What Is a Guitar Tuner? Learn How to Tune Your Guitar With Instrument Tuners

A guitar tuner is a device that measures the frequencies produced by vibrating strings on an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. It then aligns those measurements with notes in a scale. If the frequencies match a particular note, the tuner will display the name of that note on an LED display.

There are also bass tuners specially made for bass guitars and string basses, but in a pinch, a guitar tuner will often work for both guitars and bass instruments.

There are a wide variety of instrument tuners available for today’s guitarists. The two most common types of guitar tuners are:

1. 1. Pedal Tuner: This type of tuner receives an audio signal from a guitar via a ¼ inch audio cable, then passes the signal (unchanged) out through another ¼ inch cable. Pedal tuners can only be used with electric or electric-acoustic guitars.
2. 2. Clip-on Tuner: This type of tuner attaches to a guitar’s headstock, and measures vibrations in the actual wood of the guitar. Clip on tuners can be used with any type of guitar.

Guitar tuning devices operate in various tuning modes. Perhaps the most common is a chromatic mode, where the tuner displays any pitch on a 12-note chromatic scale. In other modes, the chromatic tuner can be programmed to match the standard tuning of a guitar (EADGBE), along with popular open tunings (such as DADGAD) or alternate tunings that drop one string (such as Drop D).

While most electronic tuners work by measuring the frequency of one string at a time, polyphonic tuners can measure all the string frequencies at once. On these devices, a player will strum all the open strings at once and, using polyphonic tuning, the tuner will identify the pitch of each individual string. This can save valuable time on stage, although some players prefer the precision that comes with tuning one string at a time.

A guitar tuner is one of the simplest devices a musician will encounter. Here’s how to use an electronic tuner:

1. 1. Turn the tuner on, then play a note by plucking any string. Most guitarists proceed from lowest to highest, tuning their low E string (6th string), followed by the A string (5th string), D string (4th string), G string (or 3rd string), B string (or 2nd string), and high E string (1st string).
2. 2. The name of the closest note will appear on the tuner’s digital screen.
3. 3. If a string is close to a particular note, but somewhat out of tune, the tuner’s LEDs will indicate whether the note is too low (flat) or too high (sharp). The LEDs will appear either as solid lights or, if the tuner is in strobe mode, as pulsating lights indicating a direction. (Some tuners also offer a half strobe mode.)
4. 4. While monitoring the tuner, adjust the guitar’s tuning pegs until each string reaches its intended pitch.

Electric guitar players frequently use pedal tuners, and in most cases, these tuning pedals are connected to a line of other pedals between the guitar and the amplifier. Most tuners are the size of a standard guitar stompbox, but you can find mini tuners that occupy less space.

Some pedal tuners include a mild buffer to boost the level of a guitar’s audio signal, while other pedal tuners are “true bypass,” which means no such buffer is present. A true bypass tuner may be appropriate if there are very few pedals in a player’s signal chain. A guitarist with several pedals will likely want a tuner with a mild buffer, which can prevent a noticeable drop in volume by the time the audio signal reaches the amp.

Acoustic guitar players commonly use clip-on tuners, which do not require any audio cables. These clip-ons run on small lithium batteries, and the battery life is typically excellent, lasting many hours. Acoustic players also have the option of using a microphone-based tuner (such as a tuner app on a smartphone), but these tend to be less accurate than clip-ons or tuning pedals, and are typically only used when those more reliable devices aren’t available. And clip-on tuners aren’t just for acoustic guitars. They work on any guitar, and some electric players prefer them to a stompbox pedal.

A high-quality guitar tuner will be accurate, reliable, and will not affect the quality of your guitar’s sound. Many brands fit the bill, but some are more popular than others.

• Among stompbox guitar pedals, the BOSS TU-3 is often considered the industry standard. It offers many tuning modes and is virtually indestructible. It can also power other pedals in your signal chain if you provide the proper wiring.
• A popular polyphonic pedal tuner is the TC Electronic PolyTune 3. It allows for speedy tuning of all 6 guitar strings at once, but it can also tune one string at a time.
• The Korg Pitchblack is a mini stompbox that takes up less real estate on your pedal board.
• Companies like Digitech and Joyo offer lower priced offerings, and new brands seem to pop up all the time.

There’s an equally wide array of clip-on tuners available. Popular brands include:

• D’Addario Planet Waves NS Micro
• Korg PC2 Pitchclip
• A wide array of offerings from Snark (a particularly accurate model is the ST-8 Super Tight)

While it isn’t as precise as other methods, you can learn to tune a guitar by ear. (As a bonus, tuning by ear can train you to recognize pitch, helping you become a better guitarist.)

There are a few different methods for tuning a guitar by ear. Regardless of which method you use, you’ll need to tune one “reference string,” usually your 6th string (the lowest and thickest string), to the proper pitch first. This ensures that you don’t tune the rest of the strings incorrectly.

1. 1. Reference notes from an external source: In this method, you’ll use another instrument (such as a piano), a tuning fork or pitch pipe, or a digital sound file as your guide to achieving the right pitch for each string. Simply play the note in unison with the guitar string you’re tuning, then turn the peg until the pitch matches your reference.
2. 2. Use other strings as a reference: You can also tune by ear using your own strings as reference notes for one another. Simply leave your other five strings open, then fret the string you’re tuning to match, either at unison (i.e., the exact same pitch) or at octave (i.e., the same note at an octave above or below the original). Alternatively, you can do the reverse: leave one string open, then fret the other five strings to match the pitch at unison or octave.
3. 3. Use 5th- and 7th-fret harmonics: Finally, you can use the natural harmonics at certain spots on your fretboard to tune your guitar by ear. Once you’ve established your low E string as a reference note, pluck the fifth fret on that string, along with the seventh fret on the A string (the next thinnest). The two notes should sound identical. If they don’t, adjust your A string until they match. Continue moving across the guitar in the same manner (playing the 5th-fret harmonic on the lower string and the 7th-fret harmonic on the higher string) until all of your strings have been tuned.

While it shouldn’t be your first option, it is possible to tune your guitar with your smartphone. Your phone relies on its external microphone to pick up the sound of your guitar, and other ambient sounds can interfere with its reading. Still, an online guitar tuner app on your phone is quite handy as a backup. BOSS makes one such app, and the Gismart Chromatic Tuner Free is another strong offering. There are hundreds of tuning apps for Android and iOS, so pick the one that suits your personal taste.

A tuner is one of the most important investments a guitar player can make. Whether you’re investing in a $100 stompbox or a $10 clip-on, you want to prioritize excellent intonation to keep your audience and your fellow band members happy. And while free phone apps can be a good backup, made sure you have either a stompbox or clip-on with you at every gig and rehearsal. Even the best players are no match for an out of tune guitar.

Whether you’re an aspiring singer-songwriter or have dreams of changing the world with your music, becoming a skilled and accomplished guitar player takes practice and perseverance. No one knows this better than legendary guitarist Tom Morello. In Tom Morello’s MasterClass on the electric guitar, the two-time Grammy winner shares his approach to making music that challenges the status quo, and delves deeper into the riffs, rhythms, and solos that launched his career.

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