The violin remains one of the best and most intriguing orchestra instruments of all time. It is also the hallmark of the beauty of modern classical music. Violin is the instrument that has been making a name and a place for itself in nearly every genre of music. The instrument has brought (and still bringing) lots of inspiration to musicians and audience alike for centuries.
But when it comes to choosing the ideal tuner for your violin, it can be a challenging task. Many people don’t know what the best violin tuners are.
Read: Complete Violin Accessories
What are the Best Violin Tuners to Buy?
A tuner is a must for a violinist due to the fact that violins don’t come with frets.
How to select the best violin tuner
To select the best violin tuner, you must take certain things into consideration. These are;
Type of Tuner
Basically, there are four types of violin tuners in the market, but choosing the best is going to depend largely on your playing skills/level. It will also depend on what type of violin you are playing. Notwithstanding, the most traditional violin tuner is known as the ‘tuning fork’. After that, you get to see more sophisticated tuners.
Objective-based selection
What you intend to achieve matters a lot, and you have to know that first. If you can hear or play excellent fifths, then what you need is a tuning fork. Get one that plays A440, which will enable you to tune the 3rd string to the tuning fork. To get E-natural, tune the highest string a 5th above. To get D and G, tune the two lower strings a 5th below. If you are looking to get the exact tone of the pitch of your string, go for electric tuners. Your piano can also be very useful in this case.
The clip-on tuner is another type that is attached to your instrument’s scroll for more perfect pitch. Such tuners can assist you in seeing your exact pitch live and learn more about the behavior of your violin as you play. The hybrid violin tuner is another choice which can include all types of gadget, and which supports a metronome.
The bottom line is; once you’re able to get these facts sorted out, you will definitely find a tuner that suits your playing style and skill.
Below are some of the best violin tuners in the market. Read, digest and select the best there is.
13 Best Violin Tuner Reviews and the Best Violin Tuner Brands
1) SN-5 Snark Tuner for Violin, Bass, and Guitar
The Snark brand is one that has a lot of excellent and eye-catching products, especially when it comes to tuners for various instruments. This particular model—the SN-5—features a rounded shape construction. You can easily mount this on your violin, guitar, or bass, either at the back or front of the instrument.
The LCD display is something else. It has a full, bright and easily readable display profile that makes it a top favorite. Although moving the guage at the swivel can become complicated at times, the SN-5 remains a favorite among many buyers for its simplicity and clear examples of use.
At a range of 3.5 x 3.6 x 1 inches in dimensions, the size is just the perfect one and the display is capable of 360 degrees rotation, which enables realistic viewing. It also has a frequency range that is well suited for bass and guitar tuning.
2) Clip-on KLIQ Uber Tuner
This is one of the most beautiful electronic violin tuners in the market. The KLIQ Tuner allows you to spend much of your time playing and less of it tuning–thanks to its precision design. It features a sophisticated microprocessor with a Piezo sensor that is highly sensitive. This ensures that your instrument stays in precise and perfect tune all the time.
For the violinist, information is power, and with the large color display of this tuner, you can easily see what key you are playing–flat, sharp, or dead-right from all sorts of angle. It’s simply amazing how this piece works.
Perhaps, the better part of it is that you can easily make use of it. And considering the fact that tuner directly detects the pitches from vibrations coming from your instrument, you are guaranteed an ambient room noiseless operation all the way.
To cap up the quality, the manufacturer is slapping this with a 3 years guarantee, and you know what that means for your money.
3) Clip-on All Instruments Snark ST-2 Chromatic Tuner
The Snark ST-2 is the type of tuner one can describe as ‘wow,’ due to its range advantage. The tuner comes with a top-notch extended frequency range that makes it suitable for all sorts of instruments you can think of that needs a tuner to play perfectly. Is even quite amazing that you have access to tempo metronome to play with it—just a simple tap, and you are on.
There is internal mic functionality in this tuner that further makes the connection to your instrument solid and reliable. The Snark is fast and easy to tune because of its full-color display. The body of the tuner is painted red, and the LCD display is just large enough for that comfortable and precise reading of your play.
