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Electronic Tuners & Metronomes

 

Tuners

Other then learning to tune by ear quickly and accurately. An electronic tuner or clip-on tuner is a valuable asset to have around. Quick and east to use.

As a private guitar and ukulele teacher. I use an electronic tuner tuner to tune beginner students' out of tune instruments quickly in a lesson until they learn to do it their self or come in with the instrument in tune. You would be surprised as to the number of out of tune instruments students try and start their lesson with. I ask them when the last time they tuned their instrument and it is never today.

So any tuner that I have, and I have a few, gets a lot of real world use.

I buy and try out all the new ones on the market.

Manufactures

  • Boss
  • Intellitouch Tuner

    The Intellitouch Tuner was one of the first clip on tuners.

    The battery compartment will not stay attached after several battery replacements. Was using a rubber band to hold on. It has long ago been replaced with different brands of clip on tuners and relegated to the drawer of under achievers

    The Intellitouch® PT10 "Mini" look promising.

  • Kala

    This tuner is available right here.

  • Korg

    clip-on not durable for professional use. Attachment point weakens over extended use. I retired mine to the drawer of under achievers afer a few months of uset.

  • Meisel

    I've had several of these. They come in under various brand names. It rattles when kept clipped on to a guitar or ukulele. And the do tent to stay on your instrument for quick adjustments.

  • Peterson
  • Planet Waves

    Looks promising. And, might be more durable and with stand some abuse vs. other tuners mentions here.

  • Ko'olau Guitar and Ukulele - 'Ohau Chromatic Tuner

    This tuner is available right here. This is the tuner that I'm using and recommend to all my students and fellow ukulele players.

  • Seiko

    I have this clip-on and it is a little too bulky to be lugging around on my tenor ukes. Another one for the drawer of under achievers.

  • Sonic Research

    Makes an LED Strobe tuner.

Types of Electronic Tuners

Metronomes

Tuner Recommendations

  • Kala

    This tuner is available right here.

  • Ko'olau Guitar and Ukulele - 'Ohau Chromatic Tuner

    This tuner is available right here. This is the tuner that I'm using and recommend to all my students and fellow ukulele players.

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Type of Tuners

A description of the types of electronic tuners.

( from WidipediA: ) An electronic tuner is a device used by musicians to detect and display the pitch of notes played on musical instruments. The simplest tuners use LED lights or a needle to indicate approximately whether the pitch of the note played is lower, higher, or approximately equal to the desired pitch. More complex and expensive tuners indicate more precisely the difference between offered note and desired pitch. Tuners vary in size from units that can fit in a pocket to table-top models or 19" rack-mount units. The more complex and expensive units are used by instrument technicians, piano tuners and luthiers.

LED Tuner

A needle, LCD or regular LED type tuner uses a microprocessor to measure the average period of the waveform. It uses this to then drive the needle or array of lights. The array of lights from LED that appears to move to left or right seems better than the meter needle of the early meter tuners. When the musician plays a single note, the tuner senses the input from the microphone or input jack (from an electric instrument). The tuner then displays the input frequency in relation to the desired pitch and indicates whether the pitch of that note is lower, higher, or approximately equal to the desired pitch. With needle displays, the note is in tune when the needle is in a 90o vertical position, with leftward or rightward deviations indicating that the note is flat or sharp, respectively. Tuners with a needle are often supplied with a backlight, so that the display can be read on a darkened stage. An early (1970s) meter needle tuner seemed inferior (more difficult to use) than the more expensiver light emitting diodes (LED) type.

Strobe Tuner

Strobe tuners (the popular term for stroboscopic tuners) are the most accurate type of tuner. There are three types of strobe tuners: The mechanical rotating disk strobe tuner, an LED array strobe in place of the rotating disk, and "virtual strobe" tuners with LCD displays or ones that work on personal computers. A strobe tuner shows the difference between a reference frequency and the musical note. Even the slightest difference between the two will show up as a rotating motion in the strobe display. The accuracy of the tuner is only limited by the internal frequency generator. The strobe tuner detects the pitch either from an TRS input jack or a built-in or external microphone connected to the tuner.

