Doing Things Wrong

Snark Tuner

You can't beat the convenience of a clip-on tuner. This is a very good one, sensitive, with a very fine readout, good enough even to set intonation. However, it has one very bad feature. It devours batteries. A device like this with no mechanical on/off switch is always on, waiting to sense you press the button. It seems like every few weeks this thing wants another 2032, regardless of whether it was even used. The solution to that is to pull the battery whenever you are not using it, but I forget, and the next time I pick it up, it wants a new one.

I think my old Korg tuner is still running on the AAA batteries it came with.

This one is kind of a joke and an experiment in just how cheap you can build a guitar. The body is dry-erase board over plywood - no finish - with Tolex side binding. Dry-erase board is Masonite covered with Melamine. The neck is 100% Radiata pine, even the fretboard. The "inlays" are glitter and CA glue. The pickguard is the other side of the dry-erase board - 'chalkboard'. The pickup mount is a 57 cent switch plate.