I've always used my Sabine Tuner to tune my guitar, and never had any issues with it. Why would I need a Chromatic Tuner?

It was not until I tried a really alternate guitar tuning that I realized my standard guitar tuner would not work. The Sabine Nextune displays E A D G B E very boldly, but what if you want to tune two full steps down? C F A# D# G C? My son and I recently started to play the songs of Dethklok, a fictitious heavy metal band that plays really good heavy metal songs. All their songs are tuned two full steps down. When I first tried to tune my Gibson, I quickly realized that my tuner didn't display Cs or Fs and I had to tune the strings from the fifth fret and work backwards.

New Strings and New Tuner for New Songs

Since we didn't want to mess up the tension on my Gibson SG, we decided to go with 11 gauge strings and a new tuner, the Sabine Nextune 12z Chromatic Tuner to keep the Guitar in its new tuning. (At least until we tire of the songs by Dethklok and go with something else). We left my Fender Tele in standard tuning. This Sabine Tuner is bright silver instead of black, so its easy to tell it apart from the other standard Sabine tuners we own.

So how does the Nextune 12z work?

Size

This tuner is quite portable and will fit easily into a pocket or a guitar case or gig bag. It is about an inch thick, and 3" x 6" wide. The Tuner runs on 2 AAA batteries, which are included.

Functions / Description

This is a small silver box with a small monochromatic screen of black digital readings on a grey background. Below the screen are three LED lights, light green (flat) dark green (perfect) and red (sharp). In case you forget that light green is flat and red is sharp, the word is next to the LED light. To the side are four buttons, an on button (so you don't waste batteries) a Mode button for the particular note tuning or pitch generation of said note. Two buttons below allow you to adjust pitch up and down from whole notes and the flats and sharps in between.

To the left of the digital readout screen is the speaker that generates the tones and a built in microphone. To the right side of the unit is the standard quarter inch jack for plugging in your guitar. You use the microphone for tuning acoustic guitars.

What does this Tuner Do?

If you can tune by ear, this Unit will generate any pitch you choose. As long as you are not in a noisy area, you can clearly hear the pitch.

Otherwise, plug your guitar in and hit mode to the note you want the string tuned to. When you hit the note, a few things happen. One, the note you are playing will be displayed. Two, a display of VU type lines appear with perfect in the center, and flat to the left and sharp to the right. The LED lights underneath also light to indicate flat perfect or sharp. Slowly adjust the tuning peg for the string until you have the note you want. Using the low E as an example, for standard tuning, keep adjusting until E displays with the digital "needle" appearing in the center, and the light displaying bright green.

Now however, you can also easily tune to nonstandard tunings, because this Tuner displays the individual notes throughout the scale, not just those for standard tunings. Tuning to two steps down and keeping the guitar there was much easier!

You do need to know ahead of time what note each string should be tuned to.

If you are playing an acoustic bass or acoustic guitar, just sit the unit close enough to the Tuner, and the mike automatically displays the note, there are no additional buttons to hit. The Tuner knows to tune based on mike or input by whether or not a guitar is plugged into the input.

Price / Value

Unless you can tune perfectly by ear, this $28.00 price of this tuner is a good value. It is easy to use, easy to carry and the batteries last a long time. It is a nice addition to the Sabine Nextune 6z because of the chromatic tuning. It is a little more complex in that it doesn't have the standard Guitar or Bass Tuning, you have to know what note each string needs to be tuned to.

Cons

My only complaint is that sometimes the digital read out screen is difficult to read if the lighting isn't right. Sometimes you have to futz with the angle to be able to see the read out.

Summary

Sabines NexTune tuner is an inexpensive investment to keep your guitar in tune! The 12z will keep your guitar in tune even if you use very nonstandard tunings!

Recommended: Yes