Strobe Tuner Manufactures

Electronic Tuners

Electronic tuners - Don't leave home without one.

I have accumulated several electronic tuning devices over the years from the pitch pipe I got with my first guitar 40 plus years ago, to a tuning fork and several electronic tuners that live in my guitar case and on on my ukuleles today.

I don't even have my students learn to tune by ear until well into playing the guitar. I have them get an electronic tuner and ALWAYS play in tune. This trains their ear and they learn what an in-tune guitar sounds like and can then learn to tune the guitar by ear.

Here is a review the current crop of clip-on tuners that I have and still use today.

Here is a page of reviews on the tuners that I have used in the past and still use and reccommend.

In the UK there is the clip on chromatic tuner Guitar Tech GT75 Clip-On Chromatic Tuner

Tuners are showing up in all shapes and sizes these days.

Metronomes

A metronome is any device that produces a regulated audible and/or visual pulse, usually used to establish a steady beat, or tempo, measured in beats-per-minute (BPM) for the performance of musical compositions. It is an invaluable practice tool for musicians that goes back hundreds of years.

I have accumulated several metro devices over the years from the the classic wind-up pendulum metronome to various electronic metronomes.

Some musicians swear by them and others swear at them. But - one think for sure. EVERY musician is responsible for keeping and playing in time. An external time device like a metronome can be used too develop a great internal sense of time.

I have ALL my students work on playing in time.

Korg USA
316 South Service Rd
Melville, NY 11747

Links

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Korg(tuner).png

Tuner, Metronomes and more...

(from their site) - In the early 1960s, Korg founder Tsutomu Katoh was a nightclub proprietor. A popular Japanese accordionist and engineer named Tadashi Osanai performed regularly at Mr. Katoh’s club, and one evening, Mr. Katoh told Osanai it would be nice to have a rhythm machine to keep the beat. Mr. Osanai was sure he could build a rhythm machine himself, and convinced Mr. Katoh to finance his efforts.

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Rhythm Source
1050 North Point Street #1504
San Francisco, CA 94109

Links

This looks like a great metronome that would be a valuable resource for any musician and especially teachers.

There web site has a lot of great information on playing and developing time.

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What IS IT?

The RhythmSource Metronome allows you to see as well as hear time, pulse, and meter.

The patented user-friendly visual interface makes practice more enjoyable with faster results as you stay in close touch with the meter, and the potential for silences within the phrases to develop your inner pulse.

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Sabine, Inc.
Alachau, FL
904 418 2000
904 418 2001 (Fax)

Links

Editor's Note: (Feb 2007) The MT9000 is the tuner and metronome that I use and reccommend to all my students.

Editor's Note: (JUne 2009) The ZOID Clip-on Tuner has some nice features but durabality is not one of them. It looks sturdy but the my uke fell over on the tuner and it broke where the post connects to the tune. I would not reccommend this for anyone but the most careful person. And, we can be careful but not have control over others around our instruments. These clip-on design should have not made it out of design and testing.

Listing Info click here to show or hide more info

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Links and Resources

Metronomes (Software)

Links & information regarding software metronomes.

  • Metronome (link ) - Metronome is a free metronome for Mac OS X. (Requires Mac OS 10.3 or later. Metronome is a Universal Binary which runs 'natively' on both Intel and PPC Macs.)
  • Metronome 1.8 (link ) - Metronome is a nice and useful metronome. It closely mimics a real world clockwork metronome in that it has a bell which you can set to sound at intervals of every 2, 3, 4 or 6 beats.
  • Dr. Betotte (link ) - Multi divisions programable metronome/beat-box program, create any kind of complicated rhythms for practicing your instruments.

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TUNERS.PHP | Updated: Wednesday, 04th January, 2012 @ 07:29pm

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