I've had it with Snark!

Jerryc41 said:

I didn't read every reply on all seven pages, but here's a possible repair that someone posted recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTmYwRAiT1s

Click to expand...

I fixed my SNARK!
(I posted that link, but it's not the method I used.)
I took the broken SNARK. On the back, I inserted the curved extension in the SNARK. It barely held with 2 plastic teeth around it. I put the broken 3rd tooth and placed it carefully.
Used an elastic band. about 2 inches. 1/4 inch wide.
Wrapped it around the socket with 3 teeth...then around and around and around....
When I was finally done (4 attempts), it held the extension in place really well.
I put the mount on the other end. Carefully.
My SNARK is fixed!
I found this repair method when I googled "fix my broken SNARK tuner"
I'm grateful it worked.
(There are two other methods I considered....one--removing the extension completely; use gorilla glue to glue to the SNARK to the mount. Two...use the repair above. Use thin cord wrapped around and around and around the broken socket. Then use superglue or gorilla glue to hold that cord in place.)
I can do either of those if my repair doesn't last.
I broke my SNARK by leaving it loose in my gig bag; I don't have a pocket for stuff...and the bag doesn't have a lot of extra room.
My Uke is a KALA tenor travel uke. It has a lovely gig bag.
Dave

2mnycars said:

I fixed my SNARK!
(I posted that link, but it's not the method I used.)
I took the broken SNARK. On the back, I inserted the curved extension in the SNARK. It barely held with 2 plastic teeth around it. I put the broken 3rd tooth and placed it carefully.
Used an elastic band. about 2 inches. 1/4 inch wide.
Wrapped it around the socket with 3 teeth...then around and around and around....
When I was finally done (4 attempts), it held the extension in place really well.
I put the mount on the other end. Carefully.
My SNARK is fixed!
I found this repair method when I googled "fix my broken SNARK tuner"
I'm grateful it worked.
(There are two other methods I considered....one--removing the extension completely; use gorilla glue to glue to the SNARK to the mount. Two...use the repair above. Use thin cord wrapped around and around and around the broken socket. Then use superglue or gorilla glue to hold that cord in place.)
I can do either of those if my repair doesn't last.
I broke my SNARK by leaving it loose in my gig bag; I don't have a pocket for stuff...and the bag doesn't have a lot of extra room.
My Uke is a KALA tenor travel uke. It has a lovely gig bag.
Dave

Click to expand...

Which one of theshttps://www.google.com/search?q=fix+my+broken+snark+tuner&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS716US717&oq=fix+my+broken+snark+tuner&aqs=chrome..69i57.14375j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Jerry I can't find the link.
I searched on my iMac at home. If you look at the back of the tuner, one of the three on my teeth on my tuner broke. (Had the tuner in my uke gig bag, off the uke)
The repair had a photo--a "gum band" or elastic band wrapped around those 3 teeth.
I made it harder than I needed to. I put the extension in place within the 3 teeth. So I had to go around, and over the extension with the elastic band every time I wrapped it. Fiddly. 4th try I got it on. I'm grateful. So my 2 inch elastic band has maybe 10 wraps around the three teeth. I put the extension into the mount (carefully). SNARK looks like new. Until you look at the back.
DaveL

sim4lin said:

One of the tabs broke on my Snark not long after I got it.
Before it could break completely off I wrapped it in a gumband. It's lasted quite a while but when it gives up I'll get something different.

View attachment 58824

Click to expand...

Thanks! This helped me a lot. I fixed mine too.


Jerry this is the link that started me off repairing mine. Check the attachment. It shows a SNARK repaired with a gum band, or elastic band.

Thanks sim4lin!

2mnycars said:

Jerry I can't find the link.
I searched on my iMac at home. If you look at the back of the tuner, one of the three on my teeth on my tuner broke. (Had the tuner in my uke gig bag, off the uke)
The repair had a photo--a "gum band" or elastic band wrapped around those 3 teeth.
I made it harder than I needed to. I put the extension in place within the 3 teeth. So I had to go around, and over the extension with the elastic band every time I wrapped it. Fiddly. 4th try I got it on. I'm grateful. So my 2 inch elastic band has maybe 10 wraps around the three teeth. I put the extension into the mount (carefully). SNARK looks like new. Until you look at the back.
DaveL

Click to expand...

Thanks. If one breaks, I'll use Google and improvise.

check out the post I copied above by sim4lin He attached a photo that shows the repair much better than I described it.
I actually found his post early early on in this thread.
It's simple. I found it difficult with my hands; however, perseverance....

I found this forum when i googled looking for a fix for my broken SNARK. I broke it storing my SNARK in my gig bag, not on my uke. I've played my Uke for several years; I just bought the SNARK. My wife said: careful; they're fragile. I didn't listen. If this repair doesn't lask I'll likely go back to using the KALA app for tuning I have on my iPhone.

It's great you all have found some solutions to working with these!

I personally gave up on Snark. Good tuners in terms of the quality of tuning, at least in my experience! However, they chewed up batteries like nobody's business. It wasn't even the breaking for me- it was that it was too easy for them to get jostled in a gig bag or case and turn on and start "tuning" thin air, making the batteries go dead way too quickly.

It cost a lot more to jump to using TC Unitunes- they do cost 3x more which is obviously an issue, but they seem to be holding up much better so far.

I've had my Snark tuner for over 3 years, and it has been everywhere and taken a beating - still works perfectly.
Many other tuners I owned before Snark broke prematurely. The Snark has been the most reliable and durable so far.

But it looks like individual experiences may differ!

kissing said:

I've had my Snark tuner for over 3 years, and it has been everywhere and taken a beating - still works perfectly.
Many other tuners I owned before Snark broke prematurely. The Snark has been the most reliable and durable so far.

