electronic tuner:

[legendarytones]

I have a Korg electronic tuner. I have replaced the batteries. It seems to be off. When I put it on 440 pitch and tune my mandolin, or guitar with it, it is off a little bit. I have to fine tune by ear. Have any of you ever had one go bad? And it's not my ear, my ear is good, other pickers have checked it and come to the same conclusion. Actually, I've never trusted those things completely anyway. I've always tuned my E string to pitch with one, then tuned the A, D, and G by ear with the E. One thing I've noticed since those things came out, is everyone is constantly tuning with them, esp. if they have the clamp on kind. Some people spend more time tuning than they do playing. I always think, well they don't have a good ear.

[John Flynn]

Tuners are great for getting the instrument close to perfect tuning quickly, but the ear is always better. They are a great aid, especially on the mandoin, because with all the string tension, any change in one string can cause a change in the others and with the paired strings, anything that is off even a little really sounds bad. So I get mine on with the tuner and then fine tune by ear. Clip-on tuners are also great for noisy enviornments.

My question is, how do you know it's your tuner that is off? It could be your instrument. The truth is that hardly any fretted instrument has 100% perfect intonation. I have had better luck with tuners being accurate than instruments and I have owned several of both. But in any case, the musician has to have the final say and it makes sense to do it however you feel comfortable. Korg is a pretty good brand, but I am sure they could be off.

[legendarytones]

Mano Johnny, it's not my instrument. Like I said other folk tried the tuner and came to the same conclusion. I think the best way for a "band" to tune is like we always done it back in my salad days before these gadgets came to be, and that was the guitar player or anybody else get in tune with a pitch pipe on the high "E" note, then everybody else tune with that by ear. Course I realize that everyones got tohave a good ear to do this, but I was fortunate growing up and being around exceptional musicians all the time, so thats make a huge differance.

[Bruce Evans]

"Tuners are great for getting the instrument close to perfect tuning quickly, but the ear is always better."

And one should always be careful about using words like always.

Not always, MJ. It depends on whose ear it is.

[8ch(pl)]

I had the same thing happen to my KORG. I bought a new tuner, a SEIKO. I like both. A lady in my folk group asked if she could have the KORG. The following week she said that she removed some water from it, around the screen area maybe? Perhaps condensation. It may be worth a look.

[Mandomax]

Good luck tuning by ear if you are in a noisy venue (like a bar) where the patrons won't quiet down. It's also really, really, REALLY tough to do in a jam with inconsiderate pickers, like the banjer picker who's gotta keep playing "Cripple Creek" while you try and tune. It doesn't even have to be crowded- it only takes one loud picker to make using your ear to tune difficult, if not impossible. Those are the main reasons I use a clip-on tuner- instead of looking like a jerk telling everyone to quiet down or a rube with the out-of-tune mando. But, hey, if you can make it work for you...

[mandroid]

Buy a tuning fork, an A,eh? and then you will know if its off #with a reference to compare it with.

you'll always have a backup, thereafter, when the battery is drained.
I used a fork touching the bridge for years before getting a battery run electronic one.

[John Flynn]

Not always, MJ. It depends on whose ear it is.

LOL! Good point. I have played with some folks who try to act "purist" and not use a tuner and they are always the ones out of tune!

As to tuning forks and pitch pipes, I have seen them be off more than I have seen electronic tuners being off.

[mandroid]

test it in the store before you take it home, silly, just buy the one thats ON pitch.

[pickinpox]

I was going to suggest testing your tuners against the "Mandolin Tuner" over at Mandozine.com. #I tried it and found that those pitches are off. #Probably well suited to tuning up a mando for practice but not accurate enough for testing an electronic tuner. #There are probably some good reference tone that can be found on the web however. #I wonder if the results will vary from computer to computer.

[Aran]

Okay my 2 cents worth

I use an intellitouch clip on tuner and it is faultless.

The jam session that happens in Dublin every Friday usually has about 15 or so musicians and it just wouldn't work to ask everyone to shut up while I get my #### together. Someone would be playing cripple creek somewhere whatever I did

[Lee]

Buy one of these.
http://www.accu-tuner.com/index1.html