Nut intonation is not the most fun thing I know, but it is necessary. I have long looked at a genuine analog stroboscope tuner without the delay to collect data when plucking a string that is present in all digital variants. When doing a nut intonation, you probably tune +100 times and that delay becomes annoying. I took the plunge and invested in a real lump of an analog stroboscope tuner. It was not cheap. An approximately 3 kg heavy piece in 1970s design.

The very first tuner, Stroboconn, was introduced in 1936 and manufactured for 40 years by Conn. Peterson came up with the first semiconductor model in 1967. The one I bought is a smarter variant with the same analog rotating disk with a stroboscope lamp behind. An advantage with an analog stroboscope is that it basically never needs to be calibrated, it will always show the correct pitch.

I did not know how it was to use one, there are both positives and negatives. It is a bit more accurate than its digital twin, but also more difficult to read. There was also a short delay when the engine revs up to the right speed for the tuning of the string in Auto mode, but not as slow as with the digital one. It has a noise too, but not as disturbing and not as loud as I feared. What bothered me, however, was that the light from the stroboscope. It was flickering like a disco ball when it had no signal in! I solved this with a small blindfold in black plastic that I can fold down when in stand-by. I also made the window a little smaller with a tape around the edge to avoid looking straight into the stroboscope lamp at a certain angle.

I could also see that my old digital StroboPlus is almost as accurate as the analog one and has a more stable screen. I can recommend this one to the common man, the analog tuner is probably only good for people like me. It can be said that digital technology is well on its way to replacing the analogue one. The analog one does not replace my digital, but will be used every time I do the nut intonation. Just the fact that it weighs 3 kg means that I do not have to worry about not pulling it down from the table with the guitar cord!