leave clip-on tuner on while performing?

[HolmeBass]

I voted “never” but it’s sort of cheating because I don’t use clip-on tuners.

Most folks I know that use them do leave them on, by you turn them to the display is behind the headstock - you can see them to tune but they are much less obtrusive to the audience.

 

[Pings Bass]

Last time I saw Booker T he had one on his guitar the whole time he played it. I use a pedal tuner, which is cleaner looking but adds a single point of failure to the signal chain. I'm not bothered by seeing it, and I doubt non-musicians give it a second of thought.

 

[Lagado]

I had to take it off, it keeps photobombing my selfie stick.

 

[Loring]

Watching a local band perform on televi-zee-own & the bass-player had his tuner on the headstock for the entire show.

Blech.

 

[el murdoque]

During rehearsals, that one guitarist I play with on occasion has one of those big Snarks, those with a longer neck. He has it on top of his headstock, facing front. It looks quite off putting, that little head bobbing on top of his guitar. A smaller one, on the back of the headstock simply disappears to those who don't play guitar or bass themselves.
I've played gigs with a tuner clipped to my bass. Nowadays I usually have a tuner on my pedalboard or in my Headrush, so there's no need for a clip-on. I keep one around, though. Somewhere.

 

[Michedelic]

Turn it off.

I do, that’s the point.

 

[DWBass]

I mostly leave mine on unless I'm using my Korg Pitchjack which is a plug in tuner.

 

[LBS-bass]

It was once fashionable to have a burning cigarette jammed under the strings on a headstock. Now clip-on tuners are "the thing".

Well, I quit smoking 20 years ago but yeah, back in the day we always had one in the ashtray and I had more than one headstock burn. Times were different

 

[Matthew_84]

I do, but only when I’m using my fretless

 

[chazolson]

The professional musicians I've known for the longest amount of time would say snotty things about you if you had one clipped on while on stage.

 

[LBS-bass]

- i check my tuning whenever i think the band is out of tune. (once before we hit, per set, typically).

It's a very handy thing to have for those moments when you want to say "hey, one of us is out of tune, maybe it's me" and you know it isn't you. Unfortunately, it doesn't always cause everyone to check, but hopefully they do.

 

[NOVAX]

I fly my thumb sized tuna loud and proud!! (If it can stay put)

 

[JRA]

The professional musicians I've known for the longest amount of time would say snotty things about you if you had one clipped on while on stage.

the pros i've played with (in a full-time career) are/were usually thinking about what the music sounds like. the cats i played with weren't "snotty" about anything but the groove.

It's a very handy thing to have for those moments when you want to say "hey, one of us is out of tune, maybe it's me" and you know it isn't you.

TBH: since i'm always playing fretless = i check more frequently (for my own bad-self) on outdoor gigs.

 

[chazolson]

the pros i've played with (in a full-time career) are/were usually thinking about what the music sounds like. the cats i played with weren't "snotty" about anything but the groove.


TBH: since i'm always playing fretless = i check more frequently (for my own bad-self) on outdoor gigs.

There are pedals that do that, you know.

 

[chazolson]

the pros i've played with (in a full-time career) are/were usually thinking about what the music sounds like. the cats i played with weren't "snotty" about anything but the groove.


TBH: since i'm always playing fretless = i check more frequently (for my own bad-self) on outdoor gigs.

And I prefer to use my ears when I'm playing my fretless. Works a lot better than looking at an LCD screen.

 

[Durham52]

Clip on tuners, pedal board tuners, what's wrong with your ears?
Back in the day this is how we all tuned, unless some flash Harry had a pitch pipe. Oooooh, flash or what?

This looks like the Ox taking a note from Pete's guitar and tuning his bass to it. Many musos with years of experience can retune on stage, by ear and despite crowd noise. Bloody tuners indeed! At least people with tuners on the headstock aren't hiding the fact that they need a tuner, not like those crafty so and so's with the tuner on their pedal board, so no one knows they're tuning....

 

[LBS-bass]

Clip on tuners, pedal board tuners, what's wrong with your ears?

Seriously it has never been my ears. The first tuner I ever bought was money I spent before I ever even played a bass or guitar. I bought it because I was sick of listening to my bandmates endlessly tune, and then tune again. I bought one of the early Korg tuners and presented it to them with encouragement to use it. This was the late 70's.

I can get in tune but I can't stay in tune with other instrumentalists who cannot hear that they are not in tune. Electronic tuners leveled that field and made it a non-issue, as long as they are used.

 

[LBS-bass]

Blech.

You guys should try listening to the music

 

[retslock]

No big thing. I leave mine attached but not switched on until I need it.

 

[SB300]

Just get a headless bass and you won't have to worry about clip ons because there's no headstock to worry about!
View attachment 4122683
That's hard to look at.....