seller left it on top of the headstock, where I immediately removed it, thinking it looked obtrusive. When I changed the strings on the uke to classical guitar ones for fifths tuning, never realizing how much nylon strings could stretch before they settled, I briefly used my old standby electronic tuner - a Korg CA-30 - to adjust and re-adjust the intonation. Then I remembered the little D'Addario, and put it back on. I found its display to be easier to use on these crazy nylon strings than the Korg. While intending to turn it off, I once inadvertently hit the button that turned the display upside down. Then the light went off in my brain, and I took the thing off the top of the headstock, and re-mounted it underneath, just below the E string tuning machine. It is much more unobtrusive there, plus it's easier to read from this angle while holding the uke in playing position, so I just left it on. Because of its small size, it's not as ugly or bothersome as I thought a clip-on tuner would be.

bratsche

[Bertram Henze]

D'Addario is the new Planet Waves.

[Dave Bradford]

I've been using the violin tuner (D'Addario NS Micro Violin Tuner) on most of my fiddles and mandolins for several years now. Compared to the D'Addario NS Micro Clip-Ons, I found that having GDAE as the only tuning to be an advantage since I don't need to scroll through the other instrument tunings to get what I need.

[Bertram Henze]

I don't need to scroll through the other instrument tunings...

??
I never did any active choosing of a tuning on my tuner. I just pick the string and the tuner shows the nearest note and how far away it is. Are we talking about the same one?

[Dave Bradford]

Oops. You are correct, and looking back the one I stopped using was this tuner:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That one had different modes for several instruments that you had to scroll through at times which was not a good thing when trying to tune quickly.

[Drew Egerton]

I liked the one I got with a box of 4 sets of strings a while back. The display and accuracy all seemed fine.
BUT, I seemed to have a lot of issues with buzzing on the headstock from it, so I went back to a black Snark.
It doesn't sound like anybody else has had that issue....so maybe I need to try again. Right now it's living on my mandola.