Digital tuners are arguably the most important musical invention of our time.But finding the right one can often be a difficult job. It simply helps to compare the pitch of a single note that you play in your guitar with the reference pitch that is stored in the tuner. Of the types of tuners that are available in the market, there are the Pedal Tuners and Headstock Clip-on Tuners.
A Headstock Clip-On Tuner is clipped on the headstock of your guitar for reading the pitch of the instrument. Based on the vibrations that transfer when you play the guitar, the Headstock Clip-On Tuner will compare the pitch of the instrument.
Pedal Tuners are meant for electric instruments and compares the pitch based on a single note that is generated from the guitar.
While both are great, Pedal Tuners are only meant for electric guitars while Clip-On is used mainly for acoustic guitars. They are best for quick and easy tuning, however, they might not be as accurate when compared to Headstock Clip-On Tuners.
How do you choose which one is the best guitar tuner for you?
While it is not easy to choose the right or one of the best guitar tuners for your guitar, here is a list of chosen tuner names to help you out with.
1. TC Electronic Polytune 2
The TC Electronic makes some very solid pedals. Apart from the good looking factor, it true bypass, can power a few other pedals via daisy-chaining, has an extremely accurate strobe tuner mode, supports a variety of drop and capo tunings, has a very bright and legible display under various conditions, and tuning with it just feels crisp, swift, and accurate. Speaking of the price, coming within the same range with Boss Tuner, it is pretty fantastic and hence can be called the Best of the Best.
2. Korg Pitchblack
The Korg Pitchblack is one of the cheapest best quality tuner pedals that you will find in the market.
The Korg Pitchblack comes in an aluminum case that looks and feels indestructible. However, the only plastic component is the battery door that you will find on the back side of the pedal. You can turn on or off from the front side of the stompbox, whilethe left and the right sides of the pedal have a ¼” jack for your instrument cable.
Other than that the pedal also supports a 9V DC jack to daisy-chain a few pedals and power them using the Pitchblack.
There is a DISPLAY button on the back of the unit cycles through 4 modes: Full Strobe, Half Strobe, Meter,and Mirror. Nothing changes in terms of accuracy, these only alter the way the display helps you get to the right pitch. Most users (us included) prefer the primary/default mode, as it seems the other modes are not all that helpful. Detection accuracy is +/-1 cent, so not quite the same accuracy as the PolyTune 2 in strobe mode. Still, unless you are a touring pro using this to intonate your guitars, you won’t notice a difference. The tuning process is very crisp, with horizontal yellow arrows showing you if you’re sharp or flat, and red and green vertical bars showing you how close you’re getting to pitch. It’s nice and smooth and not jumpy, just like the TC Electronic PolyTune. And speaking of switching between display modes, the pedal’s display is big and bright. No matter the lighting conditions, you’ll be able to see it clearly. We actually prefer the Pitchblack’s display to the PolyTune’s. The other button at your disposal is CALIB, which lets you adjust calibration from 436 Hz to 445 Hz. One small inconvenience is that when you unplug the pedal its settings reset, which is slightly annoying if you gig frequently.
3. Snark SN 8
Our recommendation is to pick up a Snark SN-8 if all you do is play your guitar, bass, or other instrument occasionally at home. You might not need an entire pedal and everything that comes with it (a guitar cable, power supply, etc.). With the Snark, you simply clip it on, play your strings, watch the display and tune up. However, don’t be dissuaded from using it if you’re a more serious player or play gigs. It has a few interesting extra features like a built-in tap-tempo metronome to help you practice, and transpose and pitch-calibration functions to accommodate alternate tunings.It’s essentially a small display attached to a clip, and has a button to turn it on and off. There’s nothing to plug in, and it operates on a small CR2032 battery.
4. Boss TU-3
The Boss TU-3 comes with an improved design. This is an extremely dependable guitar tuner, and is found on more pro pedal boards than any other pedal in history.
It’s a typical Boss and has a ¼” input for your instrument on one side, and two outputs on the other: OUTPUT and BYPASS. When you engage the TU-3, the OUTPUT is muted, so you can tune without everyone hearing you. The BYPASS output does not get muted, and in fact you can use this pedal as a splitter to send your signal to two different places (two amps for instance). The TU-3 requires a 9V DC power supply (or a 9V battery), and it also has a power output to supply power for up to seven Boss compact pedals which you can daisy-chain to it (maximum current draw being 200 mA or 500 mA, depending on which adaptor you use). Two small buttons below the pedal’s display control its various functions – a STREAM/CENT button, and a MODE button.
Its 21 segment LED allows you to easily adjust the brightness of the light. The STREAM/CENT button lets you switch between CENT which is more the standard “get close to the center” mode, or STREAM where the LED lights “flow” more slowly as you get closer to pitch. The MODEbutton lets you switch between Chromatic, Chromatic flat, Guitar, Guitar flat, Bass, and Bass flat modes. There are plenty of options and versatility for various types of guitars and tuning. When a note you’re tuning hits the mark, the TU-3 has an Accu-Pitch Sign function which gives you a nice visual cue that tuning is complete. When you’re trying to quickly tune up, that serves as a nice indicator.
5. Sonic Research Turbo Tuner
The Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-300 is probably the most accurate tuner you can buy in pedal form, due to it being a true stroboscope.
You get +/- .02 cents accuracy which is as good as you can get for a pedal tuner. The display is nice and bright. As you play a note, the LED pattern rotates to the right if you are sharp, and left if you are flat. You are in tune when the pattern is stationary. Most guitarists are usually comfortable with the “off from center” needle-type tuning display. The CAL button helps you to change the A4/440.0 Hz reference frequency. The tuner is extremely customizable and features support for multiple temperaments (equal, just, Pythagorean) and alternate tunings (chromatic, drop D, DADGAD, open A, open D, bass, bass drop D, 5 string bass, violin, cello, and more).
Conclusion
There are different kinds of tuners available in the market and the choice you make will depend mainly on the purpose. Which of these tuners would you buy?