The Korg CA-1 compact tuner
This is a review for the Korg CA-1 tuner, which was made to tune a variety of instruments including String instruments, Keyboards, wind, and bass instruments. It has a range of picking up notes from C1 to C8. The CA-1 tuner runs on two triple A batteries that enter from the back. Grip the back cover with your thumb and push down to slide the cover free to change the batteries. I find the CA-1’s back cover to be a lot easier to get off to change the batteries in comparison to the Korg GA-30. The CA-1 tuner is small and light weight and can fit in your pocket or your instrument’s case with ease. The tuner also has a small card slot in the back that you can use to keep the tuner standing upright, but it doesn’t actually come with the card in the box.
If you are a beginner the tuner is pretty easy to use and it comes with complete instructions to help get you started. You turn it on and the built in microphone picks up any audio in the area and will display the pitch of the note on the screen. If the note is properly in tune it will show a small arrow on the display screen that will point directly in the center and will display a green light at the top of the tuner to tell you the note is in tune. If the note is too flat the arrow will point farther to the left and if the note is too sharp the arrow will point farther to the right, both will display a red light letting you know that the pitch is off. as long as you know a bit of basic Music theory you should have no problems with tuning your instrument.
Korg CA-1 Functions
Other than the power button the tuner has three other buttons located at the bottom of the tuner. The sound button plays notes from a small built in speaker that you can use as a reference pitch to tune by ear. If you press the sound button twice it will play two sounds- A4 and B4 flat, but if you hold it down it will activate more sounds for you to click through allowing you to tune to almost any note by ear. I actually didn’t know the tuner could do that until today when I stumbled across the instructions on Muscian’s friend. I guess I should have read the instructions in the box…
Anyways, it also has a Calibration up and down button to change the pitch of notes so that you can tune and find the exact pitch of a specific note that you are looking for.
The CA-1 also has a 1/4″ Input jack for microphones or electric instruments so that you can tune them by plugging them straight into the electronic tuner. The tuner also has the auto shutoff function in case you leave it on too long so that it will turn it self off after 20 minutes to help preserve the battery life. It seems that function is built into almost all Korg tuners because my GA-30 does the same thing.
I should also mention that I still have the original battery inside of the tuner and it has lasted for about a year now and hasn’t died yet, so you won’t need to buy new batteries any time soon.
In my opinion I found that the Korg CA-1 tuner was a bit more accurate than the Korg GA-30 in terms of picking up the proper pitch of the notes since you can calibrate it to find a specific pitch, but most of the time it gives a clear and accurate reading without you having to fiddle around with it for too long.
Overall rating
The Korg CA-1 tuner is an older model so it doesn’t have as many features as some of Korg’s newer tuners. It doesn’t glow in the dark or have an internal light, so you can’t see the display screen in the dark. Depending on the instrument and the pitch of the note the tuner will sometimes have a hard time picking up the exact pitch and the little arrow will keep moving left to right as it tries to get a clear reading, but I suppose that was bound to happen seeing how this tuner was made for multiple instruments. I don’t think it would be possible for it to tune every single instrument perfectly without it messing up from time to time.
Overall, as a simple electronic tuner it gets the job done quickly and efficiently and it is pretty sturdy in terms of durability. I think this tuner will last for several years before I will need to replace it and buy a new one. I actually like this tuner for what it is so I will give it a rating of 8 out of 10. I can’t give it a higher rating because Korg now has new and more advance tuners that can do a whole lot more.
You can find this tuner at Musician’s friend, Amazon.com, your local music store, as well as the official Korg website. The average price is anywhere between $10.00 through $17.00, the price varies based on the seller. If you need a cheap electronic tuner to keep your instruments in tune I recommend that you give the Korg CA-1 a try.
You can find links to Amazon and the official Korg website on the right side of this article.
Reference:
- www.korg.com/ca1
- www.amazon.com/Korg-CA1-Chromatic-Tuner/dp/B002PMHAVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid;=13544062
