Clip on tuner - which one?

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I have the TC Polytune Clips, and the Peterson StroboClip HD tuners.

The Polytune is great for checking all the strings at once and I’ll bounce back and forth from string to string adjusting quickly. Most of my guitars have floating trems so adjusting one string affects the pitch of another so the tuner lets me see which strings are still off very quickly.

The Peterson is more flexible, with custom and sweetened tunings.

I think the battery lasts longer on the TC but not by a whole lot.
 
I have used the TC Electronic polytune clip-on tuner for years. I work full time as a guitar teacher, so i put the tuner on 15 different guitar each day. Many other tuners broke after a year, but TC Electronic tuners with their metal parts is rock solid. It's also really responsive.
 
I have about 4 Polytune Clip ons scattered through the house, best clip on tuner Ive found for quick spot checking before playing. I had a snark and threw it out, Didn't like it thought it was a POS. I still have some of the little Dadarrio clip ons as well but I don't use them. When I do my setups though it Peterson all day.
 
PatrickWD said:
TC Electronic tuners with their metal parts is rock solid
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I was playing one night, and the bass player turned and one of the tuners on his bass hit the TC squarely on the side where the halves of the plastic meet, popping it open. I'd never seen that before, but I reached up, squeezed them together and it's been fine ever since. Another of my TCs (I have six?) eventually loosens so it won't hold its angle when clipped to the headstock, but a quick turn with a screwdriver fixes it.

I compare that to the original Peterson StrobeClip that was a complex thing that'd break and Peterson sent two repair kits for it when I asked about how to fix it.
 
I feel like my TC Polytune eats batteries. And they aren't something you probably have extras of if you use your last, so that kind of sucks.

Also, I thought the battery was bad on mine, and opened it up and tried another, which also didn't work. Like it would light a second or two then go out. So I finally realized the case, or something was coming slightly apart, so squeezed it back together and the original battery was fine, but seems like the battery floats around in there. I've got a small wad of paper in there holding it in place.

Maybe it's all related. Probably will get something different when this dies.
 
spagthorpe said:
I feel like my TC Polytune eats batteries. And they aren't something you probably have extras of if you use your last, so that kind of sucks.

Also, I thought the battery was bad on mine, and opened it up and tried another, which also didn't work. Like it would light a second or two then go out. So I finally realized the case, or something was coming slightly apart, so squeezed it back together and the original battery was fine, but seems like the battery floats around in there. I've got a small wad of paper in there holding it in place.

Maybe it's all related. Probably will get something different when this dies.
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I have done the same with the battery on mine. There’s slightly too much room in the battery compartment, but using a tiny piece of paper behind the battery solves the issue.
Battery life on mine is great though. I tune 15 guitars every day in addition to tuning my own guitar a couple of times and my battery usually lasts a couple of months.
 
I have a Peterson Stoboclip that I use on my acoustics (and when changing strings on electrics) and I like it except the pin that joins the clip to the body broke within a month of me owning it (3 years ago I believe). I put a twist tie in there and it serves my purposes. The battery on the Peterson was going pretty quick, but I found that if I totally power it down rather than just letting it auto shut off seems to have extended it's life to an acceptable level. I purchased a snark when I bought a cheap Gretsch last year and it seemed ok, but that guitar and tuner live in another location that I only get to a couple of times a year, so no extensive experience with it.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I was playing one night, and the bass player turned and one of the tuners on his bass hit the TC squarely on the side where the halves of the plastic meet, popping it open. I'd never seen that before, but I reached up, squeezed them together and it's been fine ever since. Another of my TCs (I have six?) eventually loosens so it won't hold its angle when clipped to the headstock, but a quick turn with a screwdriver fixes it.

I compare that to the original Peterson StrobeClip that was a complex thing that'd break and Peterson sent two repair kits for it when I asked about how to fix it.
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I wish I knew that! I loved the original Peterson but had a part of the clip break. Since I couldn’t use it any more I threw it out.

Now I have the TC and the newer Stroboclip. The TC gets more use but the Peterson gets used when I want more accuracy. If I had to choose one I’d be happy with either.
 
We've used Snarks in our band for years with zero issues. I always carry a few because they seem to disappear occasionally but they're cheap and effective. I still use one back stage for a final check before the show then it's all FM9 tuning from there. I do recommend checking any tuner against your FAS tuner to make sure they're both true to each other.
 
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