About the Korg GA-30 Tuner
The Ga-30 electronic tuner is for both guitar and bass instruments and is made by the Korg music company. The tuner has a button that allows you to switch between “Guitar” mode and “Bass” mode to properly detect the pitch of every note that you play. The Guitar mode is able to tune to the notes of a seven string guitar from the range of 7B all the way to 1E. The Bass mode can be used for other instruments as well and can detect the notes ranging from low-B to Hi-C. If you don’t know what that means you might want to take a quick lesson in basic music theory so that you can properly tune your instrument.
I bought my tuner used at a local music store for about $5.00, but they normally range anywhere between $7 through $8. I have officially had my tuner now for about two years and it is still going strong. It hasn’t broken, cracked, or given an inaccurate reading while tuning my acoustic guitar. The back cover of the tuner slides off by pressing in two tabs on the side, and operates on two triple A batteries. The battery it came with lasted several months before I had to change it, but mine was used so there is no telling how long the stock batteries could have gone. As long as you don’t keep it running for too long or forget to turn it off you shouldn’t have to change the batteries any time soon.
Tuner’s Functions
The Korg GA-30 tuner has four buttons located on the front cover. The top red button is used to turn the power on and off. The second button from the top lets you switch between Bass and guitar mode with a press of a button. The third button allows you to make notes flat to tune your instrument’s strings to that pitch. And if you prefer the last button plays sounds and works similar to a pitch pipe so that you can tune your instrument by ear.
Every time you press the sound button it changes the note from 7B, to 6E, 5A, 4D, 3G, 2B, and 1E, each with a different sound to help you tune by ear. There is a small built in speaker on the right side of the tuner that produces this sound and it is loud and clear for you to hear. I also found that if you press the flatten button the sound will change so that you can hear how the note sounds flat as well. I actually don’t use this button often because it sounds like a 1980s arcade game and it is very loud and can get a bit annoying if you leave it going.
The tuner picks up sound from a small built in microphone located on the front of the tuner and displays the pitch of the note on the LCD screen. The tuner works by displaying a needle that moves from left to right and shows a red light just above the LCD screen to let you know that it is either too flat or too sharp.
You tune the instrument by adjusting the strings on your instrument and playing a note until the tuner shows the proper note and pitch of the string by moving the needle perfectly into the middle of the LCD screen and displaying a green light. For example if you are tuning a six string acoustic guitar it would display 5A if you tuned the top fifth string to its proper pitch. The option to flatten notes allows you to flatten up to 5 semitones, and will display the♭flat symbol at the top left of the LCD screen when you press the button.
Other additional features that the Korg GA-30 tuner offers is a built in Input slot for electric instruments and microphones, for example you could plug your electric guitar cable directly into the tuner to properly tune your instrument without using an amp which I thought was a great idea. The tuner also has an auto power off function in case you accidently leave the tuner on for more than 20 minutes it will turn itself off to save power. I have honestly never seen it auto shut off though because I only leave mine on for a couple of minutes to properly tune my guitar and then I manually turn it off to save the battery.
The back of the tuner has a tilt card slot so that you can support the tuner hands free and keep it propped up on your desk or something- but the actual card is not provided.
Overall Rating
Everything you get in the box is the Korg GA-30 tuner, two triple A batteries, and the owner’s manual. Since my tuner was previously used by another owner I didn’t get the owner’s manual so I googled it online and saw that it gives complete instructions on how to use the tuner and all of its functions in case you are new and don’t know how to use it.
I pretty much use my tuner everyday and I have had no problems with it. I have dropped it a couple of times and I don’t see a dent or scratch on the outside plastic cover, so the thing is pretty durable.
Overall as far as tuners go I’m giving it a 9/10. I would have given the Korg GA-30 a perfect 10 but you can’t see the tuning needle and note names in the dark, but other than that for this price you can’t beat this tuner’s accuracy, size, and durability.
I highly recommend it!
NOTE: The GA-30 is an older model and you can find it from at Musician’s friend, Amazon.com or at your local music store. The company has made an updated modal called the GA-40 and you can buy that from their official website as well as the other dealers named above.
Links are provided for both tuners on the right side of the article.
