Electronic tuners for Setting Intonation

[Charles Tauber]

In recent years, I've taken greater interest in improved intonation. The first challenge in doing so is to be able to accurately measure how closely each note is to its desired pitch, ideally the deviation in cents.

In pursuit of this, I've used a few electronic tuners, the best of which have been Peterson's phone application iStroboSoft (on an iPhone) and their Strobo Flip, both of which are digital strobe tuners. The problem with each of these is in reading their displays. The input pitch/note is in tune when the rotating (strobe) display becomes stationary - stops rotating. In practice, this is much more difficult than it sounds - no pun intended. 

Pitches often start sharp and flatten as they decay. Other pitches don't ever yield a stationary display, regardless of the tuning of the note. For many pitches, the strobe becomes something of a random number generator where one simply randomly choses when one thinks the display provides an in-tune pitch. I have not yet contacted Peterson for their input, but might do so. It might simply be I'm using the wrong tools for the job.

My question is, for those doing intonation work beyond simply comparing the 12th fret note to the open string or 12th fret harmonic, what are you using for your detailed measurement of pitches when setting intonation of the entire instrument?

Thanks,

Charles    

[Michael Minton]

I use the Strobosoft Deluxe PC app.  An excellent product.  It even has a tap tuning feature (which I don't rely on exclusively--I use an FFT program too, but Strobosoft gives some additional input.)

[Charles Tauber]

Thanks, Michael, for your response. 

You use Strobosoft Deluxe for acoustic guitars and have no issues with reading the display at any note/fret on the instrument? Have you tried it with nylon-string guitars?

Peterson's website is rather short on details of their products with some links broken. 

Charles

[bkcarnett]

Hi Charles,

I’ve had the same issues with using the strobosoft program on my iPhone. I will be interested to know how others are dealing with this.

Brian 

[sam richards]

I’ve been happy using the ‘Clear Tune’ phone app for adjusting intonation.

Sam

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[Michael Minton]

Hi Charles, I've never used the Strobosoft program on a nylon stringed guitar.

The only issues I've had:

1) when a note decays, sometime the pitch will change slightly.  I've attributed this to the reduced string tension as the string vibration attenuates.

2) on lower notes (low E string and A string low notes) sometimes the octave shows up as the pitch (e.g., 164.81 instead of 82.41 for the low E).  When I do FFT on those pitches, depending on the guitar, the first harmonic can actually have a higher amplitude, so I don't think this is an error.

I have a Peterson mechanical (SC5000) but I never use it anymore since the software is so easy to use.

[Neil Crump]

I just acquired a vintage Conn ST-11 strobotuner, if anyone has interest in just make me an offer @

ncrum...@gmail.com

I hooked it up and compared it to my Snark clip-on--definitely more accurate.

Neil

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[Colin Mack]

The tuner in Ableton stays pretty steady compared to the chromatic tuners I used to have. 

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[Charles Tauber]

Thanks, all, for your input on tuners. 

Charles

[Charles Tauber]

As a follow-up for anyone interested, it appears the issues I was having in getting a stable reading for nylon strings with Peterson electronic tuners is specific to Peterson tuners. I've now tried a few other electronic tuners - on a phone, on a PC and standalone electronic units - and have had no issues in getting consistent, definitive readings that could not be obtained with Peterson tuners. Having used Peterson strobe tuners for years - dating back to the analogue units - I had simply assumed that they were "the best". Seems not so for nylon strings.