SnarkVerb

Lerxst

spaghetti and blankets
Reverb.com tuner showed up today so I thought it would interesting to compare the $1 clip on tuner to the $8 SN-1 Snark tuner

Reverb LT-21 specs:
A4 Freq 440Hz
Chromatic
Accuracy: -+1 cent
CGBVU mode selection

Snark SN-1 specs:
A4 Freq 440Hz (415-466)
Chromatic
Accuracy: -+1 cent
Tap tempo metronome
Pitch calibration/Flat tuning/Transpose


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Even though the faces are similar in size & display area there are some key physical differences.

Snark: The stalk is longer and it's a pro & con. Pro: you have more positioning options when it's clipped (as you'll see later) Con: it's more fragile. The clip on the Snark opens wider.

Reverb is a more compact unit.
 
Tuning Performance : Snark by a mile

The Snark locked into the note faster, was much more consistent & held the note longer as it decayed than the Reverb unit. Not to say the Reverb unit is a bad tuner but it jumps around a bit more and the Snark is just all around superior where the rubber meets the headstock.

Display: Snark

Oddly enough I lost a couple areas on the display of my Snark in the middle of this comparison as you can see in the next two pics. Still, the Snark was easier to read, partially due to the Reverb tuner being backlit. The Snark's higher contrast display is easier for me to read in different lighting conditions.

Note that due to the design of the Reverb tuner, I could not orient it correctly behind the headstock.

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I actually had to take a number of shots to get them both displaying the same reading due to how much the Reverb tuner jumped around.
 
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In conclusion, the Reverb tuner isn't a bad tuner, it's performance and design just falls short of the Snark. For $1, it's a killer deal. The Snark really out performs it and has a number of additional features (most of which I honestly don't use) & is well worth the additional 7 bucks if you're in the market for a cheap clip on tuner.
 
The Reverb one is OK. I've been using it at work and its about 95% on. Still a great buy for $1.
 
Nice review. Honestly though I would not have gotten this kind of clip on tuner if it had been more than a $1. My Reverb tuner doesn't seem to jump around much though :shrug:
 
Nice review. Honestly though I would not have gotten this kind of clip on tuner if it had been more than a $1. My Reverb tuner doesn't seem to jump around much though :shrug:

After reading your comment, I went back and played around w/ the Reverb by itself & with the Snark again. Alone, it's more stable. One thing I did notice was that it reads slightly different depending where it's clipped on the headstock of my Reverend. When both the Snark and the Reverb are clipped on & near each other, the Reverb becomes less stable but the Snark's performance isn't impacted.
 
When I first started playing I carried a tuning fork, and even with that me and my buddies would sit around and tune for a half hour before we were all even close. Then sure as shit, someone would have one string out of tune and couldn't hear it. Then some wacko would show up with a 12 string and fuck everything up.
The new tiny tuners are a miracle and a bargain at any price.
 
The Snark doesn't like the competition and is trying to mess with it to get a competitive advantage :lol:

Took out my acoustic and tuned the low E w/ the GStrings app on my phone. Reverb on the bass side of the HS & Snark on the treble side. When the Reverb was set to G, it wasn't able to lock in...flipped it over to C and it was fine:
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...and the Snark's display is fine again.
 
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