Snark tuner problem

Pondoro

Pondoro

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I've got like 5 Snark clip on tuners. One does not register unless the battery is brand new. As soon as the battery is a week old it will light up but doesn't "hear" the notes. All of them do this when the battery gets old but on this one it starts almost immediately. Any way to improve this? I've had it a while.
 
Pondoro said:
I've got like 5 Snark clip on tuners. One does not register unless the battery is brand new. As soon as the battery is a week old it will light up but doesn't "hear" the notes. All of them do this when the battery gets old but on this one it starts almost immediately. Any way to improve this? I've had it a while.
Click to expand...

I fixed my problem by purchasing (10) CR2032 Energizer batteries on ebay for 5 bucks, replacing them as needed. They are almost 4 bucks a piece at the local Walgreens.
 
If you have a dollar or 99 cent store nearby, 10 batts for a dollar. But it sounds like the tuner is bad, take it or send it back.....................Bo.............
 
At least it works...I had one brand it did not even turn on....they sent me another right away...send it back or call and tell them it is a defective product...
 
Try cleaning the battery contacts with denatured alcohol or polishing them.
 
Pondoro said:
I've got like 5 Snark clip on tuners. One does not register unless the battery is brand new. As soon as the battery is a week old it will light up but doesn't "hear" the notes. All of them do this when the battery gets old but on this one it starts almost immediately. Any way to improve this? I've had it a while.
Click to expand...

Are you turning the tuner off when not using it? I have noticed that, unlike probably 99% of "watch battery" powered devices, the Snarks do not seem to turn themselves off after a few minutes.

Other than that I can only say that, counting the tuners I've bought for family members, I've had probably seven or eight Snarks and only one was "defective" in that it stopped working after I closed a case on it and snapped the head off the little gimble in the back...

I will say if you have a smart phone the DaTuner Pro is an amazingly good little tuner - of course it isn't clip on so background noise will interfere with it but it has a really precise display (with the "pro" version you get a simulated strobe display that is very nice).

John
 
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I do turn them off in between using them.
I like clip on tuners because I play in a lot of groups - audio-linked tuners get confused.
The denatured alcohol is a great idea, I will try it.
 
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Pencil eraser...

...is good for cleaning contacts. Also, if the tuner is on, and you're chording, the little devil is sucking major juice trying to find the note.

Also, I'm probably superstitious, but having anything clamped to the peghead of an instrument seems like it would change the vibration harmonics. And maybe it would rattle.
 
Sounds like that one is just bad. I have three that are about six months old, I let them all auto shutoff. Have not changed a battery yet.
 
Well I had no denatured alcohol. But I did have an industrial grade glass cleaner, sort of Windex on steroids. The contacts of my Snark are hidden, the battery slides in sideways. So I put some glass cleaner on a q-tip and probed inside where the contacts should be. Before you reprimand me for putting a water and ammonia solution inside my electronic device please recall that the device did not work.

Long story short it began to work! I waited 24 hours because it has worked briefly before, but tonight it is still working. So I think the cleaning has helped it.

Thanks!

Snarks are cheap, I buy them when Elderly has a sale. My goal is to have one on each uke, so that I can grab a case and head out knowing it will have a tuner. This raises the cost of every uke that I buy buy $9-$10, but it saves me looking around for tuners.

And I always turn them off when I'm done. Batteries last about a year on the ukes I play the most. Except that this problem Snark only worked for a week on a new battery, then it got dim and stopped reading. I think the contacts were dirty.
 
Hopefully, cleaning the contacts will permanently solve the problem.

If not, ya know what? It's a cheap thing made in China. It's not unreasonable to think there's a dud here and there. You move on, buy another, or a different brand if you weren't happy with it.

For what they cost these days, tuners are practically disposable. I still have my original Boss TU-12 tuner from well over 20 years ago. It's like a brick, think I paid ~$100 for it and it still works great, probably more accurate than most clip-ons. :p
 
Idea

I had one that was behaving very similarly and finally I realized that the switch on the side had slipped from vibration to mic. It would sense the notes right away on mic setting, but as soon as the battery wore out a little the mic became slightly less sensitive and wouldn't read anything since it was clipped all the way down on the headstock. I felt kinda silly when I looked closely and realized that it was a classic case of "user error" on my behalf.

This might not be the issue you are having, but take a quick look and see, could be that simple!

If not go exchange it for a new one, they should swap it out for you.

Good luck!
 
Woops

Just saw you posted that the problem was solved, congrats, and "take that, technology".
 
try dropping it into a pint of beer. i did works better now.
mine had a buzz on it, stopped buzzing after i'd dropped it in the drink
 
I have two snarks, SN2 and an SN6....no such problems with either but the generic Chinese batteries don't last very long.
 
My Snark problem reappeared (on that one tuner) and was fixed by cleaning the contacts (a second time). I am beginning to suspect that (electrical lead) contact pressure is too low, and that even the slightest contamination interferes with full power. The insides are inaccessible so I can see no way to bend the contacts to cause more pressure.

This problem is not solved by switching batteries and the batteries are always new, name brand, batteries. Some day I will just pitch the thing but for now I clean it (weekly or a bit less), and it labors on.
 
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