Korg GA-30

Purchased 5/15/08
$20, yes I paid FULL retail. It was cheaper than paying for gas to get to where it was cheaper.

Features:
On/Off, one button
Green "On Pitch" LED
Two (2) Red, one flat, one sharp LED's flanking the green
Guitar or Bass
LCD Display with an "analog" needle. Two (2) Hz. increments (mentioned in the manual) and the musical name (i.e. "E", "A", etc.) name of the pitch and the string position (i.e., 7 thru 1).
Tune to flat
Sound (and speaker) for pitch
Microphone for using without a cable
Shuts down in twenty minutes if not used. That was mentioned in my manual. Perhaps because it's newer? Which to me is a good sign because it means that they change things for the better as they become aware of them.
Slot for credit card to stand up. Which I had seen this feature (I skimmed the manual, so it MAY have been in there) before I started using it. It would have been very useful.

I bought this to replace an old 1988 BOSS Analog tuner (that finally died recently. I had some concern about the LCD display when I first saw it (at home, stupid of me not to look closer in the store), but after using it now, I find it to be just as good and sensitive as the analog and fairly easy to use, pretty good contrast, good size. I worked (mechanical engineer) on the prototye LCD production line for Timex in 1978 or so, so I do know something about LCD's. This one is pretty good. To be bigger, the entire unit would have to be bigger and more expensive. The comment someone made about the display needing a backlight is a good one though, and perhaps the only fault I can find with this tuner other than the lack of an output jack which I didn't notice when I bought it (again, stupid of me). Although I wanted, "as cheap as possible" and don't need it myself since I don't perform on stage. Some other effects units I've been looking at (most notably an A-B-Y switch) would make the output jack a non-issue anyway.

I set up a new (to me) 1986 Ibanez RG530 H-H guitar, re-string, tune, level Floyd Rose bridge and intonate. I had never done this before and found the use of the KORG tuner to be nearly transparent (other than getting used to any new equipment would be), allowing me to concentrate on the real task at hand.

I'll take off one point for no backlite and no output jack. To be fair here, it can be used if you're close to it by low ambient light (my den, lights off, TV on and next to my computer monitor (also on). But, obviously, if you need those features, you should buy a different, more expensive of course, model. If you need to use it in the dark on the floor while standing and/or always in your loop, you might want to avoid this particular model for that reason. You'd have to try it, and use your own opinion in any case.

For me and my use, it's a "ten". But to be critical, it does have those "faults" which is really more a function of what you need, and therefore, how much you spend. For its price point compared to others, I think it's a great value.

I'll use this category to rate how well it does its intended function, i.e. "performance".

The display was very good in it's damping and repeatability. In the microphone mode, it did bounce around quite a bit with harmonics and adjacent strings and all, but I've never seen one that didn't.

Once I bought a cable (long story, I'm starting from scratch with gear, but have been using a tuner for twenty years and playing for forty years, entirely acoustic the first twenty), using it, the response and display of the current pitch was dead on and steady, much better than the analog that recently died on me in the same mode.

I agree that the sound to audibly adjust to is kind of funky, but once I got used to it, I found it very appropriate to the tone of my unplugged electric, and very useful to rough tune to make sure I was in the correct octave. Yes, I did make that mistake once and resulted in pulling out the high "E" and kinking it so I had to use a different string. If doing a string higher (in number, i.e. lo "E", #6) you have to "scroll" down to #1, (Hi "E") to turn the sound off. Mildly annoying, but also I think if you just push the Guitar/Bass button twice (to Bass, back to Guitar) it cancels it as well.

As to using the bass section by mistake, yes it's possible. I did it once or twice. But I consider that "operator error", not a flaw in the tuner.

I saw that someone mentioned that it didn't "do intonation". I'm not sure what they meant by that. I intonated and it came out near perfect, more a function of operator skill and the guitar's stability imho.

I'm a mechanical engineer and very picky about measuring things (which is what this does in it's most basic definition). I was able to tune to pitch and intonate plus or minus less than 1 Hz. I consider that outstanding. Something like 1/4 of one percent if you think about it.

For its intended use, and the final results, I can find no fault in this category at all for my use, but some small ones overall that others might find a problem as I've already mentioned. One point off here in that those features might make its function better for those people.

My last tuner (BOSS) lasted for twenty years. But I take very good care of my gear.

I have no experience with KORG products, but know of their reputation from an online forum that is very critical of products, very knowledgeable about guitars and gear, and all around a very good group (fyi, Guitar Player Magazine, Guitar Forum). I'm expecting it to last at least ten years, but really have no way of knowing that myself, so I'll have to score this as a "No Opinion".

