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Blues, Bluegrass, and Beyond!
Today I want to talk about chromatic tuners. Any professional or novice blues or bluegrass musician needs a tightly tuned instrument. In fact, no matter
what genre of music one plays, and no matter the instrument, a tight tune must
be achieved in order to sound good. Even professional musicians need tightly tuned
instruments in order to produce their best music.
While the tuner
market is flooded with an army of smartphone apps that claim to assist you in
tuning your instrument, there is no exception for the traditional chromatic
tuner. A chromatic tuner is a device used by musicians to detect and display
the pitch of notes played on musical instruments. Usually these tuners allow
all 12 notes of the scale to be tuned. This feature is especially useful if one
is trying to achieve an obscure tuning to play a certain song. I have owned a
plethora of chromatic tuners, but my personal two favorites are the BOSS TU-12
Digital Processing Chromatic Tuner, and the SNARK Clip-On Guitar Tuner.
Therefore, let me first introduce you to the TU-12.
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The TU-12 is
loaded with various features. This chromatic tuner is capable of tuning a wide
range of instruments. Whether you play guitar, banjo, trumpet, or accordion,
this tuner can handle the wide range of tones effectively. The TU-12 sits
snuggly in a black leather case with open areas to allow for tuning through a
condenser microphone, and a variety of other tasks, without ever removing the
tuner from its case. Unlike many chromatic tuners, the Tu-12 features input and
output ports. This allows a user to plug electric instruments into the input
port, and plug an amplifier into the output port. Therefore, the tuner could
easily distinguish different tones through the electric instrument’s pickups,
and a musician would hear the note as it emanates from the amplifier. The tuner
also contains an ac/dc power adapter to allow for use through an electrical
outlet, or a user can operate the tuner via a 9volt battery. The TU-12 also
features a condenser microphone to pick up acoustic tones from a wide range of
instruments. Other features include special settings for use with a guitar or
bass guitar, in order to tune these instruments to their respective standard
tunings. While this is a great tuner, I believe that it does have a couple
drawbacks. First, the tuner is very bulky, and will require a sizeable amount
of space in an instrument case. Secondly, it can be difficult to use in a loud
room due to noise interference. Third, this tuner offers so many options, that
it can occasionally be confusing to use in a hurry. Lastly, this tuner does not
feature any LED lighting, making the tuner difficult to read in a dark venue.
The TU-12 retails from anywhere from $72-$100 depending on the vendor.
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Here are some of the Boss TU-12 Digital Processing Chromatic
Tuner features:
- Sharp/flat LED indicators, tuning meter for precise information
- Adjustable standard pitch from 440 to 445Hz in 1Hz increments
- Switchable between Guitar/Bass and Automatic Chromatic tuning
- Built-in condenser microphone for acoustic instrument tuning
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While the TU-12
is a fantastic chromatic tuner, my personal favorite chromatic tuner is the
SNARK Clip-On Guitar Tuner. This tuner is fantastic! However, this tuner is
limited for use with stringed instruments. It can successfully tune instruments
ranging from guitars, to banjos, to mandolins, to basses, to bouzoukis! This
handy tuners is great for busy musicians specializing in music ranging from a
variety of genres, including blues,
to bluegrass, to rock n’ roll, to
classical. The SNARK chromatic tuner is
a small simple tuner that provides easy usage. Basically, the soft but strong
rubber clips of the tuner clamp safely to the headstock of your instrument
without damaging your instrument’s finish. The bright, large, full-color
display is easy to read quickly, even in the darkest of rooms. The SNARK tuner’s
display screen is connected to an adjustable neck, which allows for full 360
degree movement. This handy tuner also features a transposing tool. This allows
players to tune their instruments normally without ever removing their capos.
Lastly, this tuner features a metronome device to aid musicians in keeping
time. I have used this tuner for years on a variety of instruments, and at a
variety of locations, and still have no complaints. My favorite features in the
SNARK are its ease of use, and its ability to live on the headstock of my
instruments without causing damage. Also, this tuner works incredibly well in a loud room since it relies upon vibration from your instrument to distinguish a tone. This tuner ranges from $15-$30 depending on
the vendor.
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Here are some of the SNARK Clip-On Guitar Tuner features:
- Full color display
- Place anywhere on front or back of headstock (no dead spots!)
- Display rotates 360 degrees (works for right or left handed players)
- “Stay Put” clip
- Tap Tempo Metronome
- Capo compensating “Flat Tuning”
- Pitch calibration (415-466 Hz)
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Good luck in picking which chromatic tuner is right for you!
Thanks for visiting Blues, Bluegrass, and Beyond, and come back soon!
Photos are original and retrieved from www.amazon.com.