Customer Reviews

Intelli IMT500 Clip-on Chromatic Digital Tuner for Strings

5 star:		(155)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

The Intelli IMT-500--The tuner that killed the Intellitouch!

There are scores of chromatic tuners on the market. Most work by using a small built-in microphone that picks up sound waves. In order to be used effectively, the tuning space must be relatively quiet. Many of these tuners have input jacks that allow electric guitars to be connected directly and tuned by the electronic signal they produce. A bunch of years ago a variety of clip-on-microphones began to be marketed. The microphone could be clipped to any instrument and its cord attach to an electronic tuner. Now, anyone could tune an instrument no matter what the background noise.

Then, the Intellitouch tuner hit the market. The entire tuner clipped onto the instrument. One could tune an acoustic instrument in a noisy environment. There was no cord to deal with and the instrument could stay clipped to the headstock or quickly removed and slid into a pocket or case. Talk about convenience. Jams and festivals (bluegrass, folk, whatever) became seas of Intellitouch tuners.

Intellitouch owned the market even though there were so many situations where they did not work well. In particular, they have trouble with the bass notes of dreadnought sized guitars. The more overtones an instrument produces, the worse the tuner behaves. The bass string of a Martin rosewood dreadnought was near impossible to tune without using one of the many workarounds that owners developed. So, it was very much a love-hate relationship. The shortcomings were huge, but the convenience meant that they were tolerated.

Then, came the Intelli. It was an Intellitouch that worked, if not perfectly, then a whole lot better. The amazing thing is that the switch from Intellitouch to Intelli wasn't gradual. Within six months of its introduction, jams and festivals became seas of Intelli tuners. People were throwing their Intellitouches into drawers (if they weren't lucky enough to find a die hard holdout willing to buy one second-hand) to get the Intelli. That's a considerable investment to abandon. But, why not? The Intelli is half the price of the Intellitouch and works a whole lot better. They are so inexpensive that it's easy to justify getting one for the practice area and one for the case so that you don't have to worry about forgetting to pack it.

Anyone who will ever have to tune an acoustic instrument in a noisy environment will quickly find this tuner indispensable. And it works darn well in a quiet environment, too!

Highly recommended!

I had been studying the Intellitouch line of clip-on tuners for some time but had seen mixed reviews. Recently, I happened to see a short review of the Intelli IMT-500 clip-on tuner. After a bit of study, I decided to give it a try. The body is quite small at slightly greater than 2.25 inches measured diagonally. The meter screen itself is square at about 1.25 inches diagonally. The screen backlighting is quite bright and the scale itself is easily read when looked at straight on with some blurring if viewed at some angles. The scale is typical for many electronic tuners and easily understood. It has a calibration feature which takes it from a 430 to a 449-A reference. It also has a flatting feature for use in tuning with a capo. I have used neither of these features as of yet. When I first used it, there was an irritating rattling sound when I played. I discovered that the three buttons, POWER-LIGHT / FLAT / CALIB, were vibrating in the tuner. I disassembled the unit and using a toothpick, placed a very small amount of clear silicone RTV sealant along the inside edges of these buttons. I left it to cure for a couple of hours and then reassembled it. The rattling was gone and the buttons worked fine. Hopefully this fix will last a while but is easily repeated if needed. I then compared its tuning accuracy with that of a KORG Chromatic Tuner Model CA-30 using a Martin DR acoustic with light bronze strings that have a moderate amount of age on them. With the Intelli dead on, the KORG showed a few cents sharp. This is obviously not enough variance to be concerned about. The placement on the headstock did not seem to effect the tuning at all. The only issue I have thus far is that the tuner has a more difficult time sensing the low E string. However, I have heard that this is common with the clip-on tuners. I know that even my KORG and SABINE both have difficulty in picking up the lower notes. Also, when I get the sixth string tuned it seems a hair sharp to my ear and I took it down 'till it sounded right. I will change the strings out sometime soon and give it another try. Also, I struck a 440-A tuning fork and clipped the tuner on the shaft end of the fork. The tuner registered a dead on 440-A!!
I am pleased with the tuner overall. If it holds up, I believe that it will fit the bill quite well for noisy venues. I gave it 4 stars only because of the rattle. If I can add to this at a later date, I will update my opinion as needed.

1st off, I have 3 months of guitar experience. I barely know the difference between an "A" and an "E". Tuning was a pain because I havnt developed an ear for it yet. I just received the IMT-500 and its great. Just clip it on and pluck a string. It alreaady knows which string you are trying to tune. When the note is in tune, the tuner line is centered and you move on to the next string. I should have bought this when I bought the guitar. Its small, compact, and the screen lights up a bright green and easy to read. Since it works off vibration, its probably more accurate than a microphone tuner and its MUCH more accurate than when I try and match a tune off a tuning fork.

In 20+ years of playing I have never used a tuner and so I was a little concerned about buying this as I had thought I would go for an in-line floor tuner. The situation was that this was readily available to me and so I thought I would give it a go. I am not sorry I did either. I was on tour in the UK and found this very helpful. There are a couple of concerns - already mentioned in previous reviews - the bottom E doesn't always give a reading but this is easily overcome with harmonic of said string. The A seemed to give me a reading of E even though it was an A - didn't find this a problem once I knew what it was doing. I guess I am a little concerned about the robustness of it on regular touring.

I found it responsive and easy to read in dimmed light. I use different tunings and found this, together with my ear, an invaluable device especially for that F# in an open D tuning. Overall, on stage it made for quicker retunings and offered me that little extra confidence that I was on mark. I have not used it to record and so cannot say how it fairs across instruments and sessions. However, on stage it proved its worth and I will be using it as regular as I play.

It is definitely worth trying - especially for the price.