See my comments about Reliability. So, again, "No Opinion".

As I said, played acoustic for forty years, electric off and on for twenty years. I've had/have:

1973 Martin D-18 (used the BOSS tuner with it)
1986 Ibanez RG600 (active Pups)
1986 Ibanez RG530 (passive Pups)
1983 Electra Phoenix (Strat S-S-S Clone, MIJ)
2002 Raven 1000Q (Korean made, H-S-H, good quality/action)
2004 Fender Highway 1 Strat (S-S-S)

1988 Roland JC-55
1993 Randall Tube Pro II

Many and various pedals


If it were stolen or lost, I'd most definitely replace it, probably with the same model since the higher priced ones don't give me anything that I NEED.

My style doesn't really apply, other than I don't do any drop tunings.

I really do think that is a "10-Fantastic value" as they define it here. I paid more that for this for my original tuner twenty years ago. It does help me "make music" in a very transparent and easy to use way. I can see no reason not to give it a ten.

I'm not sure why you'd want to, but feel free to email me if you've got any questions.

Very easy, though i did manage to turn on the bass option by accident and was confused for a week thinking that it couldnt get the B string correct....... i feel pretty silly when i think of that now.

um........ if you press the audio tuner button it sounds like an old ZX Spectrum (or Apple II SE for American readers) tape load noise.

Seriously though, it's a tuner, so this is a N/A category

It doesn't look too reliable, i agree with previous reviews that it feels kind of cheap, but then it is cheaop, so that's ok.
Having said that, i've had it 6 months now and no problems :)

No idea

As a cheap tuner its great. I now have it attached to the tuner socket on my Ernie Ball volume pedal.
It has a lot of features for the price, im impressed.
I find it is a bit slow to get right, and sometimes i am not convinced that it's 100% accurate.
I plan to buy something better soon, but for the meantime this does the job just fine.

Easy to use, just make sure you're in the right mode: bass or guitar. Not chromatic, but tunes 7 string guitars and 6 string basses. Tune down up to 5 semi tones.Built in reference tones: 7 notes for guitar and low-B, E, A, D, G, high-C for bass. The manual doesn't seem to mention the Auto Off feature (though it says it on the packaging box). It turns off after 20 minutes exactly (I timed it). That's a good feature because I'm always forgetting to turn tuners off. No instrument output jack, but that may be for the better. No backlight (why don't all tuners incorporate a backlight these days?). Has a slot in the back to insert a credit card, which allows the tuner to sit in an upright position.

N/A - doesn't make sound except for the notes, which are an octave above guitar, two octaves above bass. Good for general reference tones.

Seems to be built as well as any tuner today.

I've had many tuners. Most recently I've been using a Boss TU-70 because of the backlight, but it tracks terribly. My favorite general-purpose tuner for the past 5 years was a Korg GA-10, which finally bit the dust after the input jack went bad (an $11 tuner). It beat my Boss TU-70 and Boss TU-12 by a longshot. This Korg GA-30 is just as good if not better than that GA-10 at tracking notes for both bass and guitar. It doesn't hear the noise and interference that most of my other tuners hear. It tunes quickly and accurately. The only things I wish it had was a built in stand and a backlight. For the price though, it's excellent as is and money well spent.

I'd buy it again. Actually, they're cheap enough to put one in every guitar case.

Really easy to use... plug in the side, or use the built in mic. Turn it on, and you're set! Turns itself off after 5-10 min if you forget, or are too boned.

It doesn't filter out clutter too well, or sympathetic vibes from other strings. The LCD needle tends to "hang" at times, regardless of the brand of strings on my geetar (Fender 150s or Super Bullets more often than not) causing you to mute strings till the needle cools out. Patience is a virtue with the GA-30!! If you were hoping to set your bridge intonation with this, forget it!! But for the money, you can't beat it.

Smaller than a pack of smokes, fits in your pocket, guitar case, etc. Uses 2-AAA batteries. It still has the orig batteries from when I bought it 2 1/2 yrs ago, so I guess the drain is low!!! Works like a charm. I never use the drop-tune feature, but it's nice that it's there. It's plastic, so I guess you could smash it if you really wanted to!

Never needed. Hey, I got it for $12... do you think I'll have it serviced when it finally craps out??!!

Can't beat the price. No complaints overall except for the fact it can be a bit sluggish at times, and it won't work on bridge intonation setup/adjust, but the price it right. You gotta be in tune, and if that's what you're after, this'll get ya there.

Very Easy to use nothing to it.

This is your ticket to rock solid tuning. I tried the mic feature playing notes on the keyboard and the tuner picked up the note rather quickly and was dead on 99% of the time. It does waiver alittle at times butt always locks on the right pitch in tune. I also put this tuner up against another tuner that is built into my my guitar effects unit. Both were right on with one another.

