Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsReplaced my snarks, and never going back.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2017
Bought a two pack based on the reviews here, plus I know 2 'professional' musicians that use these and both recommended it.
I've been using a snark, but they stick way out from the headstock. Where I play, I'm constantly walking around and I have at least one instrument hanging on my back with another one in front of me. If I leave the snark on the headstock, it often gets knocked off, then I lose it if I don't notice immediately. Also the snark doesn't fit in my case if it's on the headstock of any of my instruments, so I'm constantly searching for it. These are so small, they easily fit in the case while attached to the headstock.
The snark also has rubber "protectors" on its clip. The rubber on the snark easily picks up dust - turning it into sandpaper that leaves a nice round ring on your headstock since the clip on the snark is made to be attached and removed over and over again, it moves around on your headstock easily.
These are made in a way that makes me believe they are intended to be attached to the instrument, then never removed (although they can easily be removed). They rotate on the clip, but so far for where I've attached these it appears that the place where this tuner actually attaches to the instrument will never move, which means no more scratching my headstock.
The display is bright, color coded, and you can flip it with a switch so no matter which way you mount it, it's readable.
I do wish I could get these in other colors, since my banjo is all natural wood you can see the black clip sticking out.
Other than that one detail, these are great.
*I've been using these for about a year now on a banjo, an f-style mandolin, two acoustic guitars, and a violin. They all still work great for me, but I've got some additional information.
1) the screen is polarized. This makes it easier to read in the sun, however if you're wearing polarized sunglasses the screen may be unreadable.
2) they work in live situations, but as with any vibration tuner, they're not infallible. If it's noisy where you're trying to tune, your instrument might pick up that noise too, making it slightly more difficult than with a direct line tuner. Not a deal killer, but keep that in mind. If you're performing in a loud environment, you might want/need a tuner that connects to your instruments pickup/microphone directly.
