The issue was brought up in Ivan's thread about his Polytune clip-on. I've had issues with the stroboclip and also with the BOSS-10, and these are my best, most accurate tuners.
It happens mostly with the guitar. I was tuning up this morning, and the stroboclip was pretty consistently displaying "B" as I attempted to tune the low "E" string. sometimes it would flash an "E", but was pretty consistently showing a "B" which is the harmonic a fifth above ...
In the discussion on that other thread, there was some mention of the sensitivity of the best tuners, and a suggestion that perhaps the strings were being struck too hard. As I pondered that, I remembered the stroboclip instructions indicated that for best results, the fingertip was preferred over use of a pick when tuning.
What I found this morning was that lightly brushing the string with the fingertip worked very well. The tuner accurately read the fundamental note, and tuning was a snap.
This would be a way more difficult task to perform on mandolin with its double courses though. What I have found with mandolin, though, is if use a pick that tends to produce a "darker" more subdued tone, accuracy in pinning fundamental tone and achieving pitch is increased!
For example, when I use a Wegen and use it lightly, I find it much easier to tune than when I use a JT Pix - or when I use any pick and strike too hard.
YMMV
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