Electric guitar tuner

How to tune an electric guitar with this tuner

1. Choose your input. Either play the guitar unplugged close to the microphone, or connect it to a USB audio interface and select the interface in the input menu. Check that the level meter moves when you play.
2. Select the neck pickup, turn the volume up and turn the tone knob down about halfway. Switch off distortion, chorus, delay and any pitch effect between the guitar and the tuner.
3. Press Start, pick the low E string (string 6) with a medium stroke and let it ring.
4. Turn the peg until the reading is centered. If the string is sharp, go a little below the note and tighten back up to it.
5. Tune the other five strings. On a guitar with a floating tremolo, go through all six strings two or three times, because each string you change moves the bridge.
6. Play every string again in the final recheck.

Electric guitar string notes and frequencies

These are the target notes for standard tuning, from the low E string (string 6) to the high E string (string 1). Choose another tuning in the tuner menu to see its notes.

Getting a clean signal into the tuner

A tuner reads pitch most reliably from a plain, steady note. Distortion adds strong overtones and compresses the note, chorus and vibrato move the pitch on purpose, and octave effects add a second note. Bypass them all while you tune. The neck pickup gives the strongest fundamental, and turning the tone knob down removes the bright overtones that can make the reading flicker.

With a USB audio interface, plug the guitar into the instrument input (often labeled Hi-Z or INST) and set the gain so the level meter shows a clear signal on a hard pick stroke without reaching the top. Then select the interface in the input menu. A direct signal ignores room noise, so this is the best option when other people are playing.

Without an interface, play the guitar unplugged. A solid-body guitar is quiet, so hold the microphone close to the strings, above the pickups, and raise the sensitivity slider. If nothing registers, the microphone test shows whether the browser hears your input.

Tuning a guitar with a tremolo or Floyd Rose

On a floating tremolo, the strings and the bridge springs pull against each other. When you tighten one string, the bridge tilts forward and every other string goes slightly flat. When you loosen one, the others go sharp. This is why lowering string 6 to drop D on a floating bridge pushes the other strings sharp.

Work in passes. Bring all six strings close to pitch, then go through them again more carefully, and repeat until a full pass needs no correction. Some players tune in the order 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3 so the pull on the bridge stays more even while they work.

On a Floyd Rose, set all the fine tuners to the middle of their range before you start. Unlock the nut clamps, tune with the pegs on the headstock, then lock the nut. The string usually goes slightly sharp when the clamp tightens, so finish with the fine tuners on the bridge.

Tuning and intonation are different problems

If the open strings read in tune but chords high on the neck sound wrong, the problem is usually intonation, not tuning. Intonation is set by where each saddle sits on the bridge.

To check it, tune the open string, then fret the same string at the 12th fret with normal pressure and read the tuner. The fretted note should match the open note one octave higher. If the fretted note is sharp, move that saddle away from the neck. If it is flat, move the saddle toward the neck. Retune the open string after each adjustment and check with fresh strings, because old strings never intonate well.

Pressing too hard on the frets also pushes notes sharp. If your chords read sharp only when you play them, try a lighter touch before you adjust the bridge.