Dennis | May 1, 2019

Grateful for the accessible tuner.

For Accessible guitar tuner

I have been using the accessible tuner off and on for the past couple weeks. I applaud the developer for taking on the challenge of developing a tuner that can be used by those who cannot see a tuner screen. There are very few accessible tuners out there and not any that can be used in a noisy environment, which is common for a musician.



The way it works is that you can used the preset guitar tunings or go into a semi-tone mode and pick the tone you want to tune. When the string tone matches the tuning tone, the beeping of the accessible tuner slows or stops.



I have found using the accessible tuner a bit of a challenge. At first it would not work with a set of headphones that I had. It may have been the headphones. After changing out headphones, I could not get the tuner to respond to my guitar with the clip on tuner I attached. This was the brand and model used by the developer. I purchased another clip on attachment tuner and the accessible tuner seems to work better. Through all of this the developer has been very responsive.



I just purchased an external speaker so I do not need to have so many cords, one for the guitar and one for my ears. As I tried the accessible tuner again this afternoon with my guitar I think the tuner is okay at best. I have turned on my accessible iPhone talking tuner to give me some additional feedback. I figured if I get accustomed to the accessible tuner feedback, that I would learn when my guitar is in tune. Maybe after a few sessions with the accessible tuner, I’ll start getting better in understanding when the string is in tune.



The tuner is preset with the guitar string tuning. I play the banjo as well and 3 of the banjo strings match the guitar. It is difficult for me to hear when the guitar string is in tune. I need to listen to the beeps and when they slow down or stop, then the string is in tune. As I tune the string the beeps do stop and start when getting close to being in tune. I check the tuning with my iPhone tuner and it is close. When checking the higher strings like the B and E, I do not get much feedback from the accessible tuner.



If I want to check the tuning of strings on my banjo that do not match the guitar, I can change the accessible tuner to a semi-tone mode. This is pretty rough because I need to move through a lot of tones and hope I did not skip a tone and try to tune a string with a tone that does not match the string.



Positives



· There is a reference tone for each tone so I can hear how the string should sound.



· There is a preset tuning for the guitar



· Each of the ports and switches on the accessible tuner are marked with Braille.



Negatives



· The feedback to let me know the string is in tune is hard to determine



· The semi-tone adjustment is hard to used as stated above



· The packing of the accessible tuner was not very good. The tuner was rolling around in the box.



Suggestions



o There needs to be a positive note or tone that can identify when the string is in tune instead of a slow or faster beeping.



o Some kind of instructions would go a long way,. Maybe I just did not see them.



o The switches and knobs should be a bit smaller so they may not be damaged when taking out for a jam session tuning.



· Summary



I am grateful that someone has taken it upon themselves to create an accessible device for tuning a guitar or any instrument. I am not sure why this is so difficult for the mainstream developers of these types of equipment. Also the price of a device that has been developed for a specific audience in such a small quantity should be a lot more than $50. This is all to the credit of the developer . Given that I do not think the accessible tuner is ready for a product-level offering. It seems like the accessible tuner has a bright future as it is being matured into a product.



I would not have purchased this accessible tuner knowing how it works today. It is not worth sending back given it cost $26 to ship it back. I’ll just mark this up to experience.



I have been informed by the developer that this version of the tuner is out of stock and a newer version would be made available if any more are to be offered for sale.