Starter Tuner?

[New]

New to this forum and the mandolin. Planning on buying a beginner's kit from Mandolinhut in the next few days, but I'm wondering if anyone knows what kind of tuner comes along with their beginner KM 150 package? I've heard that Snark makes a good tuner, and I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to their clip on (does anyone know what brands they use?). Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Nevin]

Most of the tuners available these days are good. Why not aske your vendor who's they use?

[zedmando]

No such thing as a Starter tuner--just tuners--but Snarks work great (Although as with anything--some people don't like them)

[Colin Lindsay]

No such thing as a Starter tuner

I presume he means a good tuner for a beginner without all the bells and whistles etc that most of us never use. No point in paying large sums of money for an expensive tuner when a cheap item will work just as well.
I use Snarks but they eat batteries; my latest offering, a Guitarman GM11, just failed after a month’s occasional usage. Bought it for £15 in London but it now sticks at B on my cittern and G sharp on my bouzouki and doesn’t move no matter what the note played, or else registers nothing at all. Maybe I’m just a jinx.

[mandroid]

Mine was an A-440 tuning fork.

[JeffD]

What ever it comes with will be good enough, I would bet. It won't hold you back.


I used to have battery eating problems with my Snark, but I figured it out - have to keep it in vibration mode, not microphone mode, so that when I put it in the gig bag after forgetting to turn it off, its not constantly looking for pitch. Now the batteries last a year or so. I keep spares in the gig bag.

[Carl Robin]

My favorite tuner is Boss TU-88 with an additional clip mic clipped to the bridge. It makes a beep when the string is just right, and works in noisy conditions. It's not cheap, but really minimizes the time and concentration needed for tuning.

[New]

Thanks for the help! I think I'll just start with whatever is included (I think it's a tech tune 501 clip-on), and if I need to upgrade later I will. Peace.