Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Why are tuner pedals so expensive?
- Thread starter Danilixo
- Start date
Wasn't your bass tuned when you bought it? 
Fine tuning by ear on the fly mid song while playing seems to be a lost art anymore.
But OMG, why more than $20?
So YOU'RE that guy that's always out of tune...
If you can build one cheaper, then you stand to make a tidy profit. Sounds like a challenge and an opportunity.
How much did you pay for that Jazz Bass in your profile? $500? More? It's just wood and wires. I can get wood and wires for $5 at Lowe's.
I like headstock tuners, the ones fender makes is $8. Its probably cool having a tuner in your pedalboard but not a priority. I just leave it on my headstock.if I splurge on a tuner it'll still be headstock. Even Peterson makes one.
I have a chromatic Planet Waves strobe tuner pedal that cost somewhere between $80 and $100 a couple years ago. I also have a bunch of $8 to $40 tuners that are mostly in a box waiting for their batteries to leak so I'll finally throw them out. OTOH I really like and appreciate my (several) Snark ST-1 which are impressively good but at a gig where there's lots of ambient noise my Planet Waves on the floor is indispensible.
So why does it cost that much? Because it's worth it. If you disagree then don't buy one; I don't mind because I know we'll never share a stage.
(EDIT Corrected the brand of pedal tuner. )
So why does it cost that much? Because it's worth it. If you disagree then don't buy one; I don't mind because I know we'll never share a stage.
(EDIT Corrected the brand of pedal tuner. )
Last edited:
Big Hoss
Up note, down note, blue note, brown note...
- Sep 5, 2014
- 5,455
- 4,234
- Disclosures
- None
The Snark SN 10s is running for $32.85 and is quite a good tuner. I don't know which Tuner you're looking at but there are tuner certainly that running the 75 even up to $100 and I think some more. There's also pedal tuners that cost considerably less.
A used Behringer chromatic pedal tuner runs about $15 on eBay.
Last edited:
I pay good money for a quality tuner for durability, reliability, ability to be stomped on, kicked, tossed carelessly in a bag with other gear, tossed in the back of a van with equipment stacked on top of it, and work flawlessly every time.
For a while, I toured without a tuner and used to tune with my volume off, just going by the pulse of the vibrations in the neck. While I don't know if I was 100% accurate, I definitely got good enough at it that no one ever complained. However, these days I like the accuracy of a tuner, plus it is useful when I need to fine-tune an instrument's setup.
Tuning pedals are a lot like vegetables.
Not everyone likes them, but those people die faster.
Not everyone likes them, but those people die faster.
I like them too, and still use a tc polytune at home but in a band environment I found them too sensitive, so I boned up for the pedal. Worth it to me, plus it mutes.
Why are apps free, or rediculous lay cheap?
People are trying to make a name for themselves by writing apps so they do it for nothing.
With a tuner, you might have just as much development work go into it as with the app.
But you also have a mechanical design, costs of materials, assembly, marketing, yadda yadda all the costs of doing business. Think of a pedal like a brick and mortar store vs an on-line retailer, aka app. Cost of business is different for each,
I would also expect a $75 pedal to bring something to the table a free app can't.
