What kind of tuner should I have

[Luke Single]

I am a new Luthier and I have been getting by with inexpensive chromatic tuners. Korg or Boss. What kind of tuner do the pros use and why? I see a lot of Luthiers and builders use Peterson strobe tuners that are around $200 the blue ones... What will work. I need many tools still so I dont want to drop 2bills or more on a tuner if it is less then a requirement.

[Doug Berch]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've considered that but worried about the weight of the adapter trashing the input. This happened on a recording device I used years ago.

[John]

 Most of the time I use the Forkanear method. For intonation I've been using the Planet Waves desktop Tru-Strobe tuner for a couple of years and I like it.

[Ian Barker]

No mention of the Seiko Sat800, which I like for its big clear display, with numeric display of cents +/- in addition to the needle dial.  Accurate and inexpensive.

[Mark Pollock]

There's a new app on iTunes called "Strobetuner Pro" that is fairly decent, and free. It's a good way to decide if you would want to go that route or not. Not as good as the Peterson app, but pretty decent. It emulates one of the multi-wheel tuners of old.

[J R Emmett]

I use a Boss TU-12H for 90% of my work.  It has an analog needle movement that provides excellent feedback during intonation adjustments.  It has been replaced by the TU-12EX.  The only issue I've ever had was when a customer stepped on it and broke the input jack solder joint.  No big deal - fixed in 10 minutes.  Other than that, it's like my Boss pedals - built to survive the apocalypse and likely to outlive me.

 

I do use a Peterson StroboFlip (also now out of production) for high accuracy work but the TU-12H is easier to use, IMHO and very affordable.  Perterson customer service is professional and turns repairs around quickly. 

[Robbie Collins]

I'd like to also praise the Peterson Strobosoft app for iPhone and iPad. I use my old iPhone 3 as a dedicated tuner. I looked at the Petersons recently but their Strobo-Flip replacement is butt ugly and the orange screen hard on my eyes.