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Best Tuner For Bright Sunlight

#21
niftydog said:
...No matter how accurate your tuner is, it's still not always going to agree with every other tuner....
Click to expand...

You must be working with either Eric Johnson or Donald Fagen!!! ;) Or...... perhaps both!

*scene* A cramped west hollywood studio. It's 4 am and the musicians are tired and sweaty. Fagen is at the mixing board holding a riding crop and a half-eaten pudding cup. Eric is wearing his headphones askew in the tracking room and weighing 1/4" phono cables on a portable digital postage scale.

Donald to Eric:

Donald: "Eric, uhh..., I'm not sure how to ask this - but has the quartz in your tuner been calibrated because I'm ready to commit hari-kari here in the control booth!"

Eric: "If your damn scales weren't in !@#$% metric I'd be at Stubbs eating brisket right now!!!!"
 
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#22
niftydog said:
Frankly if you want to be professional, you tune back stage and trust your professional quality equipment to stay in tune for the duration of a set! And if you need a slight adjustment you should aim to do it on the fly like a professional would! ;)
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That's what I'm talking about.

I'm not anal about tuning, it is after all a wooden instrument subject to all kinds of variables.

I just need a tuner that works and tuning method that works...
 
#23
niftydog said:
I use a technique that works for every musical instrument ever conceived since the dawn of time, and will work for every musical instrument made in the future until the day the sun swallows the earth. It costs nothing, works brilliantly in direct sunlight, requires no batteries or cables, is ridiculously accurate, automatically adjusts for non-440 tuning and automatically compensates for imperfect intonation.

My ear!
Click to expand...

How much is it?
Where can I buy one?
And do they ship for free? :eyebrow:
 
#24
niftydog said:
...Frankly if you want to be professional, you tune back stage and trust your professional quality equipment to stay in tune for the duration of a set! And if you need a slight adjustment you should aim to do it on the fly like a professional would! ;)
Click to expand...


That's exactly what I & 99.9% of the professionals that I work with do! We tune before the set & make infrequent and quick adjustments if necessary during the set..... by checking with a tuner! :)
(The other .1% of my colleagues let their tech do the tuning..... by checking with a tuner!)
 
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#26
I've got a Korg rack tuner and I does NOT work well in direct sunlight. It dosen't work so well in bright light.

What I found is a cheap Casio tuner wtih an LCD display work great. In fact, probably any tuner with an LCD display will work.

I'm not endorsing any of these but just to give you an idea many tuners have LCD displays. You may have to look a bit to find one in a pedal or something inline. Mine is just a hand held version.

But here are a few for ideas
http://www.themusicshop.net.au/products.php?cat=44

Korg even makes one.

Big tip: If you go to a store, ask to take it outside to test it in bright sunlight.
 
#28
I have a Peterson Strobostomp which has a backlit LCD display and works awesomely. Is always visible in any condition. Accuracy to within +/- 0.1 cents (that's 1/1000 of a semitone). However, these may be overkill, especially for bass (I use mine with guitar).

Boss TU-2 and Planet Waves tuner (not the strobe pedal): +/- 3 cents

All Korg Tuners (including racks): +/- 1 cent. I like my GA-30 handheld, though the pitchblack is nice if you want a stompbox. No idea how that looks in direct sunlight, but the GA-30 is quite visible (at least the LCD part).

Sonic Research Turbo Tuner stompbox (not released yet, but very very soon. Product number: ST-200): +/- 0.02 cents (1/5000 of a semitone). Haven't heard a bad review on these babies yet, and will be my next tuner purchase if my strobostomp ever craps out on me. You can pre-order them now for $110. Calling it the best value on the market would be an understatement.
http://www.turbo-tuner.com/

Planet Waves Strobe Tuner: Not too sure about this guy. I know it's very accurate, but unsure of it's reliability nor tracking.
 
#29
I really don't understand why it is so difficult to make a tuner that's easily viewable in direct sunlight.

My iPaq with it's color screen is easy to see in direct sun.

The display in my vehicle is easily viewable in direct sun
(it's really cool, during the day its black on white at night its white on black).

I think almost any LED tuner is useless in direct sun.

LCD seems to be the only viable option, now let's see that in a stomp box.

So far it looks like the Peterson Strobo Stomp is an option.

Any others?
 
#30
Sorry, thought I had clarified.

When I mentioned that I haven't heard a bad word about the Turbo Tuner, I was including visibility issues. I don't think all LEDs are useless in sunlight, though I do agree that most are. Sonic Research really took a lot of the buzz going around on the pros and cons of different tuners and made a "best of all worlds" package that does not compromise.

However, you will want to do a bit of research on that. I cannot say for sure that there are no visibility issues, but in the wealth of info I had heard about it (the handheld version, available for a long time now), that doesn't ring any bells.

I think I'll go double check that now and will get back to you. Keep in mind, the Strobostomp is over $200 and what you really may need is a friggin $20 GA-30!
 
#32
Evidently. I looked through this thread and found these salient posts

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While people argue the various merits of the turbo tuner vs the Strobostomp, it appears noone is disputing there may be visibility issues with the Turbo Tuner. Good luck!
 
#33
To the person wondering if anyone made needle pedal tuners, this one's for sale for £10 on the basschat forum. Not seen em before though!

index.php
 
#34
I emailed Petersen and ask them about the Strobo Stomp in direct sunlight.

Here's what they said:

"The StroboStomp has a bright LCD screen and is the only pedal tuner which works in direct sunlight - period.
Nothing else can stand up to intense light, the reason is contrast, LED tuners don't have that.
The StroboFlip and the StroboStomp both have this ability.
In fact, you can shine a 1000w par can at it and you will still be able to easily read the display,
the majority of professional stage techs use our tuners for the accuracy and the visibility."

I think that's pretty clear...
 
#36
There is good advice here....but I like the fallback of using your ear.

I started playing in an orchestra where everyone tuned to the 1st violin - by ear. And then we tuned across the strings - by ear.

When I started playing again in the late 90's, I didn't even know that electronic tuners existed. I pulled out my old pitch pipe, played a G, then simply tuned across the strings by tuning the D at the 5th fret (second dot) to the open G, and so on down to the E. It has worked for a lonnnnnnng time. Later I got an electronic tuner, because it's handy...but I still tune by ear for most rehearsals.

Every bass player should be able to tune their instrument by ear, given any one of four notes: G, D, A or E. (Given that you use standard tuning, of course.) If you have any one of those four strings set, you can easily tune the others.

On stage, I use a TU-2 and haven't had any problems with it, but I don't play much outdoors in the daytime.
 
#38
Sorefinger said:
Ok, it´s not exactly high-tech, but it´s cheap and readily available in case of emergency - behold my Kustom Kardboard Korg Kover! :D

tuner.gif
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...... this seems to be an indication that the PitchBlack doesn't work in bright sunlight after-all! Bummer, I was looking forward to driving over my TU-2 with my Jeep. (for the record, I hate the TU-2, but for some small local gigs I like to bring only the muting tuner - so....:spit:)
 
#40
Planet waves strobe on string tuner:

pw-ct-06b.jpg


Not chromatic, but you can see it in bright light and if you use a standard tuning w/ 6 or less strings it works great. Takes a little acclimation to do it quickly, but it works. Cheap too.

You may be able to clear some space on your board for that fuzz you've been eyeing. :D
 

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