Snark SN-2 All Instrument Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
Click here to see the SN-2 tuner
We’ve discussed guitar tuners before here at Beginners Electric Guitar. They are an essential addition to any guitarists equipment list, be they beginner, intermediate or professional. You simply cannot expect to sound good and be taken seriously as a musician if your instrument is not in tune.
There are many guitar tuners on the market but today we’re going to take a look at a particular favourite of ours, the Snark SN-2 All Instrument Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
As the name would suggest, this particular tuner is suitable for all instruments which is great because it means that if you play guitar, bass guitar, banjo, mandolin or other such instruments you will be able to tune them all with this one great product.
Straight out of thew box, one of the fundamental features of this tuner that makes it so good is the fact that it is of the clip-n variety with a built in vibration sensor and microphone. What this means is that you can clip it on to any part of the aforementioned instruments, leaving your hands free to sound the strings and adjust the tuning pegs accordingly without having to plug in jack lead and without the trouble of having to rest the tuner on your lap or another surface like you have to do with many other models of guitar tuner.
It is because of this that there tends to be a greater degree of accuracy with clip-on tuners. You might have found that other tuners tend to get confused by extraneous or background noise, well this tends not to happen with such tuners as the Snark because it is sensing the vibration that it is getting from its direct contact with the musical instrument.
The rubber coating on the clamps mean that you can clip the tuner on to your instrument without fear of damaging it.
The lower jaw of the clamp is in fact hinged allowing the SN-2 tuner
As for the face of the tuner, it is a great size and features an excellently vibrant colour display, allowing you to clearly see the note you are playing and whether or not it is tune.
Many other tunes feature a very basic, bland LCD display which makes tuning up in dark places and low light situations, like those backstage, incredibly difficult.
It is powered by a very reliable 3-volt CR2032 Lithium battery which is actually the same battery that a lot of computers use for their clocks and which can also be found in many handheld devices, so you can be sure of their reliability and longevity.
The head is actually fixed to the clamp with a ball joint which allows for convenient tilting and 360 rotation
The unit is lightweight and a good size allowing for it to be not all intrusive or heavy on you rguitar’s headstock. You can even leave it on the guitar while you play so that you can monitor your tuning between songs or change tunings as your set requires. It can be kept in a a gig bag
and carried everywhere.
Because the tuner has extended range it will tuner notes beyond the standard EADGBE tuning of a guitar, which is what makes it so useful for tuning other instruments.
Snark themselves describe this tuner as one that “Tunes Tighter So You Sound Better”.
This quite a statement but it is one that is absolutely true.
I have had many good guitar tuners but I did sometimes have problems with the accuracy whereby I would have the turn the tuning pegs quite a way before the tuner would pick up the change in frequency. With the Snark this is a thing the past and I now only need to to turn teh tuning pegs a minimal amount for the tuner to register the change in frequency which means that I am more in tune than I have ever been before and the results are certainly audible.
Features
- Full colour display
- 360 Degree rotation for easy viewing
- “Stay Put” clip
- Tap temp metronome
- Flat tuning / transpose function
- Picth calibration
- High sensitivy vibration sensor
- Extended frequency range suited to all instruments
- Vibration or microphone option.
