Snark headstock tuner for minimal equipment gig?

#41
Between my son and I, we have 3 Snarks in the household. However, I much prefer to use the Polytune 2 which does take a battery. The Snark is just adequate, but can give some minor problems occasionally.

It doesn't like the soft cases with the outside pockets as it can get crushed and break at the joints. It will do fine if you have a hard shell case with some storage compartments in this regard.
 
#42
#44
Ive had about 6 snarks. Most of them broke, mostly due to me putting them in my gig bag with little or no protection. They were somewhat inaccurate, but not too bad in this regard for live tuning. Batteries are not cheap...would be nice if they built it to use AAA or some other cheap battery. For me they are hard to read in bright sunlight...useless, in fact, to the extent that I would have to drag out my TU-2 to get the job done. You can buy them cheaply....but you get what you pay for.
 
#48
fakeneckplate'65 said:
I have one & whIle I haven't gigged it, it's always worked perfect for me. I can't see why you'd use a Boss TU-3 or similar unless you just want the mute capability.
Click to expand...

I loved the snark at first. And I got a bunch of them super cheap on Amazon. Gave some as gifts. But quickly grew tired of the heads breaking off, batteries draining from getting turned on or left on inadvertently, and worst...not being able to read it in outdoor gigs.
 
#49
Ive got a Snark. Use it on my ESP LTD 5 string bass. When it has trouble with the B string, I just reached up and push the back of it. So it has a stronger contact on the headstock. Works great and pretty accurate. As far as it falling apart, if you take care of it. It will work forever and if you turn it off when you are done tuning the batteries dont drain. It's mostly the operator that is the problem with them lol. 2 cents worth of words for whom it may concern.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Thisguy
#51
scottfeldstein said:
That TCE Polytune is interesting. I use their brand foot pedals. Is it worth $50? Anyone know?
Click to expand...

That or the Peterson Stroboclip are what you'll need if you want to track everything including DB, from my experience. I've tried Snarks, Korgs, and other clip-on tuners (large meh), and those two track better than my old PitchBlack pedal, by lots. They're more accurate too.
 
Last edited:
#53
I was gifted a Snark at Christmas. Its reads my strings fine, including the low B. But it has a pretty large window for the "green" in tune zone. I don't like it. I just use the $12 Korgs.
 
#54
I had to switch to the Polytune because the Snarks just weren't catching the Bs on my 5- and 6-strings.

I also like the form of the TC better. It's got nice bright lights on the readout compared to the Snark. Depending on the bass it's easy to angle it so the screen is behind the headstock and all that shows is the clip on the front. Also I could never get either of the Snark models to fit well on a bass with a non-Fender-like headstock like a Roscoe.
 
#55
I like my little Planet Waves tuners much better, but I've had a couple Snarks and they're decent tuners. They tune accurately and the price is right. They do eat batteries, though, as mentioned elsewhere. But for your pit work, it'll be great. You won't even have to take it off so you look cooler when you're playing in the pit band :D Just don't forget to turn it off when you're done using it.
 
#58
I use headstock tuners at home and keep them in the bass case for an emergency Many wireless systems have built in tuners and a korg pithblack can be had for 70 bucks.
I find headstock tuners unpredictable slow and in loud environments sometimes usesless. The korg has never let me down.
It ain't worth the risk and anxiety for me. Get a good pedal tuner to use at shows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back