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I used to have a small list of really good tuners that can accurately measure the lower end of the tuba scales that I seemed to have lost.
Can I get a list of tuner recommendations under $50?

Korg TM-50 works well for me on tuba/timpani.

Korg TM-40 owned here, works fine. Garageband in an Apple computer also has a nice tuner.

If you have a smart phone (android or iPhone) just get Cleartune, it works well and you'd be surprised how many pros use it.

+1 on Cleartune!

Just bought and tried cleartune for an android phone I prefer pitch lab it's free and has more interesting user displays will show multiple pitches and chords
works down to D0 for me.

The iStrobosoft on apple products is really great. It's also available on certain android devices.

I have Android "Strobe Tuner" 1.2, and "gStrings". gStrings is what I'd recommend between the two, though they're so cheap there's no real reason not to try whatever appeals to you. I've seen the iPhone strobe tuner, and it looked like it worked better. Not that there's anything seriously wrong with the Android strobe tuner, but at best you're limited by the audio signal in these devices.

[Edit - incidentally, I got my Android phone, a T-Mobile branded Prism, to use as a tuner. And as a phone, but the impetus was the confirmed demise of my old 9V battery powered Boss. The deal with T-Mobile was about $200, with $100 of that applied to a pay-as-you-go balance. Yearly I have to remember to refresh the account with a minimal deposit. I don't have to buy 9V batteries any more. Works for me.]

+1 for the Korg TM-50.

I use a TASCAM PT-7 on my stand at home, but the Korg goes everywhere else with me. It's very easy to see the reading, it has the little red/green lights above the gauge that also help a lot, and it's accurate across the range. The TASCAM is considerably more expensive and has more features, most of which I don't use.

A big problem, in my experience, is that a lot of tuners just aren't good in the contra-bass range. Both of these are.

I have a Korg CA-30 that looks pretty similar to the TM-50 and I wonder if they actually use different circuitry. The problem I have with the CA-30 is that it locks in after sampling for a while and then samples again and jumps to a new reading. I'd like something that reads more instantaneously, so that I could see what I'm doing between what I now get as reading #1 and reading #2 . . .

I don't have that problem with either of mine. Until a couple of years ago I had an ancient Korg that I got in the early 90s. It finally died after about 20 years! But as I recall it had two settings for sampling rates: one "slow" and one "fast". My current ones don't seem to use that approach.

Another feature I find to be absolutely critical is the backlight (or illumination) for the display. The ones that just have the black/grey LCD displays are useless to me.

cmonte wrote:I used to have a small list of really good tuners that can accurately measure the lower end of the tuba scales that I seemed to have lost.
Can I get a list of tuner recommendations under $50?

Big boost for the Korg CA-40 as it's small enough to carry in shirt pocket, trouser pocket, etc. I find the dial easy to read and the red and green LEDs to be very helpful in low light situations. Accurate on lower tones. Great deal on them at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/kss8jve" target="_blank) btw.

Check this iPhone app out. It is more than just a tuner, but a unique way of looking at intervals. Written by a friend and fellow trombonist Gil Estes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scale-m ... 36994?mt=8" target="_blank

I grabbed a handful of these on ebay mainly to have a tuner in each guitar and banjo case. $7.00/each and they actually work better in the low tuba range than the Korgs I own and the Android apps I've tried.
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Tuner-Chr ... ref=sr_1_1

I have been using the KORG WR01 Wi-Tune & love it!
It's quite a bit more than $50 but the main reason I got it was for the large display
and to be honest, I haven't even tried out the wireless clip on mic yet, but it seems that
it might pick up only your horn a lot better, with others are playing in the room.

ghmerrill wrote: I use a TASCAM PT-7 on my stand at home, but the Korg goes everywhere else with me. It's very easy to see the reading, it has the little red/green lights above the gauge that also help a lot, and it's accurate across the range. The TASCAM is considerably more expensive and has more features, most of which I don't use.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/?icid=204625" target="_blank
Interesting yet perfect enough, the TASCAM TC-8 is on a major sale today as musiciansfriend.com 's "Stupid Deal of the Day".
I think I'll get one of these to try out while it's one sale before I move onto a Korg like a majority of the musicians here are

Thanks!

I've dropped my CA-40 countless times on tile and it keeps on ticking--I'm extremely pleased with it. Years ago I tested it against a very high end rack tuner for my bass that was given to me and the Korg was right on with it.

For Droid I use Gstrings and it works great. The new gen is called Waves and it's even better now that they fixed a bug.

When I'm not around my Dr. Beat I use the droid app Ttuner for a drone. It's very good and you can customize the sound waves.

The TM50/TM40 works fine, at least down to the low F (4 ledger lines below the staff), even without microphone clip. It's inexpensive, and doesn't require a smart phone, which is why it lives at my son's school (in the locker). His band teacher requires all students to have a tuner (he is very adamant about intonation, which is good, but requiring the students to have an electronic tuner with them at all times is a bit over the top).

The WR01 with the clip works great. I don't know how low we have gone with it, but I think it works down into the pedal tone range. The clip comes in very handy if you have to tune one instrument while everyone else is making noise. I've used it very effectively right before middle school band concerts: While everyone is warming up, I walk from instrument to instrument, put the clip on, and check that they're in tune.

I have various FREE iPhone apps that are great tuners including a strobe. For Christmas I bought a couple of Tascam TC-1S solar powered tuners. They are only $9.99 and have several modes including strobe. It's a pretty sweet deal.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... atic-tuner

Just did a quick test of the Tascam PT-7 vs. the Korg TM50. A bit surprising.

On my wife's piano (which was professionally tuned less than a week ago) the TM50 sees the bottom note as an A (which it is). The PT-7 sees it as an out-of-tune C#. The TM50 thinks the Bb above it is a Bb, but the Tascam thinks it's an F. They both get the B (and subsequent pitches) right.

Maybe it's an overtone thing? Maybe it's an algorithm thing. Whatever.