Tuners?

When I was thinking about picking up a Uke and learning about music back in March, I thought I'd breakout my old Spanish guitar and put a new set of strings on it, but just the first four and play it like a baritone Uke. Just to see if I'd like the sound. I had tried to learn guitar for a few years but was always frustrated about tuning.

I went into a music store and the guy helped me pick a set of D'Addraio strings and when I went to pay, I saw a tuner in the case. When he told me it was only $16 I bought it. The idea of a neck top tuner intrigued me. After changing the strings and fooling around with it I was really thrilled to be able to play in tune, probably for the first time!

Anyway I bought a Uke because the guitar was just too big to be comfortable. The little tuner had a Uke setting and I was playing in tune and real happy. Then I saw that Snark had a metronome tuner and it was ~$14 so I bought one and found that the flashing heart was useful to stay on beat with my strumming.

Now I see that Snark has now come out with a tuner that has the metronome function AND a frequency counter that lets you see the actual frequency of the string in Hertz ( cycles per second). Cool.

I was an Electronics tech for years and used Freq counters everyday so having a freq counter is an attraction for me, as it would allow me to see what an A or G really is in the audio spectrum. I'm not sure how much that would mean to a musician but to me it is an attraction.

I checked Amazon and didn't see the freq counter model there so my TAS is on hold until they show up there. Anybody else interested in a freq counter tuner?

Jack,

Put the tuner down and walk away from the store! I am seeing a pattern here.

By all means indulge your tech-whims, but it can be too easy to lean on electronic help with tuning. Much better to spend a little time learning to tune the uke to itself. Tuners are ok to give you an initial guide but just because each string is tuned to pitch, it does not mean your uke will sound good when strummed.
Having said that, a built in metronome sounds like a great idea.

I am a techie person, too, so I also think they are cool. There is something I like about the reinforcement of playing the note or chord and also seeing it on the tuner at the same time.

I have three Snarks - the blue, the black, and the red - and six Reverb tuners.

Are you referring to the Snark HZ-1? It didn't appear to have the metronome.

TAS
Tuner Acquisition Syndrome

Doug W said:

Jack,

Put the tuner down and walk away from the store! I am seeing a pattern here.

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Well my TAS is not as acute as my UAS has been. I blame that on my love of Zebrawood. Now that I've got one of each that has subsided. Once I get the Soprano back from the luther, I'm going to sit down and practice my finger picking. I swear, no really I will practice more than cords and strumming. I kind of got distracted by my neighbor who is a chord strummer and singer. I've almost mastered the E and Bb on my concert and tenor.

I may even start singing, ("Oh God No!" my wife says) I can't sing in the house so it's a good thing I live in California and I can get out on the patio where I'll only harass the neighbors and the cats.

I just got hooked up with some of my old Army buddies and we are planing a reunion in DC in April. We were all pretty tight in Nam so I went looking for some mid '60s music to learn before then. I was searching for the Chords for "I'm proud to be a hippy from Olema" I found the lyrics but no chords. I may have to fake it. Of course that led me to Kinky Freedman but I don't play "Cowboy" style. or any style yet.

I called one of my old buddies today in Gross Pointe and told him I took up the Uke. He said he had always wanted to play the banjo, so I mentioned the Bonjolele and told him that it is easy to learn. (I hope that's true.) I may get him hooked up so we can play a duet in DC! Another one has expressed and interest in the Uke so if I can get him hooked we can play a trio and drive the others crazy. LOL

Ukulele is fun.

And just think Jack at this rate you will have enough tuners for everybody. :biglaugh:

Yes uke is fun, got one neighbor started and another is sniffing around.

I have a Snark but the battery died and I was too lazy to try to find a replacement. Now I use an app on my iPhone. It has a cents/hertz readout, but usually I just try to get it where the green light stays green for a second or two and go.

Bill1 said:

The frequency of the note is not a constant. It changes according to the reference note frequency. The common reference is A=440hz. But over history and still in use A can be around 430 - 450 hz, when you change A you change all the frequencies. Unless you know about different tuning methods and the exact frequencies you need, a frequency meter could be one big distraction when playing music. Also which is easier to remember A B C D E F G A or 440 493.88 523.25 587.33 659.25 698.46 783.99 880? It will be useful if you do diagnostics and set ups and repairs a lot.
It is hard to do, but a good long term strategy is to buy a tuning whistle thing. Use if to tune by ear first, and then check with your electronic tuner. Over time you will learn to tune by ear and wont need a tuner.

