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A student brought this to class today. Seems a very good unit for 7US. Small unit with a big bright, animated display. Turns green when you are on pitch. Musedo Tuner Have any of you tried this? Is it as good as it seems?
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I have Fender- and Korg-brand tuners similar to that for which I paid $20. I wouldn't expect much in the way of durability, but at that price I'd snatch 'em up and take good care.
HTH,
R.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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flatfoot, if you ever go to NAMM, in one of the basement halls, you can pick up shedloads of these type of tuners for about 5 bux each - even though I believe you aren't supposed to transact on the floor of NAMM.
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Today's Digital Tuners are like the Digital Watch - at first the technology was rather expensive but soon enough the wonders of modern manufacturing techniques have resulted in them being both prolific and inexpensive. But still very accurate, this due to the quartz circuit timing.
Not uncommon to find a digital tuner inside the Goodie Bag of freebies handed out at conventions, etc. these days.
As to whether or not a specified brand or model is a "good deal" in the sense of it being a long-lasting and robust piece of gear, well, that is going to be much like the aforementioned Digital Watch situation. Some may last and last, others may not.
But for the prices they are going for, who cares?
At 5 to 7 dollar mark, one can pick up TWO of the doggone things and still spend far less money than a single clampon digital tuner would have set ou back just a few short years ago, clamp one on each of two guitars and still have double redundancy in case one of 'em does not perform.
--Mac
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I have a standalone tuner and also a built in one on my crafter guitar. When I tune with them and then play an arpeggio over a chord I still notice some strings a little out, so I do a little manual adjustment. I certainly don't consider myself to have a great ear or anything like that, but it seems tuning with these tuners is not as simple as it seems according to this article. http://www.endino.com/archive/tuningnightmares.htmlMusiclover
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One brand that I now avoid - due to poor mechanical design and the logic of their low battery indicator being too-little-too-late is SNARK.
Mine hasn't broken yet, but I know far too many folks that bought theirs and the little arm that holds the ball of the ball/socket joint, or the socket itself has broken.
Mine, it stops working on vibration pickup mode, before the low battery indiciator goes into action. So, I was doing a quick pre-gig check that there was battery life there, and then in the gig - no way to tune (and where I play, the HVAC and lighting changes during the 'set' do mess with tuning of my cheap bass - so mid-set tuning is necessary).
Fortunately, the gig location bought a Zoom B3 bass amp sim/multi-FX which has a totally usable tuner built in, and I don't have to rely on the Snark any longer. It has made it's way to 'use only if nothing else is available' status.
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I prefer the old skool tuners.
I have a Conn Strobe.... I used to set it on my guitar amp, and left it plugged into the line level out of the amp. That baby is the industry standard and was used for decades to tune anything and everything.....
I now have it in my studio and also have a few el-cheapo tuners that I have picked up along the way which have built in mics and they are fairly accurate for most work I do.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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The Tuner should be used as visual feedback to train the ears.
Once the ears can hear the beats, the tuner is superflous, you'll find that you not only no longer need it, you can even reach up and adjust a string that goes out as needed, while playing.
The human ear and the gray matter that is connected to it is an amazing test instrument in and of itself. One can even get to the point where they can perform intonation adjustments at the bridge using nothing other than the ear - and be "spot on" every time.
I realize that such is not for everybody, those who are inclined should investigate it, though. Training the ear to know exact intonation not only comes in handy for tuning the instrument, such can make a world of difference in Performance as well. Each note of the Tempered Scale soon becomes familiar like an old friend.
Those who have been using tuners of ANY type, stroboscopic or digital, may be surprised by how well that visual feedback has already trained their hearing, BTW. I've had students put the tuner away for awhile and most of them find out what they can really hear when tuning their guitars only then.
With the guitar, one can also feel the Beats between two notes that are supposed to be the same note, but are a few cycles "off" of each other, in the back of the neck as modulated pulsing. Feel it, then work towards hearing it.
In the Physicist's world, the science of matching two frequencies exactly is called, "Zero Beating" for a reason.
--Mac
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>>>...The human ear and the gray matter that is connected to it is an amazing test instrument in and of itself...>>>
Amen to that. The tuner is useful as a reference, a starting point for a lesson on hearing intervals. Once one has arrived at ones destination, the map is no longer needed.
