I need to buy a tuning device, what would you guys recommend it's best: the ones that clip on the headstock or the ones that you insert the cable into the device to tune? Which is best or more precise?
I have all four types of tuners - rack mount, pedal, palm held, and clip on. I don’t find any of them to be significantly more accurate or quicker than any other. The one that I use 99% of the time is my $20 Snark Clip On tuner. It picks up my low B and E strings on every bass I own just as fast as my $300 Korg Rack Mount tuner and I don’t have to be plugged into anything for it to work.
The palm held was my first tuner purchase and is my least favorite to use, kinda clumsy design.
The rack mount was my second tuner purchase and took the place of the clumsy palm tuner. It worked very good for stage but had so many bells and whistles that if you pushed the wrong button in the dark it would take you a few seconds to cycle back to the proper setting for bass tuning.
The pedal tuner was my third tuner purchase and worked good on stage as well, it even doubled as a mute switch. However, I’m just not into a lot of pedals and now that I’m not playing out much I don’t even have a pedal board.
My last tuner purchase was a clip on Snark tuner and is by far my favorite in a non gigging setting. It’s dead simple, dead fast, dead accurate and dirt cheap. You don’t need to plug in to anything, it’s on with the push of a button and turns itself off after a few minutes. It works perfect on every bass (that has a headstock), is fairly durable and is easy to read in the dark or in bright light.
There are a couple of different snark models but this is the one I like best, it has a finer scale and works better than the Snark X model…
https://www.amazon.com/Snark-SN5X-Guitar-Violin-Current/dp/B01H74YV56/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1ARSIIU9ALT8M&keywords=Snark+bass+tuner&qid=1669651007&sprefix=snark+bass+tuner,aps,142&sr=8-3