Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I have a few of these around. I liked them. Notice the past tense.

They are very convenient. Reasonably accurate as well. But I had to change the battery in one, and now it won't turn on. I found a few YouTube videos describing a problem with the batteries not fitting and a few similar posts on an assortment of other sites.

So, I'm going to be switching tuners out to something I hope will be more reliable.

But I'm curious. Anyone else here have a problem with these tuners?

I've had one for about 4 years. I asked the guys at Sam Ash which tuner they preferred and they recommended Snark. I'm happy with it, haven't used it that much. changed the battery once , worked. second battery died when my son thought it was a microphone (kids. SHEESH! ). it's a great design but a royal PITA to find the new batteries.

aiki_mcr wrote:I have a few of these around. I liked them. Notice the past tense.

They are very convenient. Reasonably accurate as well. But I had to change the battery in one, and now it won't turn on. I found a few YouTube videos describing a problem with the batteries not fitting and a few similar posts on an assortment of other sites.

So, I'm going to be switching tuners out to something I hope will be more reliable.

But I'm curious. Anyone else here have a problem with these tuners?

are you sure you got the right battery and put it in right? It could be that the battery was dead when you bought it. Those things will sit in the store a long time. I find that the jewelry department of Walmart has the best selection for those batteries.

Did you get the tuner capo?

Yeah. I'm sure it's the right battery.

So I figured I couldn't make things worse, so I opened the tuner up and bent the battery contacts out a little and it worked for a while. The battery is brand new, just out of the package.

aiki_mcr wrote:Yeah. I'm sure it's the right battery.

So I figured I couldn't make things worse, so I opened the tuner up and bent the battery contacts out a little and it worked for a while. The battery is brand new, just out of the package.

I've bought batteries that were sealed in the package and yet bad.

Its just another possibility based on the limited info given.

Really, I have my answer. It was mostly about curiosity. A Google search reveals that the problem I'm seeing is alarmingly common, but the "tips" I found for dealing with it were, um, unhelpful. I was mostly interested if anyone here had seen the problems and what they have done about it. FWIW: Out of three Snark tuners, only one has had a problem. The other two work fine.

No biggie. I bought a new tuner (sadly, another Snark because that's what I could find immediately). I'm researching other clip-on tuners.

TC Electronics makes a couple that look great.

Korg makes one designed especially for bass. I like the look of that one. But it's expensive.

funny. stick around kid. you just might learn something.

aiki_mcr wrote:Really, I have my answer. It was mostly about curiosity. A Google search reveals that the problem I'm seeing is alarmingly common, but the "tips" I found for dealing with it were, um, unhelpful. I was mostly interested if anyone here had seen the problems and what they have done about it. .

Actually my answer all along would have been "if the batteries work, then get a new one...maybe try a different brand" Snarks are only about $20

I've got a half-dozen of them. Now they make the capo tuners for the same price as the non-capo ones.