# what's a good tuner for setting intonation?



## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

?

I need something accurate enough to set intonation on gtrs, what's out there?

thx!


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## bluezombie (May 7, 2007)

My teacher had a white Boss pedal that was extremely accurate and well-constructed. I'm sure another member here would know exactly what it is or may even suggest something better.

Good luck in your search


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## pattste (Dec 30, 2007)

bolero said:


> ?
> 
> I need something accurate enough to set intonation on gtrs, what's out there?
> 
> thx!


I am surprised at the recommendation of the white Boss TU-2 pedal. They are not very precise tuners at +/- 3 cents. They will work for live use but I wouldn't use them for precision work.

On of the most precise tuner on the market would have to be the Turbo Tuner at +/- 0.02 cents. Another company with good market share is Peterson although I find their pedals ugly and unreliable.

I use a Korg Pitchblack and find the accuracy (+/- 1 cent) is good enough, though not as good as the Turbo Tuner obviously.

If you do that kind of work a lot, a pedal tuner may not be the most convenient form factor either.


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

I've been using a Snark clip on tuner for intonation lately. I find it to be very accurate, extremely responsive and best of all cheap.


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## FrankyNoTone (Feb 27, 2012)

I think any chromatic tuner (shows all notes) would work. I use an Apex clip on and check all the "dotted frets"  to come up with a compromise setting. It didn't take me long to realize that guitars are crap as stable, precision instruments anyways so I don't think its worth being too anal about it.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Yep, I just use my TC Electronic Polytune, works fine.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

pattste said:


> I am surprised at the recommendation of the white Boss TU-2 pedal. They are not very precise tuners at +/- 3 cents. They will work for live use but I wouldn't use them for precision work.
> 
> *On of the most precise tuner on the market would have to be the Turbo Tuner at +/- 0.02 cents.* Another company with good market share is Peterson although I find their pedals ugly and unreliable.
> 
> ...


+1 on the Turbo Tuner. Very accurate and reliable. Best pedal tuner in the market. I also have both the Pitchblack and the Strobostomp which is as already mentioned unrelaible.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

My old Korg rack mount tuner works fine for this, but there never was an intonation job that didn't require a tweak by ear. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## The_Penguin (Feb 26, 2012)

bolero said:


> ?
> 
> I need something accurate enough to set intonation on gtrs, what's out there?
> 
> thx!


I use the Peterson Strobo-Stomp. Very accurate. That said, I bought a cheap ($14.00 I think) Snark tuner for my acoustic, and after using it, I kinda regret paying the big $$ on the Peterson. The Snark is dang good, and stupid cheap. Accurate enough to do intonation? maybe, but I haven't really tested it.


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## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

I'm kinda' partial to the analog tuners.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

If you have a tuner that has a tolerance of +/- 1 cent, you should be good. After all is said/done, you'll notice you can vary the reading by 2-3 cents just with finger pressure alone with most meatier frets. Intonation doesn't have to be super precise and in fact, with many guitars is impossible to get intonation set at 100% on each/every string because of design limitations. Close enough is close enough in many cases...


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I use my Korg DTR-1 rack tuner set to strobe for intonation purposes.


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## doriangrey (Mar 29, 2011)

sulphur said:


> Yep, I just use my TC Electronic Polytune, works fine.


I just traded in my Boss TU-2 and bought a PolyTune a week ago and I totally love the Polytune - and I believe it's accurate to +/- .5 cents, which will be fine for setting intonation  the Boss TU-2 I had before was only accurate to +/- 3 cents I believe...


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## theelectic (Mar 11, 2006)

If you do the computer recording thing, I like to use this:

Strobe Tuner for Mac OS X - 12-note chromatic scale strobe tuner


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