Snark unveils the Snark Air – the most discrete clip-on guitar tuner ever?

Snark has unveiled the Snark Air, a clip-on guitar tuner that is rechargeable, tiny, unobtrusive, and might just further complicate the debate on whether you want a clip-on tuner, app or a pedal

There is a lot of gear wisdom that can be challenged or left behind, but there are some things we are unanimous on, like we all know that the most important accessory you can have is the guitar tuner. There’s no getting around it, if you don’t have one in your life, you need one. The question is: what kind? 

Those with an electric guitar might add one to their pedalboard. Others might rather have an app for everything, so why not guitar tuning, too? Those with an acoustic might prefer a clip-on guitar tuner that affixes to their guitar’s headstock and offers a reading in real time. One drawback for the clip-on tuner is that, well, it’s kind of ugly. Or at least it is a distraction for the audience.

Here you are, you’ve spend north of three grand on a high-end acoustic guitar from Martin (hey, we can dream), and you don’t want the tuner obscuring that logo, augmenting the perfect squared-off form of the headstock. Sometimes they can feel a little heavy too, particularly if you’re playing a small-bodied acoustic instrument such as the ukulele.

Well, Snark, might just have the answer with the Snark Air; with the caveat that we’ve only seen video and pictures so far, this looks to be the smallest clip-on tuner we’ve seen – it is so small that the audience won’t even know it’s there. 

Also, the Snark Air is rechargeable, and with no batteries onboard, that surely must make for a more lightweight tuner, and definitely one that you won’t have to worry about carrying spares for.

Snark Air

(Image credit: Snark)

With a design such as this, minimalism is the watchword. So there are no buttons. You simply tap it to activate it, and tap twice if you want to change the display. Just stick it behind the headstock and you are good to go, the LED airplane will illuminate when the tuner is active, and the display looks typically bright and easy to read.

Snark says you can affix it to the back or the front of your headstock, with the  and it will do more than just tune your acoustic. It works on electric guitars, bass guitars, ukes, banjos and more. 

Charge it up via USB and you are good to go, with one charge enough to last weeks to months depending on usage.

For more details, head over to Snark.

Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.