Two Tuners

I have several electronic tuners of two brands. I have several different Snarks, and several O'ahu tuners. I like the visual indications on the Snarks which are bright and colorful. I can "see" the increasing/decreasing pitch more directly on the Snarks. But the O'ahu tuners seem to center, or lock onto the correct pitch more positively. I have noticed that the O'ahu tuners go deaf more often, and sometimes seem to momentarily stick on an indication, then jump to a new setting. But both tuners do about the same job when it comes to getting a proper tuning. That is, neither is dead on all the time. I think that must be because the tuners hear a range of pitch, and will signal an exact pitch when the actual pitch is within that range. So using the tuner you might get one string tuned toward the upper part of that range, and another toward the bottom, resulting in a noticeable difference between the two strings. I find tuning much more enjoyable and accurate using the tuners than not using them. But I'm left wondering what using a highly accurate and sensitive tuner would be like.

Problem with Snark, O'ahu and all of the ones that are headstock tuners is that they're pulling on the vibrations from the headstock, which will vary depending on where your tuner is located and how firmly affixed it is. Second, is that all of these tuners have a +/- range of 1 cent, which means if you're tuning in standard A=440, that tuner will register anything from 439-441 as "in tune."

The only headstock tuner I like - and would meet your criteria for a highly accurate and sensitive tuner - is the Peterson StroboClip, which has a .1 cent accuracy on it (it's also much more than the aforementioned ones). But still, it only performs as accurately as it can, based on where it's positioned on the headstock.

Otherwise, to get more accurate you need to go to the ones that you can plug into (from a pickup on the instrument) or that have a microphone that can clip onto the instrument somewhere.

Thanks One Bad Monkey. You confirmed what I suspected. When I was talking about a "range" of pitch, I was referring to that +/- 1 cent you mentioned. Sometimes the tuner gets it just right. Sometimes its almost 2 cents off between any two strings. There's nothing like the human ear for fine tuning!

Of all the headstock tuners I've tried, the GoGo Tiki seems to be my favorite. Will have to check out the Peterson one more closely

I have several clip ons and a few instruments with built in tuners. The most accurate tuner I have is a BOSS TU-12 chromatic tuner. I used to use it in live performances because you can put it in circuit with in out jacks and leave it there for quick checks or retunes. I was trying to figure out how long I've had it, 40 years maybe and it's still going strong. Pretty old fashioned nowadays though to plug your Uke into a tuner. Lol

My headstock tuner stays in the case. I tend to use one of several tuners in the iPad or one in the cell phone. Sadly my ear isn't finely enough attuned to detect small differences. When playing with others though, nobody has queried my tuning. Here's hoping...

I have built in tuners in the preamp on the side of my ukes, Fishman's and also inexpensive ones I've installed from China (that tune better than most any other tuner I've used). I use a headstock tuner for my solid bodies (uke and micro bass), the mini Planet Waves/D'Addario and others, which suffer the same issues as you describe, so with the custom solid body mini bass being made for me, I'm having the builder install one of these tuners in the side figuring it will tune better than a headstock tuner.

I have several tuners of different brands and they're all slightly different. I like the Planet Waves mini tuners as you can leave them clipped on the headstock in your bag/case. They don't fit well on the flea though and I use another one for that. So far I've found the Snark seems best with the U-Bass. Others don't seem to cope so well with the low pitches but the ball joint on the Snark is a weakness as the plastic of the socket is prone to break.

You do need to do a final check by ear. I usually check the C string fret 4 against the E string, E string fret 5 against the A string and E string fret 3 against the G string. In each case you should get a clear continuous note when both strings are plucked. If you get a hint of vibrato (may be quite slow) the two strings are not in tune so you need to go back and check again. If you're playing with others (whether uke or other instrument) you also need to check your tuning against each other.

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The vibrato effect you get with two strings nearly but not quite in tune is called "beating" in physics (learnt that at school). It's used in free reed instruments (harmonica, squeeze boxes) deliberately to give a vibrato effect using two reeds one tuned fractionally sharp and the other fractionally flat to deliberately give a vibrato effect when you play a note.
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