I bought this along with my first ukulele. It's also my first tuner, and I was afraid I might have trouble with it; but it's so simple. Just clip it on, pluck the string, and tune up or down until the arrow is right in the center. Excellently designed, lightweight and compact. I love it.

This is a much better tuner than you would expect for the price.
What some people report as a "problem" with the tuner registering the wrong note or having trouble with the low E string isn't really a problem with the tuner but rather the result of the physics of the vibrating string.. All electronic tuners, especially clip ons, that I've seen are subject to this effect to varying degrees, depending on the instrument, and it's very easy to get around it.
What's happening is that the tuner is responding to an overtone of the fundamental tone of the string. This overtone is almost always read as a fifth higher than the pitch of the string (E reads B, A reads E, D reads A, etc.). This is most common on the lower pitched strings where the tuner may "lock in" on the higher pitch. It's very easy to overcome this. Instead of tuning to the open string, play the harmonic at the mid-point of the string (the twelfth fret) which is one octave higher than the pitch of the string. Not only does this raise the pitch of the lower strings, the string is now vibrating at a single pitch without all the overtones associated with the open string. Try it. It works. I would reccomend this approach with any electronic tuner, not just this one or other clip-ons. Note that the misread note on the string is the same note as the harmonic at 1/4 the length of the string (the fith fret).
Incidentally, the wide grip on this tuner along with the rubber pads and easy opening clips make it the only one I've tried tha works well on a fiddle.

Tuners are pretty simple.. and this excels.

Small, always available (on headstock it's out of the way)
Backlit and readable in all lighting conditions.
Accurate and calibratable.
Pretty insensitive to room noise.

It works!!! It's not too expensive..YAY!!

The plastic clip doesn't look necessarily road worthy - but since it hasn't given me any trouble I can't really complain.

tested on : Acoustic Dreadnought body

There are scores of chromatic tuners on the market. Most work by using a small built-in microphone that picks up sound waves. In order to be used effectively, the tuning space must be relatively quiet. Many of these tuners have input jacks that allow electric guitars to be connected directly and tuned by the electronic signal they produce. A bunch of years ago a variety of clip-on-microphones began to be marketed. The microphone could be clipped to any instrument and its cord attach to an electronic tuner. Now, anyone could tune an instrument no matter what the background noise.

Then, the Intellitouch tuner hit the market. The entire tuner clipped onto the instrument. One could tune an acoustic instrument in a noisy environment. There was no cord to deal with and the instrument could stay clipped to the headstock or quickly removed and slid into a pocket or case. Talk about convenience. Jams and festivals (bluegrass, folk, whatever) became seas of Intellitouch tuners.

Intellitouch owned the market even though there were so many situations where they did not work well. In particular, they have trouble with the bass notes of dreadnought sized guitars. The more overtones an instrument produces, the worse the tuner behaves. The bass string of a Martin rosewood dreadnought was near impossible to tune without using one of the many workarounds that owners developed. So, it was very much a love-hate relationship. The shortcomings were huge, but the convenience meant that they were tolerated.

Then, came the Intelli. It was an Intellitouch that worked, if not perfectly, then a whole lot better. The amazing thing is that the switch from Intellitouch to Intelli wasn't gradual. Within six months of its introduction, jams and festivals became seas of Intelli tuners. People were throwing their Intellitouches into drawers (if they weren't lucky enough to find a die hard holdout willing to buy one second-hand) to get the Intelli. That's a considerable investment to abandon. But, why not? The Intelli is half the price of the Intellitouch and works a whole lot better. They are so inexpensive that it's easy to justify getting one for the practice area and one for the case so that you don't have to worry about forgetting to pack it.

Anyone who will ever have to tune an acoustic instrument in a noisy environment will quickly find this tuner indispensable. And it works darn well in a quiet environment, too!

Highly recommended!

I only have used this tuner on classical guitars (the ones with nylon strings). I teach classical guitar and have had the opportunity to use it on many different classical guitars of varying quality. It has tuned them all very well. A great advantage I've found using this tuner (Tune Tech TT500) verses tuners which use a microphone, is that I can now talk with my students while tuning and no longer have to ask them to please be quiet while I tune their guitars. Kids especially like to talk and now I can fully engage in conversation with them while tuning their guitars. The only problem I've noticed, and thus only 4 stars, is that I usually have to begin tuning with any string other than the low E string. For some reason, the tuner seems to have trouble sensing the low E vibrations and the needle will not move. This problem has always resolved itself when I tune another string and then tune the low E.

PROS:
1. Pitch is registered quickly with minimal needle fluctuations
2. Ambient noise does not disturb tuning sensor
3. Small and compact
4. Swivel head for ease of viewing the screen.
5. The screen is very bright and is also easily seen in direct sunlight.
6. Rubber feet on clamp will not scratch guitar
7. Clamp is strong and will open wide but easy to squeeze open with fingers.
8. Being a chromatic tuner means you are not stuck just tuning EADGBE. It's tuning range is 12 note. A2 - B7.
9. Will automatically turn itself off after 3 minutes of non-use.

CONS:
1. Delay on tuning low E string
2. Buttons rattle while tuning 2nd string, B.
3. Plastic on screen scratches easily

I don't yet know how long the button battery will last or how much battery replacements cost. I will update this review when I have that information. But for now, I am very pleased with this tuner. I have owned many electronic tuners and this one so far beats them all. I have also used it to tune my guitarlele and it tunes it darn near perfectly! Great chromatic tuner at a great price - I love it!

I bought this for my son last Christmas so he has been using it for seven months now and he still loves it. (He has three years experience playing guitar) Any way, like others have said this tuner picks up the vibration of the string instead of the audio from a microphone like other tuners do. There is no interference from external sources as a result. The tuner is surprisingly small but very easy to read. No regrets with this purchase!