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Well I heard about that, but that sounds too complicated for me just now. My hearing isn't what it used to be, but I am learning to recognize differences in pitch and may learn to tune by ear. I leave my Snark set on 440 and figure that's good for now. Music is really complicated if you dig in real deep. A 4.5 % difference isn't that much to me, but a musician might be able to hear that.

One problem with a chromatic tuner is that you can tune off by an octave. I used my Snark to change stings on my sopranino and got my C string tuned an octave too high and couldn't figure out what was wrong until I used my Image tuner which has a Uke setting and found out the problem.

JackLuis said:

One problem with a chromatic tuner is that you can tune off by an octave.

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Did that once a long time ago with a guitar. Now I always change strings one at a time, usually high to low so that I pass the exact frequency of a string already properly tuned and then tune on up. Pretty much no chance of going an octave up like that.

Bill1 said:

The frequency of the note is not a constant. It changes according to the reference note frequency. The common reference is A=440hz. But over history and still in use A can be around 430 - 450 hz, when you change A you change all the frequencies. Unless you know about different tuning methods and the exact frequencies you need, a frequency meter could be one big distraction when playing music. Also which is easier to remember A B C D E F G A or 440 493.88 523.25 587.33 659.25 698.46 783.99 880? It will be useful if you do diagnostics and set ups and repairs a lot.
It is hard to do, but a good long term strategy is to buy a tuning whistle thing. Use if to tune by ear first, and then check with your electronic tuner. Over time you will learn to tune by ear and wont need a tuner.

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Seriously, does it really need to be that hard?

One problem with a chromatic tuner is that you can tune off by an octave. I used my Snark to change stings on my sopranino and got my C string tuned an octave too high and couldn't figure out what was wrong until I used my Image tuner which has a Uke setting and found out the problem.

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I did that the first time that I tuned my very first brand new ukulele. It took me an hour to figure out what was wrong.

Anyone use the "Ukulele Toolkit" app available on the I-Phone? I use it on occasion: convenient, has other functions (cord practice, strumming, etc) and when I compare it with a clip on tuner, it seems to be "OK."

TAS sounds a lot more affordable than UAS.

I still mostly use one of those cheap generic brand clip-on chromatic tuners for a few bucks. For my kalimbas I bought a more expensive and more fancy tuner, and it didn't really work any better than the cheap clip-on tuner, it was just prettier and more colorful with more interesting, but to me ultimately useless information (I just want to know if it's in tune). I also tried a number of mobile app tuners. Of the once I gave a spin, I liked Tunable on iOS best, and gStrings and Waves on Android.

Overall, though, I still find my cheap clip-on tuner the most convenient and most user-friendly solution.

The cost of batteries to replenish anymore than three tuners gets a little crazy.

Inksplosive AL said:

The cost of batteries to replenish anymore than three tuners gets a little crazy.

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you can get whole cards of batteries on ebay for what one battery will cost in a drug store. most use the 2032, same as a lot of active pickups use.. you can get quantities from one to 50. 50 costs less than $10

Yesterday I received my new A/E Baritone with a builtin tuner and pulled the batteries out of my Tenor to check it. It works just fine, but it takes two 2032's where my Snark only takes one. I still like the snark on the head stock as I can watch the notes flow as I pick them, the builtin tuner isn't easy to see because you have to hold the uke on it's side to see it.

vinceherman said:

TAS
Tuner Acquisition Syndrome

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That's got me laughing.

My lil alien neon tuner is my fav, keep playing and youll learn to tune by ear ...

strumsilly said:

you can get whole cards of batteries on ebay for what one battery will cost in a drug store. most use the 2032, same as a lot of active pickups use.. you can get quantities from one to 50. 50 costs less than $10

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When you go through 10 cheap no name batteries in less time than one name brand battery I'm good. I bought a handful+ of 1st gen micro tuners and only ended up using two or three which are always dead when I go to use them. I find it easier to keep one good tuner on my desk and use it as necessary. Think I still have five or so of the micros in the mailer they came in.

Built in metronome is nice but I dont like keeping tuners clipped on my instruments.