But it looks like individual experiences may differ!

Click to expand...

We have so many Snarks in my groups that I'm going to put colored stickers on mine - not that it matters much which one I bring home.

Given the choice, I would buy a tuner designed for a uke, rather than one that can tune other stringed instruments.

I had 3 snark red tuners I bought about 10 years ago. They all eventually broke at the head pivot. I repaired them by gluing in place with 5 minute epoxy. I had to throw one away because the epoxy leaked onto the battery and glued it to the guts and I couldn't remove the dead battery. I misplaced one, but am still using the surviving one. I now mostly been use a ZenStrobe strobe tuner. It has a strobe function which seems to be more accurate than Snark, but has a function which provides a Snark-like display. The indicators are LED, and easier to read than Snark in high ambient light levels. The supports and pivots are more rugged and screwed and nutted together. It cost me about three times as much as a Snark, but I consider it well worth the price. I swap the one tuner among my instruments instead of having one tuner for each.

I would sum up by saying that I have found an option that works better for me than the Snark and when that dies I won't be buying another Snark. There are worse tuners than Snark, so I won't summarily dismiss them for that one design weakness. I am however, surprised that the company seemingly doesn't pay attention to the large number of failures and re-engineer the case to make it more robust.

Jerry, Snark makes a tuner they say is designed for the higher frequency range of ukulele. I have no experience with it.

rrieth said:

Jerry, Snark makes a tuner they say is designed for the higher frequency range of ukulele. I have no experience with it.

Click to expand...

Yes, my Snarks are for ukes, but other tuners are for multiple instruments.

I’m not a fan of snark although that’s my primary turner. My iPhone apps work just as well.

Jerryc41 said:

We have so many Snarks in my groups that I'm going to put colored stickers on mine - not that it matters much which one I bring home.

Given the choice, I would buy a tuner designed for a uke, rather than one that can tune other stringed instruments.

Click to expand...

I use my Snark not just for ukulele, but also for guitar and bass too. Used it for other instruments too including violin and trumpet
Works flawlessly for all of them.

I don't necessarily see how a tuner can be more specific for ukulele compared to other clip on tuners that are for guitars, etc, other than marketing

I used my Snark tuner for years with no issues. I would put it on the uke to tune it then I would put it back in the storage box of my hard case. I wouldn't even manipulate it around, I set it to the desired position and that was pretty much it. Then one day I noticed one of the tabs on the head had cracked and the head fell off. I got a Reverb tuner to replace it and the Snark was shelved until I saw this thread. I used the glue and thread approach showed in one of the links above. I put a little Vaseline on the ball end of the arm then inserted it into the socket. I put Elmer's glue on the outside of the tabs and then tightly wound thread around the whole height of the three tabs. Once I finished that I spread more glue on the outside of the threads. I let it dry and then applied another coat of glue on the outside of the threads. The fix worked great and now the Snark is back in action! I checked the tabs on the clamp end of the tuner and noticed a crack starting to form on one of those tabs so I did the same fix on that as a preemptive move.

I think the Snark tuner works great and I love its display and accuracy but I agree with whoever said that it was poorly engineered. With all the issues, I think the plastic is probably too brittle for its intended purpose. I see a crack on the body of mine too just above the battery port and I handle the tuner gently all the time.

My uke count has climbed to 5 and for convenience sake, I wanted a tuner in each case so I'd always have one on hand no matter which uke I picked. Rather than spend a lot of money on tuners, I bought a bunch off of AliExpress for about $2 a pop and they work just fine. For that price, if something happened to them I wouldn't care.

I've just checked my eight year old Snark for signs of cracking, and it seems to be just fine. I do like the idea of the preemptive move, though. Thread and glue will be applied at both weak points later today. It must be easier than doing it after it has broken.

John Colter.

I really wanted to like my snarks (I bought the ukulele model and the red model), but my ukes just are not all the way in tune when they tell me they are.

kissing said:

I don't necessarily see how a tuner can be more specific for ukulele compared to other clip on tuners that are for guitars, etc, other than marketing

Click to expand...

When the tuner is designed for other instruments, you have to either give the button one quick press or hold it for a couple of seconds. If you do it wrong, it selects another instrument - kind of a nuisance.

Something like a new instrument setting is not needed, none specific when tuning ukulele. The range of ukulele regarding a clip tuner is not too high at all to a normal ones you can can get, in fact everyones. So I also don't really understand?

Jerry, do you really want some ukulele restricted tuner because of less response of a range, or you want one because it should tell even if over one octave too high or low? That last I can understand, sort of

Jerryc41 said:

When the tuner is designed for other instruments, you have to either give the button one quick press or hold it for a couple of seconds. If you do it wrong, it selects another instrument - kind of a nuisance.

Click to expand...

I got one of those tuners with instrument specific settings with a cheap ukukele. Even when I have the uke setting, if I have a new uke that's way out of tune or new strings, all it wants to tell me is if I'm at GCEA and I have no idea where it's tuned. It's very frustrating. They try to dumb it down for people who don't know what notes their strings are supposed to be, but it ends up complicating things. Fortunately, I figured out it had a chromatic setting. Give me a chromatic tuner every time.

As far as frequency range, the only time I've had issues is with tuners not picking up my ubass well.

mikelz777 said:

My uke count has climbed to 5 and for convenience sake, I wanted a tuner in each case so I'd always have one on hand no matter which uke I picked. Rather than spend a lot of money on tuners, I bought a bunch off of AliExpress for about $2 a pop and they work just fine. For that price, if something happened to them I wouldn't care.

Click to expand...

I did a similar thing with snark. On sale at Amazon for $6 a pop: one for each case. Half are now broken at the above mentioned weak point, but even though they only lasted a couple years, I think it was well worth the expense.