Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner Review

If you dig into my music drawers for a tuning device, you’ll find everything: tuning forks and pitch pipes, as well as every rack, pedal, and headstock tuner imaginable. But, if you ask me, the best tuner I’ve ever had was my ears.

That doesn’t stop me from looking for the latest and greatest tuning gadgetry, and every now and then, I’ll come across a new tuner that I think is a must-have – whether I need it or not.

So imagine my existential crisis after getting acquainted with the Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner, not because it’s the most exciting technological tuning tool I’ve come across, but because I’m going to have to try to persuade you why you might need this innovatively handy automatic guitar tuner despite its hefty price tag.

What makes Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner so remarkable?

Specifications

• Type:Chromatic
• Instrument:Guitar, Ukulele, Banjo, Manolin
• Format:Portable
• Display Type:LCD
• Tuning Range:A0-E5 (27.5-668.84Hz)
• Metronome:Yes
• USB:1 x USB-C
• Power Supply:Rechargeable Lithium Polymer
• Height:3.5″
• Depth:1″
• Width:2″
• Manufacturer Part Number:ROADIE3GTR

Features

• WORKS ON MOST STRING INSTRUMENTS with a guitar machine head including electric, acoustic and classical guitars with nylon strings, 6, 7 and 12-string guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, banjos, lap steel guitars, bouzouki, mountain dulcimer, cigar box guitar, violins with planetary pegs, and many more! (Note: It does not tune bass guitars, Get Roadie Bass to tune bass guitars too)
• 2x FASTER & EASY TO USE: automatically tunes your instrument in under 30 seconds with a motor speed 2x faster than Roadie 2. Simply place Roadie on the peg, pluck the string and watch it do the rest. ENHANCED
• TUNING ACCURACY & NOISE IMMUNITY with next-generation vibration detection, allowing you to tune even in noisy environments
• 150+ BUILT-IN ALTERNATE TUNINGS so you can easily switch between tunings or create your own custom tunings.
• CUSTOMIZABLE TUNING SETTINGS: change the A4 reference pitch, tune with a capo on, create custom tunings, change between “Fast Tuning” and “High Accuracy” & more
• BUILT-IN VIBRATION/BEEP METRONOME so that you can set the tempo and feel the beat while playing.
• RESTRING & TUNE IN ONE SINGLE STEP: changing strings is now a little less tedious. You can quickly wind your new strings and directly tune them to perfection in one go
• FULL COLOR, HIGH RESOLUTION, larger display screen. COMPACT DESIGN and ergonomic grip for a comfortable tuning process.
• LONG LASTING CHARGE: Roadie can last as long as 1 month on a single charge and is easily recharged with its USB-C cable (included in the box)

Our Verdict For Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner

The Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner is their most advanced version yet, with a motor speed of 110 RPM, which is twice as fast as their other Roadie tuners. It has increased tuning precision (27.5 Hz to 668.84 Hz) and can tune a variety of multi-stringed instruments with geared tuning pegs in seconds (save for bass) and can tune in a noisy environment thanks to its next-generation vibration sensing.

The Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner is roughly the size of a small bar of soap and fits snugly in the palm of your hand thanks to its grippy-material surface; it’s rechargeable via its USB-C interface. Its controls include a power button and a 4-way D-pad to move with your thumb via its full-color hi-resolution LCD display screen to access more than 150 built-in tunings (as well as build and store your own custom and alternate tunings).

Roadie 3 has a metronome and string winder for restringing your guitar. The Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner comes with a free companion app for downloads and updates, and it gives you more options for creating, managing, and storing your customizations.

What I like best about the Roadie 3 Automatic Guitar Tuner is that you never have to wind your instrument up and down since the Roadie 3 spins its magic in one continuous motion till it stops and replies with a brief vibration (or beep) to indicate a string is precisely in tune.

The tuning is razor-sharp exact, and you won’t need to fine-tune it again. Also, if you have more than one 12-string guitar (guilty! ), I’d grab it just for the speed with which it tunes.

The built-in winder is useful for restringing and quickly tuning to pitch without having to remove the Roadie 3 from your tuning gear, but you must switch from “Winder” to “Tuner” with your thumb to complete the process.

It’s expensive, but I consider it vital as a maintenance tool if you have a growing collection of instruments, or even a collection of guitars in various tunings. Even more crucially, the Roadie 3 saves you time by spinning quickly when you need to be perfectly in tune for a performance.

Because your hearing don’t always cut it, I wholeheartedly recommend having the Roadie 3 on hand as a portable no-nonsense tuner to maintain your instruments pitch-perfect. It’s that good.