Tuning Your Guitar

How to quit wasting time and start playing instead of tuning.

How tuning your guitar with an electronic guitar tuner can make your life much easier, save a ton of time, train your ears and help you sound better than ever.

Every beginning guitarist encounters it - frustration with learning to tune your guitar before practice or performance.

Tuning your guitar doesn't have to be that hard. When a beginner is taught that tuning by ear is the right way to go, it can waste their practice time and lead to discouragement.

Being out of tune can not only make you sound like you don't know what you are doing, it can throw off your ear training and make improvisation much harder.

Until recently tuning your guitar by ear, has been taught as the way to get the job done.

Tuning to a pitch pipe or piano is pretty much a guessing game.

Why? because untrained ears have nothing solid to work with.

With the use of electronic guitar tuners - you can be sure that your guitar is tuned properly and your guitar is sounding its best.

With a reliable reference point from a tuner, you can also be sure that the note you are hearing is really the note you should be tuning your guitar to.

This gives you an advantage for training your ears. I believe in investing in equipment I can grow with. If you're going to spend money you might as well make it count.

Playing guitar can be a lifelong hobby or a full-time profession. Anything you can do to make the job of staying in tune easier and more accurate is worth investing in. The money spent on a great tuner can make a big difference in your sound and training your ears for accuracy.

I have found what I believe are great choices for tuning your guitar. Electronic guitar tuners are showing up in all kinds of guitar gear. Amps such as the Line 6 Spider Jam, effect boxes such as the Digitech RP series, you can even have them built into your guitar, N-Tune is currently the only one of its kind available for electric guitars.

What types of tuners are available for tuning your guitar?

Tuning your guitar - choices in tuners

There are quite a few choices in electronic guitar tuners out there and I don't think of that choice as which one will do everything, but which one is right for what I am doing and where I am.

For example, I'm not going to bring my Peterson Strobostomp (a $200 unit) to a friends house for a jam session, but my little Planet waves SOS tuner is great.

Tuners built into effects and amps - These are really great, but they can be tricky to use. Reading them can be tough though not all of them are bad. Having another tuner to check how they work can help you get used to them.

Digitech RP series multi-effects are great and they have a tuner built in.

As does the Line 6 Spider line of amps which I highly recommend.

Strobe Tuners - - What I consider to be The gold standard of tuners- none are more accurate, fast or as versatile. These are easy to use, well worth the money.

I recommend the Peterson Strobostomp because of its extreme accuracy, versatility and ease of use. If a tuner can be sexy, this one is.

These are very easy to use, its a pedal tuner, you choose your setting, I like the sweetened tuning for guitar, make sure your plugged in, pluck the string and turn the tuning peg until the display stops moving.

Chromatic tuners - - These electronic guitar tuners are designed to tune your guitar to any note in the chromatic scale. There are many to choose from. The

Boss TU-2 is a great choice in a pedal tuner. It's a proven workhorse that's been on the market for years. It's very durable and can take it.

A very portable and inexpensive choice is the

Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner. Hard to beat the price and you're can stick it in your guitar case or pocket.

For acoustic guitars without built-in tuners - Contact guitar tuners -Small portable electronic guitar tuners designed to make tuning an acoustic guitar, fast and easy. You clamp these onto the head of your guitar, watch the display and tune each string to pitch.

The Intellitouch PT1 tuner is very versatile and convenient. These are clamped to the head of the guitar and pick up the vibrations to give you an accurate readout and quick tuning.

N-Tune On Board Chromatic Electric Guitar Tuner.

- These are installed directly into your electric guitar. I can't think of what could be handier than these. You can find their homepage here at http://www.ntune.com/.

Robotic tuners - These are amazing! Plug it in, set the dial pluck the string and this tuner does the work for you. Only one brand to choose from - String master.

Planet waves SOS tuner Use it like a guitar pick, set the dial pluck the string, adjust your tuning key and watch the string until it stops moving, then you are in tune. This is a very handy tool, designed for standard tuning. Easy to carry with you, easy to use once you get used to it and inexpensive.

Peterson Strobosoft software strobe tuner

I've tried to use another tuner software without much success. I recommend the Peterson Strobosoft tuner hands down. This is a software tuner you won't outgrow.

I've dedicated a separate page to tuning each of the following types of guitar..

Be sure to check out these related pages before you leave..

Electric guitar tuning - Here I discuss the importance of proper tuning for the electric guitar and solutions to some common problems your might encounter. Tuning your guitar with an electronic guitar tuner is your best choice whether you choose standard tuning, alternate tuning or drop D tuning.

Acoustic guitar tuning - Tuning correctly and keeping it in tune is the goal. Here're some tips and recommendations for electronic tuners.

There you go - the above links will take you to pages with more detail for tuning your guitar with electronic guitar tuners.

Return home from tuning your guitar.