We bought a Korg model CA-30 chromatic tuner and we're having a problem with it.

Using it's built in microphone, it seems to work pretty well when tuning guitars, banjos, dulcimers and autoharps. Unfortunately, we perform in schools a lot and we often have to tune in a noisy room. So, we have always used a Matrix tuner pickup which clips on to any instrument and plugs into the tuner, disabling it's internal microphone in the process.

We have done this for years using a Seiko tuner with no problems. When we tried it with the Korg tuner it seemed to work very well on the guitar - we just clipped the pickup onto one of the tuning pegs. It also worked well on the dulcimer. On the banjo it was a little fussier but seemed OK if we clipped it onto the fifth string peg. But, on the autoharp the tuner consistently read about 15 to 20 cents sharper than it did using it's internal microphone no matter where we clipped it on.

This is a major problem for us since we often have to tune one or more autoharps in noisy conditions. The Korg tuner seems to be much more sensitive to ambient noise than the Seiko when using it's internal microphone.

Has anyone else had this experience? Does anyone have any suggestions before we return the Korg tuner to the shop?

Bev and Jerry