Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Guitar Tuners, Alas

Is it just me or do guitar tuners break at a rate of knots these days?
The worst ones seem to be Snarks which, in spite of their funky look and comical name, last for a gig and a half before conking out.
Because Snarks are so useless, I tried another brand and found that it was happy to tune three of the strings, but not the other three.
This, I think, is a genius stroke of engineering that ought to win the Nobel Tuning Prize, but isn't very useful for an ordinary musician trying to tune an ordinary guitar at an ordinary gig.
I have recently been reduced to
twingTWING twingTWING twingTWING twingTWING 
tuning the old-fashioned way, comparing string to fretted string.
This is fine at the beginning of the gig but disastrous halfway through because the gig turns into an experimental music event that wasn't advertised on the posters.
I have a very ancient battery tuner that is held together by a sawn-off knitting needle. It never went wrong and always worked; cruelly, it was relegated to the bottom of the bits-bag when the swanky Snark came along and took its place.
Old tuner, you are about to be refreshed with a new battery, forgiven, and clipped on to my guitar headstock once more. Never again will I snicker at your eccentric knitting-needle hinge; you know how to do your job, and that is what matters.

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