Boss TU-10 Clip On Chromatic Tuner Review

Sugoi!

Over the past couple of years I have tried out and reviewed oodles of clip on electronic tuners over the past few years, and they all worked well. Clip on tuners are accurate, tiny and do not need to be plugged in, so they are pretty much the best thing since caned beer. All the ones I have used are nice tuners, but none of them were made by Boss, and Boss makes some of the most bad-ass portable tuners on the planet. Well, we are going to fix that oversight and take a look at the Boss TU-10 clip on tuner today.

On paper the TU-10 has great specifications. It has an 8 octave range (C0 to C8) and it is accurate to within +/- 1 cent. It is capable of flat tuning of up to 5 semitones, in case you swing that way. Also, it has two different display modes, cent display and stream display as well as the Boss Accu-Pitch function. And the display is nice and clear and is full color. not to mention bigger than any of the other clip on tuners I have seen.

It is powered by a single CR2032 lithium battery, which should last around 12 hours in color mode, and around 24 hours in black and white mode. This does not sound like very long, but how long do you really spend tuning? The tuner is well-built with a hefty clip that would hold it to most any headstock without falling off. There are minimal controls, which include a power switch on the top and a select switch and adjustment switch on the back. It is available in a few different stylish colors (red, silver, black), in the event that this is important to you.

In the real world this Boss TU works very well, with very quick reactions and a nicely readable display, and it is certainly more accurate than I will ever need. I like the operation of the controls and this thing would be awesome for other instruments too so do not pigeonhole it just for guitar use. Which is understandable as it seems like this thing was designed by a guitar player. It does not have a swivel head, and it is quite a bit bigger than other clip on tuners (2-7/8 x 1-5/16 x 2-1/2 inches), so guitarists are probably their target market.

Neatest of all is that the Boss TU-10 has a street price of $34.99 (list price $43.25), which makes it cheaper than any Boss tuner I have ever tested. It is pretty cool, so check one out if you get a chance.

Mahalo!