Advice please - which tuner?

[chas]

My guitar was tuned at the shop when I bought it, earlier this year, surely if they did it properly that should save having to go to the expence of buying a tuner!

Very good!

[cockroach]

I find I still get good results from the "A" tuning fork I bought in 1967...been in my guitar case ever since...

Anyway, why worry, unless you have a keyboard player in the band? Just make sure you all (guitars,bass) at least tune to the same pitch!!!

As long as you are all in tune with each other!

[5tratocaster]

The thing to look for in the specification is the accuracy figure. This is usually given in cents, plus or minus. A cent is one-hundredth of a semi-tone.
A lot of the floor pedals, including the Boss TU2, are only accurate to about 3 cents, but it is generally considered that the average human can detect a difference of between 1 and 2 cents, so with something like this, the tuner will only get you close, leaving you to fine tune by ear.
This isn't what I wanted and I had to search to find a tuner that had all the features that I needed, was sturdy enough to carry around all the time and was accurate to less than 0.5 cents, since I reckon I've got a good ear. I also wanted it to operate over a wide frequency range so that I could use it for intonation setting.
I have found that the Planet Waves Strobe-on-String is the most accurate I've come across for open string tuning and I now use that for a quick set-up at the local Guitar Club. It is accurate to around 0.1cent which rivals more expensive strobe tuners like Petersons. However, its functionality is limited to tuning open strings to EADGBE, so I'm still searching for one to help me with intonation, preferably with an analogue meter, which I prefer to the rows of LEDs that most seem to have.
The best looking ones I've seen are the Sonic Research Turbo Tuners, which have been around in the States for a couple of years but don't seem to have found their way over to the UK yet. They don't have analogue meters, but the tuning method looks effective and they are very accurate, seem well built and there is a foot pedal version.
Geoff

[roger bayliss]

The Boss TU-2 is indeed +/- 3 cents and the Boss TU-5 the one I use is +/- 1 cent ....