A guitar tuner is available in various types and makes to easy to tune the guitar, which is done by turning the pegs on the headstock of the guitar. There are many different guitar tuning tools out there ranging from chromatic tuners to self-tuning guitars. Find reviews of the best guitar tuners for alternate tunings, polyphonic performance, or for serious accuracy.
Introduction
While string instruments are a joy to play, they need to be tuned regularly (even some percussion instruments) in order to get the right tones from them. There are several ways to tune a string instrument (guitar, bass, ukulele), but the easiest is to do it with a guitar tuner.
When it comes to taking good care of your guitar and ensuring it sounds right, you need to learn to tune your guitar. You cannot just be dependent on others to do this task every time.
Tuning is an important activity that you need to learn as a beginner. Guitars go out of tune over time and it’s important to set it right.
An out-of-tune guitar is just not playable, so it is important that you take the trouble to learn how to tune the guitar all by yourself.
The three top ways to tune a guitar are:
- Electronic tuners: Readily available in the market
- Manual Tuning: Using a tuning Fork
- Online Tuning: There are several that you will find online
If you play the guitar, make sure you have a guitar tuner as well; it will save time and it will also encourage you to tune the guitar all by yourself and not depend on others, every time your notice your guitar is going off tune.
How Do the Tuners Work?
The electronic ones come with a microphone that detects and measures the frequency of the notes played on the guitar.
The most widely used tuning for guitars is the “standard tuning” of E-G-B-D-A-E.
Each of these notes has a specific frequency associated with it, which is detected and identified by the tuner, which is then compared to the standard reference tuning frequencies.
A tuning fork is generally used as a source of reference. So the guitarist would first listen to the tuning fork and then try to play the same note on the guitar. When they are in sync, the guitar is tuned to that particular note.
There are various brands of guitar tuners such as Seiko, Gilbert, Qwik Tune, Yamaha, Matrix and Korg, and the prices can vary from as little as twenty dollars to around a hundred dollars. Regardless, a Guitar Tuner is an important piece of equipment to have for any experienced guitarist.
Guitar Tuners Types
Tuning the guitar is an essential maintenance task that every guitar player has to do. There are a few ways to go about doing this.
The “Free” way is to look for an online guitar tuner (an app) and do it using the instructions provided. However, a more efficient and easier way, is to get hold of a nice guitar tuner (available for less than 10 bucks) and use it. You can choose from a range of clip-on tuners as well.
Guitar Tuners are essential accessories that helps your guitar produce the right notes. Guitar tuners are available in various styles:
- Pedal tuners are best suited for players who wish to tune during a live performance. As the name suggest, these are placed under the feet. They also have better lit screens that makes it easy to read on dimly-lit stages. Most pedal tuners, when activated, cut the signal from your guitar so that the audience cannot hear the unpleasant sounds while you go about tuning your guitar. However, these can be expensive as they are usually loaded with extra features.
A popular model is the Boss TU-3 Chromatic pedal tuner that is ruggedly built and has an indicator that suggests your tuning is complete. - Clip-on or headstock tuners are popular, in general, among guitar players. It comes in handy especially when playing live as you can quickly re-tune the strings between songs, if you feel the need. These tuners check the tuning based on the vibrations of the strings. These are affordable, do not require a separate power source (work on batteries). The Snark SN-1 guitar and bass tuner is a popular model that is convenient to use and gives precise results. Use it on the front or back of your headstock, depending on whether you’re left- or right-handed.
- Hand-held Tuners are quite accurate, besides being cheaper and are smaller in size. You get models with built-in microphone which allows them to be used for tuning other instruments as well. Nowadays, handheld tuners are affordable, and provide lots of features such as: chromatic tuning, instrument presets, tempered tuning.
Best Guitar Tuners
Now its easy to stay in tune than ever, thanks to these fine digital guitar tuners. Don’t ever get caught at a gig without one of these the best guitar tuners. Most of these work with guitar as well as bass guitars. (Electric guitar tuner, acoustic guitar tuner or bass guitar tuner). Some of the models also include a tuner (the electronic handheld ones).