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On quick inspection, the Musedo seems to be of better-than-average build quality. A pair of batteries for my Intelli-tune costs almost the same as a whole new Musedo, so i will be picking up a couple...
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I always use a tuner.
I have a Snark and it works fine if you take care of it.
I've played with too many musicians who claim they can tune by ear, who really should use a tuner.
Just sayin'.
LLOYD S
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Gee, I wonder how all those pianos and cathedral organs managed to get tuned perfectly for several hundred years without electronic tuners?
How do all those members of orchestras and philharmonic orchestras manage to perfectly tune their instruments without each having an electronic tuner?
Did Andres Segovia need a Stroboconn?
Chet Atkins?
Didn't realize that encouraging folks to pursue excellence would be interpreted as being snarky. But I should have predicted it, come to think about it.
Maybe you need to find some better musicians to play with.
--Mac
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Maybe you need to find some better musicians to play with. Mac, I’ve played with some pretty good musicians over the years and a couple of them come to mind who were proud of their ability to tune to standard pitch by ear. One of them was a blind musician that can be heard on my signature link. The other was an award winning guitarist. Whenever either one of them would get up to take a leak during a jam session I would grab their mando/guitar and tune it with a tuner. They were ALWAYS off by a little bit. No doubt there are people who can tune to perfect pitch by ear, but they are few and far between. Most of the people who think they can are simply getting close, but their efforts won't stand up to an electronic tuner.
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The first successful electronic instrument tuner was invented and patented by Conn in or around 1936 IIRC.
We have quite the compendium of recorded musics in which we can hear perfect tuning examples throughout.
I can't recall ever witnessing the late Joe Pass using an electronic tuner, as one example out of probably hundreds, if not thousands.
That does not mean that one should not own or use a tuner.
All I do is try to encourage everybody to use the tuner as a method to better train the hearing abilities along those lines.
I don't like depending on "crutches" exclusively, but I also firmly believe that there is indeed a time and a place for everything, including the electronic tuner. For example, if confronted with a huge arena, likely a good idea to plug directly into that tuner...
--Mac
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Here is a paraphrase of a story that the late Joe Pass told onstage at one of his solo concerts (paraphrased). A stage technician was onhand when a young rock guitarist showed up to set up his equipment for the show later that evening. The young fellow spent about a half hour or more facing his amplifier stack with his guitar plugged into an electronic tuner, grimacing, turning tuners and watching the dials spin. When the rock star finally got down from the stage, the old stage hand said to him, "I couldn't help but notice how long you spent in tuning your guitar. You know, Andres Segovia was here awhile back and he only spent about twenty seconds tuning his guitar." And the kid said, "Well maybe he don't give a $hit!"  --Mac
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I'm perfectly capable of tuning by ear. However, I may use a tuner because (a) I don't want to be heard tuning from stage, (b) it may be too loud to hear myself even if I didn't care about being heard, and (c) I play a Strat-style guitar with a whammy bar, meaning the string tension is interactive. It's just faster to use the tool.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Mac,
If you'll notice, I didn't say it couldn't be done.
But if Joe Pass were still with us, I'd put a $100 bill down that his tuning wouldn't stand up to an electronic tuner.
By the way, Joe is one of favorite guitarists.
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Zero Beat is Zero Beats, man.
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The electronic tuner is only a reference. I use an electronic tuner for speed, especially when I am in a session with other players who will not stop long enough for me to tune by ear. Also handy in noisy environments.
Tuning electronically is good for making sure I am at A440, but it is always approximate. Tuning by ear takes a minute longer, and the job of tuning will always be incomplete without it.
For instance, I will adjust my B string one way for Bluegrass, when we play in G a lot, and differently for blues with lots of songs in E. Different again for playing jazz in flat keys and closed fingerings.
I would expect Joe Pass to use a different standard for what he does than the one I would use for folk music in open-chord tunings.
.
Last edited by flatfoot; 02/01/14 06:00 PM.
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I also make slight corrections on sustained single notes with my left hand as I play. I though everybody did.
Last edited by flatfoot; 02/01/14 08:23 PM.
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