A Snark-y Tuner Thread

[Rob Meldrum]

No financial interest. I play in a band that meets every Saturday morning. During our sessions I'd usually have to tune my 12 string guitar and mandolin twice, once when starting, and once when the instruments adjusted to the room temp. My iPhone and Korg tuners use a built-in mic, and I'd have to ask everyone to stop playing, talking, and singing while I tuned. Yuck.

I read about Snark tuners here a while ago, and ended up buying a couple. So easy to use, and no more interrupting the session for silence while tuning. The rest of the group liked them so much they all wanted them. These have an MSRP of $39, and most music stores sell them for around thirty dollars. I found them on Amazon.com for $11.89 packaged with three free picks, and you get free shipping if you spend more than $25. So I bought four of them for the band.

This is a great deal for those of us on a budget. Oh, this is the SN-8, which is the newest version. It works even if you have a capo on, and you can adjust it down in half-note increments. It also has a silent metronome feature where you can set your beats per minute and it flashes the beat. It comes with a round CR2032 lithium battery, so when it is time to replace that I can pick it up at most drugstores. Like I said, NFI on my part, just thought I'd share this great deal. Rob

[greg_tsam]

Hi Robster. The snark is a great little tuner and a great price. I got mine for $8 online. These things have been discussed quite a bit on here so most of us have them already. Clip on tuners are almost as fun to collect as picks. I have the black one since the blue was a little to electric and the red just didn't fit my mandolin's color scheme.

[Ron McMillan]

Yes, a fine tuner much discussed here. Some people (myself included) have noticed some damage to instrument headstocks because the spring on the clamp seems to be unnecessarily strong. So leaving it on the headstock for long periods of time might not be advisable.

My Snark is now relegated to back-up status. I prefer the unobtrusive new Planet Waves mini tuner that 'hides' behind the headstock just north of the nut.

rm

[terzinator]

Love the snark, unless I'm outside in the bright sun. Was at an outdoor gig yesterday midday, and I couldn't read it at all.

I'm thinking I'll give that planet waves mini thingy a try for daylight conditions.

[Lil Chubs]

Started with a $60 IntelliTouch back in the day, then various other clips-ons through the years, and the good ol' $10 Snark works as well as any of them. I do agree with terzinator about using it in sunlight/daylight, but otherwise it works as well as a tuner 5 times or more expensive. I am intrigued by the Peterson StroboClip, but it's $70.

[journeybear]

I started with the IntelliTouch too, bought for $50 from the inventor who was just starting out, had a table set up at Winterhawk must be 20 years ago. Now the last 2-3 years there has been such an explosion of really cheap ones, I wonder how to decide which to get. I'd really like to see a side-by-side comparison chart. Does anyone know if Consumer Reports has done anything on these? They really should.

[greg_tsam]

I've seen side by side comparisions on youtube by tuner geeks that have several different ones. They all use quartz so are very close, if not identical, in tuning abilities. The difference is the package and display from what I've seen but I've had some types work better than others. Cent wise I don't believe the clip on Peterson to be any better than my cheap snark but I don't know that from personal experience. Things get more accurate when you move up to the bench oscillators but the price jumps as well and not portable.

[Mike Bunting]

I recently got those tiny NS tuner and it tunes sharp to my Peterson bench tuner. I had a snark and the arm attachment broke within two weeks and a week after that it just plain stopped working Not real impressed with the cheap ones.

[almeriastrings]

All these things have positives and negatives, and there are a lot of variables. What I like about the Snark: It is fast to lock on, and the display is clear. Works well on most fretted instruments. What I don't like: the ball joint is indeed a weak spot. Broke one of mine and ended up having to superglue it. They are also heavier on batteries than some other tuners. Not seen any headstock damage from ours (we have several of them), but did see real damage from the NS Mini... I suspect the finish has a lot to do with this. There might also be manufacturing variation in spring strength, etc. I think "use with care" applies to all of 'em.

Still waiting for the 'perfect' tuner. Maybe it will arrive after the 'perfect' case?

[foldedpath]

Cent wise I don't believe the clip on Peterson to be any better than my cheap snark but I don't know that from personal experience.

The internal pitch accuracy of the Peterson StroboClip is similar to other clip-on tuners. Since all tuners have good internal accuracy, the main things to look at are how well a tuner can sense vibration and "read" a note (especially at low pitch), and how that information is presented.