If you are looking for a Guitar Tuner, you have come to the right place. We have the Guitar Tuner that you are looking for. Browse through our selection below.
Best Clip-on Tuners:
- Snark SN-5 (Budget): Inexpensive, accuracy up to +/- 1 cent. Powered by a single CR2032 battery.
- Korg Pitchhawk 2 (Best Value): Accuracy +/- 1 cent, overall design and the responsiveness is better (compard to Snark). Needs a CR2032 battery.
- Peterson StroboClip (Premium): Far better build quality and accuracy (compared to the above two tuners). Accuracy up to +/- 0.1 cent (ten times better than most tuners). The body is all metal, and it feels like a premium tuner.
Best Pocket Tuners:
- Korg GA-40 (Budget)
- Korg TM-60 (Best Value): tuner and metronome
- Boss TU12-EX (Premium)
Best Pedal (Stage) Tuners:
- Korg Pitchblack (Budget)
- TC Electronics Polytune 2 (Best Value)
- Boss TU-3 (Premium)
Special Feature (King of the Hill):
Peterson VSS-C Strobo Stomp
Here are some good options that you may consider:
- Snark SN-2 All Instrument Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
- Korg GA1 Guitar and Bass Tuner
- Korg CA-40 Large Display Auto Chromatic Tuner
More Guitar Tuners
The best guitar tuner usually comes with the following features:
- Useful for acoustic, electric and bass guitars
- The compact (clip-on) ones fit on the guitar well without marring the finish of the guitar
- These come with clear, easily readable and well thought out display
- Very sensitive and immediately responds to any note or change in pitch
- Pitch resolution and pitch indication is accurate, pitch calibration usually from 415-466 Hz
- Built-in metronome with a range from 40-250 (BPM)
D’Addario Nexxus 360 USB-rechargeable headstock tuner
This is a rechargeable clip-on tuner that offers 24 hours of tuning from a single charge, after which it needs to be plugged it into a USB power source. The tuner can be rotated through 360 degrees.
TC Electronic UniTune Clip
An affordable and excellent clip-on tuner with high degree of accuracy. It works with with any guitar, bass or ukulele.
How to Tune a Guitar: Video
Here’s a video that shows how to use an electronic guitar tuner to tune your guitar.
Electronic/Electric Guitar Tuner
There are a couple of reasons why most professional guitarists use electronic tuners.
- They know how it’s important for the guitar to be in tune.
- They want equipment that will do the job quickly and precisely.
And the best way to do this is to use an Electric Guitar Tuner.
When buying one, look for a tuner that has chromatic note detection. Normally, tuners can only adjust sounds of some pitches. But with a chromatic tuner, you can conveniently adjust the pitches of any note, which makes it more versatile and can also be used with other stringed instruments.
Just make sure to turn off the tuner when not in use so that the battery lasts longer.
If you are new to guitars and are seeking advice on guitar tuning, then the most effective way to do it is to use a guitar tuner. Its the best way to make sure that your instrument is in-tune. When you have little musical experience, it’s difficult to tell if the guitar has gone out of tune or not, and that’s why an electric guitar tuner is so useful.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
tunejane says
I think TC Electronics, Hardwire, Korg and Boss make better floor tuners. Had heard good about Sonic Research’s Turbo Tuner as well but never used it. You just can’t beat a polyphonic if you just need to tweak between songs. I had a Snark earlier but the display was dim, I could hardly read it in normal light, and it was like useless outdoors. Besides, Snark tuners are not very accurate, they have this “approximately-in-tune-but-not-really-at-all” level of of tuning.
Personally, what I think is that every tuner should display how many cents + or – that the note is at.
keytarhq says
For the dim Snark display…replacing the batteries helps.
tonetwister says
If you want the best in class tuner, its going to cost you…the Peterson VSS-C StroboStomp Classic Tuner is 200 bucks, but its worth very penny. The intonation is just perfect on all my guitars now. Wish I’d bought it earlier and not thought too much about the cost.
Snark tuners are cheap but they work quite well, to get a basic tune up quickly. I know of a few guitarists who use a Snark clip first, and then an advanced one such as Peterson clip on strobe tuner to fine tune each string.