Shar Neon Clip-On Tuner

Terrific!

I haven't been able to use my tuner yet because the manual is so small, even with a magnifying glass, i can barely read it so right now it's sitting on my desk until the sun comes up and I have enough light to magnify the teensy print.

I just purchased 40 of these to use for my orchestra class. I was worried they would not really work for bass, but they work for all of my instruments.

I used to always have the students tune by ear to help learn to listen for intonation, but I am learning that the visual aid of the clip on tuner helps them find the note and can help accommodate tuning by ear over time.

I recently started using these when the students play scales. The students were amazed how often they are slightly out of tune (or really out of tune for that matter). The tuner has made scales much more in tune and has already helped my group perform with better intonation over just a few weeks of use.

I have used a box tuner for many years and was not satisfied with it because of its slow response time. At one point had a clip-on tuner but got rid of it because of its response time was even slower. All could really use either one for was tuning of long notes (half notes played at a Largo tempo). I concluded that while these tumners are useful, they probably work better with guitars rather than with bowed strings. Because others wrote favorable reviews, I decided to give the Neon a try. I found it much more responsive and quick to tune. I can use it to monitor intonation as I practice. It will pick up quarter notes and even dotted eights at a 100-108 tempo on the metronome. I clip it to the cello's tailpiece right below the fine tuner holes ( I have a wood tail piece with a fine tuner on my A string only) and it works great. On a cello, clipping it to the bridge makes it hard to play, which is why I use the tailpiece, with no lessening of its accuracy. The screen is easy to read and it is by far the best of the three tuners I have used. This one really seems to be developed for use on the violin family of string instruments.

A good tool to have to tune my beginners' viola. I just don't believe in tuning by ears. Why? Sure, knowing the notes by ears is good. But why complicate things? Use this tuner instead to quickly tune your instrument. That way, you can use your time to
practice and get better. Tuner is easy to use. It has an on/off button. It does use a flat round battery that are also used on wristwatches.