Snark clip-on tuner

[imperialbari]

Learned about them from here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41582

I found the US price mentioned attractive, but shipping, customs, and lots of red tape at both ends of the transaction made look in my own country and in Germany where prices were up close to 3 times as high. So I went with a UK eBay sale at around twice the US price including shipping.

The red model is fully chromatic (the blue one is for guitars/bass guitars only) and has two modes: vibration sensor and microphone.

My sample arrived Friday, and I only have tried it with 4 instruments so far. Microphone mode works well with a recorder, if the Snark is clamped to a stand or the like. Vibration sensing works well with my Irish type harp. It was way faster to tune the 33 strings than with an LED tuner, where one also has to check which note actually sounds. The Snark is very clear on that matter.

Also tried it with an alto trombone and with the Conn 40K. On the latter the results appear most consistent when clamped on the neck than when clamped on the bell rim.

Guitar playing reviewers tell about buying several samples.

Klaus

[kegmcnabb]

I've been using a blue one for about three months on guitar and uke. Love it for its readability but it's kinda bulky and I fear the balls will pull out of the ball and socket joints.

That said, other than being bulky, I have had no problems and find it accurate and easy to read. I am interested in trying a red one on tuba.

[imperialbari]

Not exactly tuba relevant I still would like to know, how you make the blue Snark cover the F# string of the ukulele (if you use the Bmin7 tuning a fifth above the 4 top strings of the guitar)?

Klaus

[kegmcnabb]

Not exactly tuba relevant I still would like to know, how you make the blue Snark cover the F# string of the ukulele (if you use the Bmin7 tuning a fifth above the 4 top strings of the guitar)?

Klaus

I tune my ukes C reentrant. gcea
I assume by Bmin7 tuning you mean what we call D tuning - adf#b

Either way, I am not sure I understand your question. My blue tuner is chromatic and would register an F#.

[imperialbari]

I tune my ukes C reentrant. gcea
I assume by Bmin7 tuning you mean what we call D tuning - adf#b

Yes, I am not schooled on plucked strings aside from a bass guitar class 25+ years ago, so I name the ukulele tuning after the chord formed by the open strings.

The way you tune yours is the same as the 4 top strings of my Yamaha Guitarlele, which has six strings and is tuned a fourth above the standard guitar. I think some call that A tuning.

Either way, I am not sure I understand your question. My blue tuner is chromatic and would register an F#.

This reveals my being old. Many first generation tuners for guitars only had sensors for the notes of the 6 guitar strings. I didn’t imagine the blue Snark was chromatic. The price difference then comes from the blue version being vibration sensor only, whereas the red one also has a microphone mode.

Klaus

PS: This reminds me of a guitarist feature in DownBeat some 25 or 30 years ago. I don’t remember the name of the player, but he was a much used studio guitarist in LA. One of his steady jobs back then was a TV series possibly by the name of Dreamship. Anyway the plot was on a cruiser more or less visiting all tourist harbours around the world. That player had to do musical colouring on the plucked string instruments known from the actual country visited.

His trick about avoiding going insane was that no matter the original tuning, he tuned all of these instruments in one of two fashions: either like the four top strings of a guitar or like the four bottom strings of the guitar.

[sloan]

One of his steady jobs back then was a TV series possibly by the name of Dreamship. Anyway the plot was on a cruiser more or less visiting all tourist harbours around the world.

"Loveboat"?

[imperialbari]

Yes, must have been The Love Boat.

The German equivalent/off-spring was Das Traumschiff (The Dream Ship), which I always zapped away from.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Mine, the red variant, arrived from the UK some 3 months ago.

Its main fault is that I only have one sample so far, as I play in two different rooms. In one room I play in at least 3 different places depending on the instrument played.

It works well in vibration-sensing mode when clipped to the neck on sousaphones. For me it works less well when clipped on the receiver of tubas, but that is because I have problems seeing things very close to my eyes. There I need the microphone mode, when I clip it to a stand. The disadvantage of that approach is more sensibility to other sounds in the room.

I guess it works on the same principles as LED-tuners, but the visual impression is more like a very sensitive and precise needle tuner. For me that is a great bonus when tuning my plucked strings. I do not tune all the strings to the exact well tempered equivalent of A=440Hz. Rather I tune the upper strings to the slight off-440 pitches, which my experience tells give the best octaves and fifths between strings. I possibly could do that by ear, but it is much faster by means of the Snark.

I do not consider the Snark bulky compared to the first generation of electronic tuners from 30 years ago. Not even compared to my 2nd and 3rd generation tuners from 25 and 15 years ago. For me it is so small, that I need to return it to one of two fixed positions between using it, if I don’t want spending time searching for it.

In one of the rooms that position is on one of the supports of my Wenger sousaphone chair. That made the small rubber protection shoe of the grip fall off. I only found it weeks later, so in the meantime I had to prevent the grip scratching the instruments. I took a self-adhesive patch of Velcro (the wooly side) and cut it to fit the grip. Actually a better solution than the original rubber.

I have had one of the balls dislocate from its socket, but it went right back with no breaking of parts. Hardly something to strive for happening very often.

Klaus

[Carroll]

I have not used the Snark but rather the Zoid (Sabine clamp-on chromatic) and it has worked VERY well for my students. It changes color from red to green when the pitch is "in tune". That way the kid does not really need to keep a constant eye on the needle (lcd) and can see at a glance the color of the backlight.

If the Snark works as well... it is a winner.