TromboneChat

I was in the LMS, picking up some guitar-related merchandise when I saw a nice little Korg AW-LT100T clip on tuner. I’m a bit of a sucker for tuners. This was the model for trumpets and trombones.

How much? I asked.

$60.

Way too much. But then the clerk said But I can let you have it for $20.

I’m a bit of a sucker for deals, too.

So, first of all, I think it is for trumpets and trombones due to the bell attachment. The clip is small, not too springy (unlikely to damage the bell) and would not fit anywhere else on the horn. The tuner is small and unobtrusive.

The specs say the range is from 27.50 Hz to C8, ie 4186 Hz. It’s powered by a single AAA battery, which is nice. Can be calibrated from A = 410 to 480.

The display is clean, simple. Easy to read, even for those of us whose eyesight is changing with age.

It works. No better, no worse, it seems than any other tuner.

Overall, a feeling of decent quality, especially compared with the Snarks but you can use the Snarks on nearly anything. The battery is nice. AAAs are ubiquitous and cheap.

Holy smokes, I understand local shops have to stay in business but that's some insane markup! That's nearly 3x what Amazon charges!

During my student teaching, my supervising teacher had these as well as a number of Korg, Snark, and a couple other similar branded, clip-on tuners (as well as a few non-clip on Korg that had a clip-on microphone. Used them for orchestra every day; because of the way the schedule was setup, the classes were very manageable so he had enough for everyone to have one. Didn't keep them on but for the first few minutes we spent doing tuning stuff. They worked great for stringed instruments.

They work pretty well for brass too. Best part is that they basically don't pick up other students notes so you can tune all at the same time. But yeah, they're great little accessories. As a brass player, the part I like best about them is you can walk around with it and tune so you aren't stuck to a stand. I'd pop on a drone and one of these and walk around the big recital hall back when I was in college with these.