I used to refer to myself as The Snark Slayer, because they'd only last a couple months and then stop picking up any notes. After going through that for a while, I bought a Boss tuner that lasted for years; it worked on my mandolin and banjos, and all was well.

When it finally died, I wasn't able to find a replacement, so thought I'd try some other brands. I tried a couple of no-names from Amazon. Neither one of them would read a note, so I paid a couple more bucks to get a Fishman - which I assumed would be better.

It picks up the high E string on my resonator and lap steel (both tuned to open E), but nothing else unless I pick it super hard - which makes the string's tuning jump all over, of course. It's not a funny setting, because the Fishman is a chromatic tuner and only has on/off, no other controls. I tried replacing the battery.

I'm finding it hard to believe that I've managed to find three tuners that were made at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon, but I can't imagine what else could be wrong. Any ideas?