Great tuner for the price. You can spend lots more on a tuner butt why? Unless your a professional with money to burn, this tuner will give you a great accurate tune for under $20. For those that have trouble tuning your guitar with this tuner, try adjusting your your pick-ups, or mabey it's time to buy new strings! One more thing, if you drop tune and don't like the flat feature on this tuner, the CA-30 tuner is cromatic and shows the note pacificly as well as sharps/flats. I like the CA-tuner features allittle better.

Its a tuner, cant get much harder. Does have some extra bells and whistles though, but they are pretty easy to figure out. The manual for it is as good as required. It isn't chromatic as such (just gives you a nice and simple note name), but you can flat the notes to get any note you need. Even does seven string guitars and six string basses, very useful. I remember years of having to tune part of my seven string guitar in guitar mode, and the low B in bass mode when I used my old Korg tuner.

As a line in tuner, it is very good, can tune accurately very quickly. Using the microphone on the tuner, its still quite good, but does flap around a bit more (I blame background noise though). The microphone is way better than the old Korg tuner I had (think it was the model before this one). The "Sound" thing (it plays you the note through the speaker) is a good idea, but it is rather useless (its an octave too high for a guitar, and two octaves too high for a bass).

As it isn't an inline tuner (with an input and an output), there is no additional noise. Note, inline tuners eat tone, avoid them!

If it wasn't for the "sound" thing, it would get a 10.

My old Korg tuner was pretty much the same design and it looks like the same materials, and it went through hell. For one thing, it was dropped in a river, and when I fished it back out, it still worked. I'm pretty sure it still works now, I just lost it. Going by this, I expect this tuner to last me well. Although, I have two tuners on my pedalboard for gigs that I use during the performance. I only use this tuner when tuning back stage, or when I play without my pedalboard. The 10 is antisipated, based on the reliability of the previous Korg tuner.

Never dealt with them in a bad way, I have enquired about some of their keyboards and synths and they always replied fast and were very helpful and friendly. Dunno what they like if you try and get a freebee from them though :P

Its a tuner, its accurate, and it can last about 100 hours of tuning (if you take 30 seconds to tune, thats 12000 tunes you get from 2 AAA batteries). As for the sound function, its rather useless for tuning, however it will be featured in an up and coming recording of mine :P Still a fantastic value tuner.

it's so easy you can tune without reading the manual!

it sounds fine, u can't use it as a in line tuner so there's obviously no noise.
but it tunes perfectly and very quickly

i have no idea what the ppl before were saying its unreliable for cos they must be stupid. it's very realiable and very quick to use.u can tune whatver guitar u want, 7 string, 6, bass. to virtually whatever tuning. the display is good as well

haven't had to deal

very good tuner, simple, easy to use, quick, and accurate. what more do you want???

Pretty easy to use if you use the line in. But sometimes it doesnt detect the notes, and you have to strum the string serveral times to get a reading

N/A

This tuner is not reliable. If you use it on a gig, and want to tune your guitar, Its gona take helluva time

N/A

This tuner is only good if you want to tune your guitar to standard tuning. But since most modern music is tuned lower the EBGDAE, its not really usefull

It's a tuner!! When the light goes green, that means it's in tune!

The meter don't sway around easily, so 30 seconds is what I take to tune my entire guitar with this!

I'm not too sure about this, it's all plastic, and the input hole is also plastic. After many times of pluggin in and out, this thing will still break. And when you change battery, you open up the whole thing and the entire circuit is exposed. Looks so so fragile.

This is certainly a good buy. It's a great tuner, it can even tune half-step down just by a press of button, for this price, anyone should get this as their tuner.

This is a kick ass tuner! It allows you to tune any kind of guitar: 7-string guitar,6-string guitar,6-string bass, and 4-string bass. It has a built in tone generator, mic, line-in, and a feature that allows you to tune your axe up to five semitones flat! The manual is great! This thing uses 2 AAA batteries, which can power it for 100 hours under normal use! If you forget to turn it off, it has auto off.
It's easy as hell to use, too! I can't get my axe tuned perfectly, though, due to the fact that my tuning heads totally suck. I'm going to replace them very soon! I'm using it with a Bronze Warlock with Regular Dean Markley Nickel Steel strings.

n/a

This thing is very reliable. It withstood a 3 foot drop onto my hard floor, wich is basically a thin carpet covering cement!

If it were stolen, I kill the person who took it. I'd definitely buy it again if it were stolen or lost. Before I had this, I had a QuikTune QT-8 and that thing was shit. This tuner is the best!