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| Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner | 
 enlarge | Brand: Korg
Category: Musical Instruments
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $9.45
You Save: $25.50 (73%)
Buy New from $9.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  (28 reviews)
Sales Rank: 10
Color: black
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5 x 2.5 x 1
MPN: CA-30
Model: Korg CA30
UPC: 603384021878
EAN: 0603384021878
ASIN: B000BBRZ3S
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 26-28 of 28 | | « PREV | | |
 From the Ice-Age to the New-Age for cheap! July 29, 2006
45 out of 53 found this review helpful
A Little History:
I have been a guitar player for forty-odd (some of them, VERY odd) years. For the first thirty of them, I tuned by ear - starting by guessing at what a low E sounded like, then tuning the other five strings by fretting, listening and tuning. I could never understand why the tuning often sounded perfect for one chord, yet remained `off' for others... it took quite a long time to get it right. Then, about ten years ago, I thought I had figured it out. The problem (I thought) was that my guesses at a true "E" were off - so I got myself an "E" tuning fork (320 cycles) and used it to tune the first string. Then, I did as I had always done - fretted and tuned the other five. Not much better as a result - kept having to tune and retune for quite a while to get all chords to sound right. During those years, I tried tuning all six strings to (what I believed was an accurately tuned) piano as well as by ear to tones available online. Nothing gave me better tuning on the first try. Then, I saw an ad for a Chromatic Tuner and lightening struck.
The Realization:
There have been many - each of which has led me closer to what I have now - near perfect tuning on the first go `round! First off, I realized that when we say "E", that is not just one note. It is a range of literally hundreds - perhaps even thousands- of specific tones. The same is true for every note. This is akin, I guess, to the realization as a child, that no matter how many shades of `blue' are in a box of crayons, the chanced of having the precise shade you want for a specific drawing are rare. Purchasing my first Chromatic Tuner (a CT440, manufactured by SwitchMucic and sold through MusiciansFriend.com) moved me a long way along the continuum of learning and accurate tuning. However, that tuner had at least two limitations. Firstly, it's construction is rather light and flimsy - it works OK, but has a second limitation that conaused me to buy the Korg (for about the same price) That is that the Korg has a built in tone generator and speaker allowing the option of tuning that way rather than having only the single option of having tones made by the instrument read and metered back to you. Both tuners have plug-in for electric instruments, and, so far as I can tell, their accuracies are similar. I prefer the Korg for the reasons I have mentioned. Additionally, the Korg can be manually recalibrated for special tuning needs - and `remembers' the original tuning/tones so you can return to it for more `standard' usage. A nice, extra piece of flexibility. The LCD meter is easy to read and colored lights tell you, right away, whether you are sharp, flat (and by how much!) or right on!
As a point of surprising interest, the tuning fork I had used for years turns out to be profoundly FLAT! A shock to me - given that I had grown up learning that tuning forks gave off perfect tones! I have saved it as a reminder that all things are not what they are promoted to be. I guess the round pitch pipe that Ms. Sweeny used to tune up the class in the 5th grade was probably not quite as precise as she would have presumed!
And Finally:
This is a marvelous little (and inexpensive) device - well constructed, accurate and flexible to allow for many different tuning need situations and circumstances. I assume that there will be still higher places for my `learning curve' in this area to rise to - but for right now, this is it. I am using it, regularly, on all my stringed instruments (two six-string Martins, a twelve string Epiphone and a frailing banjo. The time it saves tuning the 12-string alone makes it more than it's own price!)
If you have not discovered Chromatic Tuning (maybe I really WAS the last one to discover these things!?), I suggest you do so immediately and spend your time enjoying the pleasures of making music rather than sitting in frustration trying to adjust the tunings by ear so it sounds `really' right. Perhaps people with `perfect pitch' can do very nicely without a Chromatic Tuner - I am not one of them. Are you?
It's a really great item for it's price July 27, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It did everything i wanted it to do: tune
it's small
and you can calibrate the frequency
and it was fairly cheap too.
 Works, but its very Fragile January 6, 2006
20 out of 26 found this review helpful
This tuner works fine, if you accept the fact that a digital tuner will always give you 'discrete' markings (i mean 'stepped' markings). The downside is that it is somewhat fragile, since it fell out of my pocket to the floor (3.5ft height), and the display was damaged for good. It's still usable, and it works, but most of the display LEDs are washed out. So I'm rating it 4 stars only.
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