The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking to buy a chromatic tuner with a digital readout for pitch (440, 442.5, etc.) Is there such an animal and if so, what would some of you guys suggest?

Joe

Joe,

I don't know of a tuner that will display a string's pitch in digital format like "442". Just cause I don't know of one, does not mean there is NOT one!
The electronic tuners I know about, use a needle, or LED's, or an LCD display to indicate how far away from ET, equally tempered scale, one is.

Most tuners will let you adjust the reference point(440, 441, 442...) until your pitch matches. But you gotta push buttons or twist a knob.

A reference point that might help: 4 cents is equivalent to 1hz. example...441hz is 4 cents sharp of 440, 439hz is 4 cents flat of 440.

I use a Seiko ST757L. It's accurate and the "L" model has lighting which i find necessary on stage.

Uffe

Ron,

Thanks for the info. Ulf, I couldn't find the exact tuner you were talking about, but I did find a Seiko ST767 for $20 at musician's friend. The list price was originally $115. Looks like a good deal to me. What do you think?

jd

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=0401151659162162280471375 79587/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/211065 <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joe Drivdahl on 15 January 2004 at 05:02 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joe Drivdahl on 15 January 2004 at 05:03 PM.]</p></FONT>

Joe--I use the Korg CA-20---they have upgraded it to CA-30 now-----and it looks quite similar to that Seiko. One thing the Seiko has that the Korg doesn't have is an output---you can't pass signal thru the Korg.

Two things----I agree with Ulf---all the squinting in the world won't help you with an unlit tuner on a dark stand. And the Korg is not lit. I need to upgrade. The other thing----Musician's Friend lies though their teeth when they claim a date when a product will arrive. Their business philosophy is "never say you don't know when it will be in. Just make up a date." So don't count on it. Today it says 1/15. Tomorrow it will say 1/16.

Jon,
It doesn't really matter to me have quickly it gets here; I ain't got no pressing gigs, but I sure think the price is right.

jd

Joe.
I think 767 is the newermodel that replaced the 757. basicly the same, and its a good tuner. Be sure to get one with a lit display, that would be a 767L.

Uffe

I went to the LA NAMM show yesterday, and one of the most interesting things I saw was the Peterson V-SAM & VS-11 virtual strobe tuniers. I think they go for around $2oo bucks. You can program any tempered tuning you want into these cool pieces of gear. They even had a steel guitar at their booth to demo it! Heck I might even try JI if I had one of those...

Thanks for the info, guys. I went ahead and ordered the Seiko (Okies spelled backward) ST767. Ulf, I don't know if it has a light or not, but I figured for $20, what the heck? It beats what I've got now - two good ears.

Ulf? Are you from Norway? Drivdahl is Norwegian.

joe

The Korg 1000 racmount has a herz button that lets the tuner display from 435 up to 445 hz. Its perfect for exact tuning by numbers. I paid $230 brand new. It also has strobe and cent display. It has mute and 2 inputs if you also play guitar. It also has inputs in the front thast will bypass the back inputs if the rest of the and wants to use your tuner. The thing I like the most is that is inline with your amp so you can tune in the middle of a song.

I like the TU-12H, which is a Boss, I think... I dig having the actual, physical analog needle on the thing, scaled in Hertz and cents, and led's to indicate the note in question. Other than that, the one I see used the most for bandstand stuff is the Boss stompbox tuner; from what I understand it doesn't color the sound too much, and has a silent bypass...

I would really like to find a tuner that would remember the tempered tuning I like and let me just tune to 0 with everything already set. It takes me 20 minutes to really tune. I really like to use the method used by Reece Anderson with the harmonics. My gurtar just about jumps out of its formica when it is in perfect tune. Does anyone know of a tuner like that?

Drivdahl sure has a nice Norwegian ring to it.
However, I was born and raised in Sweden, on meatballs and smörgåsbord, riding around in Volvo's under the midnight sun.
I'll probably take a trip to Norway in August, to see Tom Brumley!!

Anyway, the 767 is a good tuner. With or without light.

Uffe

I love my Peterson V-SAM Virtual Strobe tuner. It has pedal steel settings built in, including Newman's tuning. It's amazing, you just plug it in and tune, including all pedals and knee levers. It has a pass through jack, a pedal steel mount and a back lit display so you can see it during a gig.