Why the Snark Tuner Rules

Guitardedblog.com

 Now I'm not the world's greatest guitarist, I'm just some dude who struggles to stay mentally sane and playing the guitar is the only thing in the world I enjoy doing, and I'm aware I probably don't even play that well, but the one thing I hate is when I either see someone play live or on Youtube or something and they're out of tune.

  When I was a kid just starting to learn seriously around '86-'87, the only way I was able to tune my guitar was either to tune to the music I was listening to on cassette, tune to the piano at school or tune to whatever friend of yours sounded the most in tune. That way you might still be out of tune but at least you're all in tune together.

  I'm not the smartest person in the world either, and I never figured out pitch pipes or tuning forks, I could never afford the plug in electronic tuners, and honestly I was always hit or miss with the whole fifth fret tuning method. It all depended on the low E. If I was by myself I had no way to tell if that was in tune so whatever I decided was "in tune" for the Low E, the other strings would be tuned accordingly.

  I was always out of tune for various reasons, having electric strings on my acoustic guitar because I couldn't afford an electric and I really wanted to rock out. No one ever taught me how to properly put strings on the guitar either, which meant whenever I was in tune it wouldn't be for very long.

  I'm a halfway descent player after almost 30 years but, I don't have what you would call, "manual dexterity." I'm not mechanically inclined, not good at working with my hands, am physically clumsy and I can f*ck up a cup of coffee. I am aware of how to properly put strings on the guitar "in theory" but I still can't get it right. Luckily for me my local music store just charges me an extra five bucks to put my strings on whenever I buy them. I'm more than willing to pay an extra five bucks for the convenience.

  I've noticed alot of people, especially professionals take what I (no offense intended) call a kind of "gearhead mentality" to their guitars, kind of like they would their cars. You all know that one guy in your neighborhood who spends all weekend in the garage working on their car. That seems to be a whole other discipline in the world of guitar playing, that I never learned. Thats cool if you're into that, you're the guys I take my stuff to, when I need work done. I guess my guitar is like my car. I just drive my car, I don't need to know every nut and bolt. I turn the key it starts. I pick up the guitar and strum and it plays. Thats all I need to know.

Ok so back to guitar tuners...

  The Snark is less than 30 bucks and its easy as hell to use. Just clip it on the headstock, make sure its on there good, there's only one button on it, press it and now its on and thats pretty much it. 

Told you it was easy!