Clip on Tuners

Ukuleleblues

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
1,867
Reaction score
9
Location
Coastal SC
I was going to buy a intellitouch tuner but have read some bad reviews on the PT1 and PT10. It appears their IMT500 may have overcome some of the issues and I see them on E-bay for < $20. Anyone have some advice or review of their intelleitouch tuner.
 
I have a couple dozen or so clip on tuners. All of them work great on Ukulele but not as well on Guitar or Upright bass. My favorite is the Meisel MCT-7L It is a small tuner with a green light that is very easy to see in any light situation. Haven't found another that I can see better. Its tuning accuracy is excellent also. Doug
 
I have the IMT-500. It's a very nice small little tuner and seems to be accurate. My other tuners are non-clip on chromatic tuners: the Korg DT-3, and Korg CA-30. All three of them show the uke to be in tune.

The IMT-500 appears to have been replaced by the IMT-900 (which adds a transpose feature from C to Bb for brass, etc.), so the price on the IMT-500 has been dropping. The 500 is a great little tuner.

The IMT-500 is a hair slower in responsiveness to my Korg tuners, but this is really picking at nits. It's about the only nit I can find. The IMT-500 is still plenty fast.

The calibration goes from 430-449, so you will be able to tune to play in most any concert pitch someone would want to use.

The IMT-500 also has a "Flat" button. This is helpful when you have a capo on the instrument and need to tune. Each time you press the flat button it drops the note a semitone. This will allow you to compensate for the capo and tune normally.

The clip is plastic with rubber feet on the top and bottom. The clip is a hair wider than 3/4" - nice width. The head swivels and tilts. You can twist it to be seen at any angle. The spring on the clip has good pressure and the tuner stays in place.

The face is an LCD panel and it lights up green. When you pluck a string the note shows up on the screen and a black lcd needle swings to the appropriate place on the scale to where the string is tuned. Straight up is in tune and this is marked with a small arrow. It is easy to see when the string is in tune.

I am using this with a soprano Flea. Flea's and Flukes have odd shaped head stocks. I find this tuner works very.
 
I have both the Intelli tuner and the Kala that MGM shipped with my new tenor.

I like them both very much. I have had the Intelli for about 2 years. It has been very durable and has taken a beating. I have used it with my guitars as well.

The Kala is geared towards the ukulele player. In addition to the chromatic mode, it has a ukulele- and ukulele-d setting where it shows the string number as well as the note. I do find that the Kala clip is tighter than the Intelli and I feel a little like it is stretching to fit the tenor headstock.

You could always pick up this tuner:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SETUP-Kala-KA-15S-Soprano-Ukulele-w-gigbag-Tuner_W0QQitemZ250539658715QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a5553cddb

It comes with a Kala soprano and gigbag for $69.
 
I have the Intelli 900, but only because I have different instruments that have different tuning, and apparently the 900 series can transpose to fit my needs. If I had just a uke, the 500 series would work fine.

I don't have any complaints about these clip on tuners. They are small, accurate, and cheap. I say get it.
 
kc 02

I agree the kala kco2 is great for the ukulele it doesnt work on larger stringed instruments but its definatly worth the money. Im extremely pleased
with mine
 
I have the small Intelli (the 500) and one of the earlier Intellitouch tuners (it's xbox huge). I don't see an advantage to paying more for the big fancy one. The 500 works great and it's $15-20. I forgive the rattling on the headstock because it was cheap and it does what I want. I hear the newer ones have fixed the rattling. Even better!
 
Thank you all. I just ordered 2 - intell imt500s from Ebay for under $36 shipped. I appreciate the info and will post my results.
 
I just ordered the intelli500 on amazon for 15 dollars. I'm always so picky when it comes to playing in tune. Sometimes if I can't get it right by ear I just stop playing for the day. It's really frustrating, so I'm hoping this tuner will solve all of my problems.
 
Top Bottom