Intelli IMT-600 Chromatic Tuner

Blrfl

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Intelli has a new version of the IMT-500 out called the IMT-600. One just arrived on my doorstep, so here's a quick review:

This version is, in balance, pretty much like the old one, which I had a chance to try out a couple of weeks ago at a local uke jam.

There are two major differences in the new model:

The "flat" mode for capoed tuning in the 500 has been deleted and is replaced with modes for regular chromatic, guitar and violin. The guitar and violin modes quantize to the nearest "expected" note and show the string number on the display (e.g., 1E, 2B, 3G etc.). That's not real useful on ukuleles unless you're using the G tuning, but chromatic mode works fine for C.

The case is painted silver instead of the 500's black. Silver paint seems to be "in" these days, and I'm one of those people who think gadgets should be black and unobtrusive. (The silver will probably suffer damage more easily if dropped, too.)

Other than that, it's a tuner, and it tuned my ukes and guitars just fine. Pitch-wise, it matches up with my piano and my trusty Sabine ST1100. It does settle a lot quicker than the Sabine, but there's well over 20 years of new technology between them. One thing it did struggle with was the E string on my bass, but since that's electric it usually has an indirect line to the ST, which does fine with it.

--Mark
 
I have an old type intelli tuner. Do these things need to be calibrated every so often?? Howie
 
Not usually. The oscillators they use for reference are pretty cheap and they do drift a bit with age, but not enough to make a difference.

--Mark
 
Quick followup:

I also bought a Sabine Zoid 1000, which I'm not as impressed with. It does have a microphone and a flat mode, but it's not nearly as sensitive as the IMT-600 and it takes a pretty hefty twang to get it to start tuning. The IMT, on the other hand, will tune with almost no sound, which means you can tune quietly with it. I'm also finding that the Zoid's red/green transition on the display is kind of annoying when you're trying to tune that last cent out.

So the IMT wins.

--Mark
 
I've aquires a number of clip-ons recently as I've become dissatified withe the Snark, my one problem with the IMT 600 - it picks up the fifth on the C string reading G rather than C. Plucking nearer the bridge seems to help.
 
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