Does anyone else still use one of these?

[BAG]

I just can't get past the convenience of a clip on these days

I used to think that way, until I turned around on stage and hit the headstock on my mic stand and saw my tuner explode into pieces. Prior to that I also had issues a few times trying to check tuning during song intros and couldn't get a reading because the sound of the other instruments vibrate my bass and therefore the tuner.

Those issues prompted me to get a Sonic Research Turbo Tuner..... so much quicker and more accurate.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I have a Boss Tu-12 in my home practice area that I use often. It's great for intonation, too. No reason to not use it.

 

[darev]

I used Boss TU-12 tuners as did almost everyone else that we toured with.
View attachment 7371593

I had my TU-12 for years and would hang it from the vinyl case lid under my amp for many years.

In the end the case rotted out and the tuner fell to the floor at just the right spot.

Now I have seemingly tuners from every era since. Including one of my old pitch pipes.

 

[singlemalt]

Sparkle red!

A tuning fork held between my teeth was the first, stereo A440!

I like the D’Addario mini clip on as well.

But nowadays, seems like everything has a tuner built in. All my multi fx have one.

 

[ryco]

Still use a Sabine ST 1000 I've had for decades. Sits on my amp.
Still have my "A" tuning fork from grade school

 

[Ostie]

I’ve had 3 or 4 clip-ins break. They’re cheap and not robust enough for a gigging musician. I won’t buy another.

 

[Relsom]

I had one of these and loved it back in the 80's, and strangely the only thing I ever had stolen off stage. I had it in a loop where I plugged the bass to the IN JACK and the second cable from the OUT JACK stayed plugged into the head, left it inline. Sit down gig, we left everything in place overnight, came in one day, it was gone. Dang ! !

Sorry yours got stolen. Mine's still around here somewhere. The little pushbutton stick to turn on calibration broke off so I always had to keep a little screwdriver around to work the switch so I could zero the meter. I keep a Pitchblack pedal on my board, a DTR-1 in my rack, the Microbass 3 has one built in, as does the GR Bass Cube 800 combo amp....Oh, and a Fender clip on tossed in my bag. You could say I have no excuse to be out of tune.

 

[Boss Bass]

I remember the analog needle indicator type tuners from back then. I may still have one stored away someplace. I bought both of these digital Korg units while I was living in Europe many years ago. The GA-20 tuner got used very often, the MA-20 metronome from time to time when I was writing new material. These days I use a Snark tuner for my acoustic bass guitar, but sometimes I will use the GA-20 as well for it. I use the tuner in my older Zoom B2.1u for my electric basses, but the GA-20 still works for them too. Must stay on top of the instrument tunings...

 

[Petethebassman]

View attachment 7371433

I've never felt any need to upgrade.

It’s not in active use, but I have the same tuner in a drawer, bought it in early 1990’s. Recently I put a fresh battery in it and yes, it still works. (After testing it I took out the battery to avoid leaks)

 

[lowendrachel]

I use mine every day.
It sits on top of my amp.

View attachment 7371441

 

[LowActionHero]

I still have a Boss tuner and a Korg metronome. Haven't used either in quite a while but I'm sure they both still work fine. One of my kids probably has them.

I can't stand clip ons, I gave them all away.

I use the tuners built in to my Zoom B3, Sonicake pocket, Spark amp or a phone app.

I actually have 2 Pitchblacks. Haven't used them in a couple years either.

 

[LAST_C]

I have many clip on tuners... No brand, Fender, shark, Joyo... But I went back to my trusty Boss TU-70. My main player now is a SBMM Ray5 HH and, no matter where I place the clip on tuner on my headstock, it barely reads stings 1-4. The 5th? not at all.

The best one from all the ones I have is the Fender FT-1. Still, not reliable enough.

Anyone else struggling to tune a bass with clip ons?

 

[squish]

This TU-12 was my go-to for a while until TC Electronic blew my mind with their Polytune. Now I keep the impressive Petersson Strobostomp on my bench for intonation tuning. When I am not using my pedal board's Shure GLXD+ built-in tuner, I have a TC UniTune which is fine but I generally detest clip-on tuners, especially when people stink up the place by leaving them on their headstocks while playing live.

 

[WI Short Scaler]

As many others have said, the Boss TU-12 was my first tuner. The first band I was in I tuned from the keys player.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I have a Strobostomp on my gig board, a TU-3 on my mini board, and the Tu-12 at home, and clips in my office and emergency kit.

The beauty of the Strobostomp is it reads continuously. It's great to make a quick fix without stopping. I don't like clips at all while gigging, as I don't like the way they look on the headstock, they never seem to be in the right place for me to see well, and they can be slow to react.

 

[B-flat?]

Now I have seemingly tuners from every era since. Including one of my old pitch pipes.

When I started playing bass a pitch pipe was it, you can't carry around a piano.

 

[darev]

Absolutely, the piano would have been impractical and in some situations even gauche.

I liked tuning to the pitch pipe because I didn’t have to tune from one pitch on the fork & could cheat by having each pitch I needed in one place.

Back in the leaded times

 

[jthisdell]

I used to tune to Lopsy Lu

 

[zombywoof5050]

I still have one of these, but haven't used it in over 20 years.

 

[Jim C]

From the great Danny Gatton: Use a telephone dial tone.
I believe it's an F#