Strobe tuners are nice for quick tuning, but for intonating the guitar, I like the good old needle tuner that shows the increments of accuracy (+ and - cents). The Boss TU for strobe, & The Boss Chromatic tuner with the needle.
I grew up with out a tuner and just tuned the A string off a record,....any AC/DC intro will do! After I got my ''A'' note, I then tuned the rest of the guitar by ear to compensate for intonation problems, usually by octives. Tuning by ear....the hard way does indeed help you develop an ear to also learn music. I did this before I learned about intonation!!!...but developed a good ear. My guitars are intonated just right, & I can relie on my tuners.
In my Martin case, I have an ''A'' tuning fork.... just boing the tuner on your knee, or your friends knee, then place it on the acoustics top near the bridge area/lower bout and tune the ''A'' string to it. Real easy, and easy to carry. It always impresses the others when you do this. ''Wow, I never thought of tuning that way!''.........gets the girl every time!?
Find out what note your phone's dial tone is & use that for tuning!!!
I guess now I could say, use your CELL phone's dial tone.....hopefully it's not something funky like G#. >> DAN
PS .... If you try the tuning fork idea, I recommend you get the ''A'' fork, cause it sounds just right to your ear. You hear the vibrations better. A low ''E'' fork may be harder to hear (in a noisy house), and vibrates low & slow, and if you have old strings, your low ''E'' string will not ring true when picked. And a ''D'' or higher string fork may be to high pitched to match your strings vibrations with the fork's vibrations. With the tuning fork, you need to start tuning immediately after you boink the fork and place it on your sound board cause if you keep letting the fork vibrate/drone on & on, holding it on your sound board, your true ''A'' note will degrade & you now are tuning to overtone notes...... Goldie Lox chooses the ''A'' fork!
Later On, Keep on Trukin' >> DAN
79' Epiphone Genesis Custom, 89' pre-reissue Les Paul Standard, 90'Strat Plus,
02' Tele (ash), 91' Martin HD-28, Epi A-12 acoustic, Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12