Which tuner for a setup

[Brando_Beast]

I play bass guitar and electric.

I'm curious about starting to do my own setups. I have 12 guitars, and many are Squier or pawn shop specials so I'm not gonna pay 6 or 7 hundred total to get these tweaked a little in terms of intonation. (50 upwards for a setup times 12)

I have read extensively about setups and understand the aspects.

I was curious to test my instruments, play the open E and then play at the 12th fret to see if the octave lines up or not.

GuitarTuna, the phone app, doesn't really work with going up an octave, it only reads the open strings.

What kind of tuners are people using to do setups?

 

[LowWay]

Get a Peterson that you can plug into. Not a clip on. Their mini strobostomp would do the job. Or a Sonic Research ST-200. Having good accuracy will improve your results.

 

[Brando_Beast]

Thank You.
I will look into those.
Just curious, what's your experience? I just know a lot of people here have extensive backgrounds. I love the stories.
Do you do your own setups? I've always been curious but I know the changes are subtle, so it's hard to justify the cost. Guitar Center charges 89.99 for a setup. Am I gonna pay 1200 to have my 12 guitars tweaked?

BTW I don't play past the 12th fret much, and I am slightly tone deaf. So paying to have my intonation adjusted is, well you get the point.

 

[Killing Floor]

+1 a Peterson strobo mini is reasonable and quite enough for that task.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I have 2 Petersons....a VS II and StroboStomp...which I use for detail work. On a whim, I did one set-up using only the built-in on my Fly Rig and the outcome went head-to-head with the Peterson. OTOH, my pre-intonation set-up addressed all the components that would otherwise throw things off.

I was curious to test my instruments, play the open E and then play at the 12th fret to see if the octave lines up or not.

GuitarTuna, the phone app, doesn't really work with going up an octave, it only reads the open strings.

What kind of tuners are people using to do setups?

I use the 12th harmonic vs 12th fretted as a starter then check the balance of the fingerboard. This usually ID's any issues.

Riis

 

[claudel]

I like Petersen iStroboSoft on the iPad.

Works nicely on iPhone as well

I already have the iPad & interface, though.

Edit: With benefit of morning coffee I recall it also works fine via the built in mic and doesn't require an interface... I just never use it that way.

 

[JRA]

FWIW: i've never had issues tuning/intonating or setting up my axes with the clip-ons that i have (snark and d'addario). i sold my strobe tuners years ago: they weren't any better for my fretless ax setups than the clip-ons i've used.