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Where Purchased: Richard Smith
I recently purchased a TC Electronic Unitune Clip Noir tuner with a magnetic base designed to fit on the bracket hooks of a Mastertone style banjo by Richard Smith of South Carolina. He was easy and pleasant to deal with and the tuner/base arrived quickly with no problems.
His magnetic base works great. The magnets are strong enough that the tuner shouldn’t ever come loose, yet is easy to remove or reposition. It is attractively made, unobtrusive and allows the tuner’s angle to be adjusted, if desired. For me, it works best flat on the brackets aiming straight up at my head. Having it on the brackets seems to pick up the pitch very well and the banjo fits in the case with the tuner in place and the strap around it.
The tuner itself works very well. It is quick to respond and accurate. It has two modes, chromatic and strobe. The chromatic is accurate to .5 cent and the strobe to .2 cent. I’ve defaulted to the chromatic setting, which is intuitive and easy to use. The tuner senses which way is up and automatically adjusts the display. It is bright enough to use outdoors and has an auto-shutoff to save the battery. It takes a CR2032 battery, and is advertised as supplying 18 hours of charge.
Richard charges $85 plus $10 shipping. The tuner normally sells for around $35. I was happy to pay the difference for his inventiveness and craftsmanship. I certainly couldn’t have made one myself. I have no relationship with Robert and am just a satisfied customer.
Robert has no website and these are not available elsewhere. If interested you can contact him at Robert Smith The Tuner Man (704) 634-5776.
Please see photos at the links below:
http://judithgeiger.com/saltmartians/img/Tuner1.jpeg
http://judithgeiger.com/saltmartians/img/Tune2.jpeg
Overall Rating: 10
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