I've tried a bunch of clip-on tuners (including the Snark), and the StroboClip is better than most at reading low-pitched notes when tuning a bass or guitar. The main selling point though, is the display method. It shows part of the upper harmonic series as well as the note being tuned. That makes the display look a bit twitchy; it's not as simple as a tuner that tells you "you're in, or you're out." But it allows creeping up on the note in a way that seems to me to be more accurate. Or maybe just faster, because I'm used to it (I also use a StroboFlip and StroboStomp in other situations).

Another advantage of the Peterson tuners is that many of the people I play with either don't grok the Peterson display, or they just prefer a conventional needle-type tuner. So I don't have to loan out my tuner very often.

[greg_tsam]

Another advantage of the Peterson tuners is that many of the people I play with either don't grok the Peterson display, or they just prefer a conventional needle-type tuner. So I don't have to loan out my tuner very often.

Kinda like smoking menthol cigs..

[Verne Andru]

I agree with Snarks in sunlight - other than that, they're a great piece of kit. When you consider the technology going into cel phones these days, Snarks are stone-age, relatively speaking.

[onassis]

Does anyone know if Consumer Reports has done anything on these?

Acoustic Guitar magazine did a side by side review of various kinds of tuners a year or so ago. Some clip-ons, some stomp boxes, some bench tops. Not real scientific, though, IIRC. Just one reviewer's opinions. As I recall, the Strobo-clip got pretty good marks.

[allenhopkins]

Re: Snark -- the little rubber pad on the clamp arm is held on mainly by force of habit; I've had mine fall off a few times. Easy to put back on, and I do plan to get around to using a drop of Duco or similar at some point to reduce the problem. On the other hand, were it to fall off on a not-too-brightly-lit stage, might not be readily find-able.

Positive attribute -- the red Snark has a microphone built-in, with a selector switch allowing choice of "vibration" or "microphone" sensing. Since I sometimes tune things like Autoharps, which lack a headstock or other convenient place to clamp a tuner, being able to switch to "mic" is a useful feature.

Negative aspect of positive attribute -- I've run a red-Snark battery dead by forgetting to set the selector to "vibration" and forgetting to turn off the power switch. If the selector's on "vibration," there's a "dead man" feature that switches off the tuner after a couple minutes of getting no vibrations to sense, preserving the battery. If the selector's on "microphone," the tuner hears ambient sound, thus overriding the "dead man" switch and running down the battery.

[onassis]

From my (admittedly) limited experience, it seems that the battery-killin' is pretty common with clip-ons. I have an older model Korg AW, and have slaughtered many a battery, even with the "dead man" switch. I've had it on a different instrument, or on the table, and just having it in the proximity of the sound of my mando is enough vibration to keep it from turning off. Now I try to be very diligent about turning it off manually. Seems to be the nature of the beast with something designed to be sensitive to vibration.

[Miked]

I caught Hot Tuna on Woodsongs last Sunday and Jorma had a blue Snark on his headstock. He had it clipped on with the display behind the headstock which is how I like it. Out of the way and out of sight, for the most part.

I guess my only complaint would be the difficulty viewing the display outside.

[Tim2723]

Concerning the comments about seeing the display in bright light: Has anyone found a tuner that can be easily seen when the sun is shining on it? Not that I do that very often, I spend most of my life in the pub, but sometimes I do expose my pasty-white skin to direct sun.

[onassis]

I use a first gen Korg clipper (N222, I think?) that does pretty well in sunlight.

But only because it has no backlight. So it's fairly useless in a dim bar. Sigh.

Can't win for losin'.

[SorenLindholt]

I have not tried the Snark, but will look at it. But I fully recommend the Peterson, its display has a very sturdy and adjustable construction, and its FAST, and no little green light to wait for etc...
We use it in our workshop on a daily basis...

Best regards, Søren
rulleguitar.dk

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

I just bought the mini Planet Waves and the new snark "super-tight".

The new stark is fast and seems pretty accurate. The new screen is better laid out, the graphics are bigger and its brighter, but the screen itself is reflective. Its also still kind of the same pain-in-the-ass shape it always has been. The box is also a bit sleazy, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your sense of humor.

The planet waves mini is sweet, hides away nicely, screen was bright enough for me to use in indirect sunlight. Not as fast as the snark and not as easy to read quickly, but it gets the job done without looking like a freakish appendage.

[JuddTaylor]

The turbo tuners do well in bright light, but they don't clip on. You could land a plane by the leds on them. I have one on my electric guitar board, and have been wanting the "acoustic" version (ST-122a) for a while. Accuracy is like 60x better than the stroboclip (.0017 cent vs .1 cent) as well. Since it's an actually-in-real-life a strobe tuner, the response is instant as well.

FWIW, I've got a cheap snark on order as well. My IMT just sucks. I just can't use it after the turbo...