Not every tune features a transpose and pitch calibration altogether; this does. From 415 to 466Hz, the Snark level of calibration is one of the things you can really trust. The soft touch plastic has a quality that amazes users and the ability to switch to rune using Mic or Vibration is simply out of this world.
4) Mugig Clip-on Tuner
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If you are looking for a tuner that supports multiple tuning, Mugig is your answer. The tuner comes with versatile functionality which makes it workable with Violin, Guitar, Ukulele, and Bass. The tuner read pitches using its highly sensitive and precise vibration detection. The rate at which it responds is very fast and encouraging.
Background noise doesn’t affect the tuner, and it’s ideal for chaotic and loud environmental play. This tuner also has a pitch calibration that ranges from 430HZ to 650HZ.
The Mugig tuner needs just a single battery to operate and the information on the LCD screen display is very easy to read and digest. Thanks to the 38 percent wider view display capability. Everything about this tuner, including the exterior construction, is well made.
5) Chromatic Clip on Real Tuner
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As the name implies, you can go ‘Real’ and play real using this tuner mounted on your violin, ukulele, guitar or cello. From a distant, you will in love it for this one tuner. Thanks to its sty.ish and beautiful design, the Real Tuner provides an easy to read, a bright full-color display for the beginner or professional violinists. In terms of tuning, it has great accuracy and its sensitivity capturing and responsiveness is precise.
You can easily rotate this tuner 360 degrees and view it from any length and angle of your choice. All the functions that are needed t access it is easily located on the front panel. There are no hidden buttons, and with this tuner, you have come to the end of playing music without the proper tune.
Well, the Real Tuner is designed to serve the interest of beginners and professionals. And with three years guarantee, you can confidently throw in your money and grab this product today. It is even more interesting that you won’t be buying a separate battery for this one.
6) NS Micro D’ Addario Violin Tuner
The Addario is a bit different from the rest tuners on this list. It comes with a lever-lock, non-marring clamp that secures the tuner to the instrument while at the same time, enabling simple application and removal. The tuner comes with a reliable and innovative LCD that has Tri-color reversible backlit which allows the user to tune it even in dark or poorly lit environments.
There is a piezo transducer that is built inside the tuner, and by it, it is able to pick up vibrations coming from the instrument as against relying on sound for detection and tuning. The tuner also possesses visual metronome and its level of calibration is very wide-ranging 410Hz to 480Hz.
NS Addario is very suitable for violin and viola tuning; thanks to its low-profile design. And with its colorful backlit display, the joy and feel will be endless.
7) Clip-on Accurate Donner Guitar/Violin/Ukulele Tuner
A product that is built to last is a product that is reliable. The Donner Tuner is designed with materials that are durable and resistant to wear and tear. Whether you are a beginner o professional violinists, this tuner is for you.
I like the fact that you can easily read what is written on the LCD display. To make it even more simple for the user, just one button controls the entire device. You only need to clip it, turn it on and boom—you are ready to go.
The LCD display mechanism is rotational and it’s very bright, just enough for you to see what you are playing and the tune you are maintaining. You can view the information from a different angle of choice. The Donner tuner also makes use of high-quality sensitive vibration detection which enables the user to have precise information.
The Donner comes with a questionnaire for users, a 1-year warranty, and guarantee for your buying safety. You couldn’t have gotten it better.
8) Rechargeable Clip-on Tuner
The sole advantage of this tuner over the rest is the rechargeable battery it comes with. This means you will never have to worry about buying another battery for your tuner for a very long time. Whenever the battery runs out, just recharge and keeps using it. The tuner comes with a USB cable which you can use in charging the battery. The battery time use can last for 5 hours of constant use on a single charge.
Another inclusion is the energy saving mechanism that shut the tuner down when you are idle for 3 minutes. At a weight of 0.8 ounces, you know this is one lightweight option, which also measures 1.2 x 13 x 3.1 inches in dimensions. Thanks to the color display that rotates 360 degrees, you can have a perfect and clear view of what you are playing.
The violin is not the only instrument you can tune with this tuner. All extended stringed instruments are within range of this tuner. You can mount it on any position on the headstock without any dead spot.
