KLIQ uber tuner

etudes

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I saw the KLIQ ubertuner on Blackbird's website and having purchased a Farallon I gave it a try. I can see why Blackbird endorses this unit, it's the best I've used (of many) and it makes their ukes sound amazing. Fast and accurate, it's helped me dial in alternate tunings so they really sing.

So I was bummed when several weeks ago the KLIQ started turning off randomly. I was checking reviews for anyone with a similar problem and a few did. I sent a quick email to KLIQ this last week and they responded immediately, acknowledged a manufacturing defect had affected some tuners, and sent out a replacement (free of charge) which arrived this morning. The new unit seems to perform even better!

Impressed with the cheerful and immediate response and a great product.
 
Honestly, I didn't like the KLIQ at all. I couldn't use it to check intonation because it would not respond to any strings played at the 12th fret. Then it died. Returned it.

As an aside, how does a tuner make a uke sound amazing?
 
Honestly, I didn't like the KLIQ at all. I couldn't use it to check intonation because it would not respond to any strings played at the 12th fret. Then it died. Returned it.

As an aside, how does a tuner make a uke sound amazing?

At the suggestion of another UU forum participant and music educator, I bought the Roadie 2 tuner to use at school...and then bought a second (and returned both and just received replacements...I’ll write more about that later, if I don’t have to send these back).

I get a number of students that purposely detune/overtune instruments every day...but the mass majority just play, and the strings generally go a little flat after an forty minute session of strumming. What you would expect.

Since the instruments were being tuned by the Roadie 2 for three weeks, the instruments (I generally tune 60 instruments at least 3 times a day, and we have over 100 instruments in total) began becoming much more stable.

I like to consider myself a professional, able to use a clip on tuner to properly tune an instrument. What I am finding is that the Roadie is much less tolerant for pitch variation than I am, and as such, with repeated retuning, the instruments (other than those suffering a abuse from detuning/overturning) start to hold pitch better, making a better playing experience for the player. It really is something to start the day tuning all the ukuleles (as I do every day) and to find more and more instruments that have settled into holding pitch—something that was pretty rare before the Roadie 2.

So while the Roadie 2 doesn’t make the Caramels sound “amazing” when they are better in tune, it is a far more satisfying playing experience.

The Roadie 2 is probably overkill for an individual player—and I can tune faster myself—but it is a huge benefit in ukulele education as you don’t have to be as actively involved in the tuning process (you’re just the muscles moving the tuner from string to string) and the device is far more accurate than my own tuning.
 
At the suggestion of another UU forum participant and music educator, I bought the Roadie 2 tuner to use at school...and then bought a second (and returned both and just received replacements...I’ll write more about that later, if I don’t have to send these back).

I get a number of students that purposely detune/overtune instruments every day...but the mass majority just play, and the strings generally go a little flat after an forty minute session of strumming. What you would expect.

Since the instruments were being tuned by the Roadie 2 for three weeks, the instruments (I generally tune 60 instruments at least 3 times a day, and we have over 100 instruments in total) began becoming much more stable.

I like to consider myself a professional, able to use a clip on tuner to properly tune an instrument. What I am finding is that the Roadie is much less tolerant for pitch variation than I am, and as such, with repeated retuning, the instruments (other than those suffering a abuse from detuning/overturning) start to hold pitch better, making a better playing experience for the player. It really is something to start the day tuning all the ukuleles (as I do every day) and to find more and more instruments that have settled into holding pitch—something that was pretty rare before the Roadie 2.

So while the Roadie 2 doesn’t make the Caramels sound “amazing” when they are better in tune, it is a far more satisfying playing experience.

The Roadie 2 is probably overkill for an individual player—and I can tune faster myself—but it is a huge benefit in ukulele education as you don’t have to be as actively involved in the tuning process (you’re just the muscles moving the tuner from string to string) and the device is far more accurate than my own tuning.


Your thoughts on tuning said it better than I could. I'm forever experimenting with alternate tunings, often severely detuning strings. My other tuners would sometimes produce erratic readings and wouldn't settle. The KLIQ quickly dialed in these tunings better than my ear could have and in that sense helped the uke sound it's best.

Uke Don that's strange about the KLIQ not reading notes played on the 12th fret.. it certainly works for me, both fretted and harmonics.
 
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