pw ns
one of my most recent purchase, and this little toy just made my day.   i've been hearing goods about these little headstock tuners that in these days are getting smaller and more accurate.  personally i was never a fan of such kind of gadget and always always go with a pedal(used to have rack) tuners that mutes your guitar, and use smart phone to tune acoustic instruments, until lately.

i've been hearing goods about these little headstock tuners that in these days are getting smaller and more accurate.  personally i was never a fan of such kind of gadget and always always go with a pedal(used to have rack) tuners that mutes your guitar, and use smart phone to tune acoustic instruments, until lately.

about 10 days after got back from my 3 weeks asia trip, i got a session gig that was previouslly booked, just brought my bass to rehearsal the night before and tunned with my phone.  in the next morning, we drove 1.5hr to the venue with my pedalboard, and basically the only thing i need for the gig is just the tuner, and maybe a compressor.  by the time i open the bag and found out I have everything in the board but the tunner, then realized i pulled it out for another casual gig like month ago.  gladly the guy at the venue was kind enough to lend me their boss tu-2 pedal.  funny enough that i brought all my floor toys just to pretend cool looking and ended up became stupid.  the setup for the night was ampless by the way.  probably won't get screwed up without a tuner, but it's not going to be fun for sure.

this is the story that basically leads me to look into some alternative to stomp boxes, then i found this one from local music store.  $22.99CAD.  brought it home and have it clip on my bn5 and it looked neat.  it's small, clear, and tunes accurate with the instrument unplugged.  these tuner has a piezo pickup at the back that picks up the vibration of the instrument.  only the low b string turns out not as responsive but can work that out by either plugging the string really hard or play a harmonic note.  i also tried it on one of my fretless bass to see how bad my intonation is.  this is just great.  next mission will be trying it out for rehearsal and gigs.

i would still to go with a pedal tuner if possible, i don't think they will be replaced by these headstock ones, just that in these days i really don't feel neccessary for having a rack / benchtop tunner anymore.  all the pedal ones can tune so accurate (+/- 0.5cent), most of them are claimed they are 'true bypass', some has multiple input, and some even tunes all the strings at once.  but wouldn't it be nice to have one of these little guy sitting in the gigbag or stay on th headstock?   at $22.99CAD each.

 http://www.planetwaves.com