9) Rechargeable Artisan Guitar & Metronome Tuner
The best violin tune should be able to support a wide range of instruments, and this is exactly what this one does. The tuner features a chromatic mode and 12 tuning preset, plus 88 notes range—A0 to C8.
Like most of the tuners we have listed here, this one also comes with high sensitivity and accurate vibration detection technology. This helps in giving the user a perfect tuning even in the nosiest surrounding.
The LCD provides a vivid view of what it’s being played due to the ability of the 360 degrees. You can place the tuner on any area of the instrument and still get a perfect view of the LCD display.
Another good thing about this tuner is the loud metronome tuner it comes with. You can pick up the volume to a range of 100dB and enjoy the BPM range (30-250), 9 beats, 8 rhythms, and more.
10) Colorful Viola Eno Professional Violin Tuner
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Once mounted on your violin, this may give you the feel and look of a sniper going back to World War 2 (pardon my pun). The Eno Professional Tuner features a highly colorful LCD Display design that perfectly indicates the string number as well as the note. The device is shaped in a portable square frame, and when you see ‘Yellow’ on the screen, know you’re playing flat, while ‘Red’ indicates sharp.
Versatility is what set this violin tuner from a host of others in the market as you can also use it with your viola, cello and Bass-along chromatic tuning mode. The tuner is very easy for the budding violinist to use and it’s designed to be attached to the pegbox so it doesn’t interfere with your play.
The control on this tuner is easier and the sensitivity level is just perfect. Don’t forget also that this model comes with a battery included.
11) Clip-on Tuner Digital
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Well, this tuner proves to be very competitive—thanks to its flawless visibility and solid construction. You will instantly fall in love with the multi-tuning functionality. The body features a solid and durable plastic design that scientifically constructed to ensure no break during use. We like the fact that the user can also clip it on and turn it on in the simplest way ever.
The tuner also features high sensitivity sensation capability that makes it fast and accurate in detecting and responding vibrations. It is immune to background noises and is perfect for the chaotic and loud environment.
The chromatic, accurate tuning also means that you don’t need cables and sound for detection. The added battery and automatic shut off function further increase its reliability.
12) Matrix Chromatic 3D Clip-on Tuner
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Did you get the name? It’s a 3D chromatic tuner–one that is simply amazing in function and in look. Just like most of the tuners we have on this list, the Matrix is also a versatile option. Apart from your violin, you can also use it to tune your guitar, cello, ukulele, bass and more. It is a revolutionary design that offers amazing and unbeatable performance in keeping all your instruments in perfect tune and ready-to-play level.
The tuning range on the Matrix is from BO to B7 while the calibration ranges from 436 to 445Hz. The product ranges from 2 x 1 x 2 inches in dimensions, which is highly compact for the job at hand. The rotation is also encouraging; it can rotate to any angle of your choice.
Matrix also included a battery in this device, and if you have bass or lead guitar, along with your violin, nothing should stop you from enjoying precise tuning. The display on the tuner is out of this world, very quick to set up and easy to configure.
13) Flexion Meideal Tuner
The Meideal tuner is very portable. It is the type you can easily fix and operate on your instrument. Meideal is designed to be versatile and compatible with all forms of acoustic and electronic stringed instruments.
The user is able to achieve fast and accurate reading due to the fact that the tuner also features a highly precise and sensitive vibration detection capability. As for the LCD screen, it is the type you can view from all angles due to its ability to rotates 360 degrees.
The display of the LCD is also clear, very bright and easy to read. The contrast and the wide angle settings provide decent visibility. Measuring 4 x 4 x 1 inches in dimensions shows that this is highly portable and reliable.
Choosing the Best Violin Tuner from the Best Violin Tuner Brands
The violin is a unique instrument that is needed to be played aright. The only way you can achieve good play is to have perfect tuning, which is only possible by using a tuner. So if you are wondering how or by what means you can tune your violin, this article should help you.
The best tuner should be able to provide you with clear visibility, easy readings, compact features and easy to mount and turn on at any time. While rechargeable tuners may save you money on the long run, it doesn’t mean the rest can’t be used.
Just know how to tune your violin before purchasing any tuner. Otherwise, a tuner would become useless and pointless to you.