Ah tuners… something I tend to get finicky about!
James Taylor really has a signature sound, and a lot of that is his tuning.
And yes, some tuners are ‘generous’ in their readings.
A lot of mandolin players I know trust Snarks. I love my Intellitouch PT10. I have a little clip on Polytune by TC Electronics, but I prefer the PT10 because I can read the PT1o in bright sunlight and the Polytune’s LEDs just can’t manage that.
I also have a Boss TU-12h that’s (holy cow) 30 years old now. I use it when I get the pedal board out. Zorro, you might benefit from using one of these. It has an analog read out: a needle that swings left & right and shows cents. This makes JT’s instruction possible to execute.
I wish I still had the little case the TU-12h came in. That made it really convenient to use. But that case has been broken and gone for 20 years now. 🙂
I’ve participated in a kickstarter for Soundbrenner’s Core device (I have a Pulse and love it). It’s a smartwatch with a haptic metronome, a decibel meter, and a tuner in it. The unit comes off your wrist (watch band stays in place) and attaches to the instrument via a magnet. You can stick the unit either to the tuning machines or to a small self adhesive metal plate that comes with the Core. It reads notes the same way as any other clip on tuner.
They’re shipping in March. I’ll post a review. 🙂
Daniel
