Guitar Tuners
Starting in the late 70’s/early 80’s, digital technology made it possible to measure pitch with a microprocessor and display the readings on an LED/LCD screen.
In 1936, the first successful instrument tuner known as the Stroboconn, was released.
Using a technology now known as “strobe tuning” this machine offered incredibly accurate pitch measurement. While the original Stroboconns are now mainly collector’s items, the same basic technology is still used in the most accurate strobe tuners today.
One of the most important pedals, on a guitarist’s pedal board, is a tuner. A guitar must be in tune, Everything about your sound is affected by your tuning. This includes your strings, effects, amp, pickups, and ultimately, your tone.
Korg Guitar Tuner
D’Addario Accessories Guitar Tuner
Even for a beginner, it is important, to clearly hear notes properly, in order to learn to play. The most skilled guitarist will sound awful, if they are playing a guitar, that is out of tune. Imagine your favorite songs being played on an out of tune guitar. It would drastically change the outcome of a great song, into something, that you woudn’t want to hear. Great tones begin with a properly tunes instrument..
Modern technology has opened up a whole new world of possibilities, which allowed for a ton of new guitar tuner designs that were cheaper and more practical for daily-use.
Vivlex Chromatic Tuner
Korg Guitar Tuner (GACS)
For electric guitars, there was a standard 1/4″ jack connection. For acoustic guitars, there was a built-in microphone, which made it possible to tune other instruments as well.
There are tons of options for handheld tuners, which vary in price range. Some have premium features such as: chromatic tuning, instrument presets, and tempered tuning.
You should place your tuner first in your pedal chain.
This is where your signal is the strongest. Having a strong signal will allow your tuner, to calculate the most accurate tuning. When other pedals are placed before the tuner, it will create impedance and weaken the signal. The result would affect the accuracy, of the tuner’s reading, and it’s tuning.
Korg Sledgehammer Clip-on-Tuner
Snark SN1X Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
If you are using a foot stompbox, switcher or volume pedal, it may come with a tuner out feature. It just lets you connect your tuner, outside of the signal chain. In this case, you can place your tuner anywhere you want. It just keeps the tuner from loading down your signal, and you wont need a true bypass.
Handheld Tuners
Handheld tuners aren’t nearly as accurate as strobe tuners, but they became extremely popular. They were smaller, cheaper, and more convenient to use. They became the industry standard for guitar players, both electric and acoustic.
KLIQ MetroPitch
Clip-On Tuners
Despite all the benefits of handheld tuners, their biggest flaw is that they’re ineffective in loud environments.
StroboClip HD Clip-On Tuner
Boss TU-10 Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
This tuner works by clipping it to the guitar’s headstock. It measures pitch with a contact microphone that senses vibrations from the wood.
This style of tuner is perhaps the most popular of all designs, especially for acoustic guitar.
Chromatic Tuners
A chromatic tuner will allow you to tune to every note in the chromatic scale. This means that it will tune all the notes between octaves, including sharps and flats.
A chromatic tuner is important because it keeps every note in a scale in sync, and follows the correct melodic format.
Monoprice Chromatic Pedal Tuner
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
Chromatic tuners are great, if you use alternate tunings, like drop D, or drop C. It is important that all the notes are tuned properly, so that your chords and melodies stay in sync. I recommend using one, because it is accurate, and does the job quickly.
Pedal Tuners
When pedal effects first began growing in popularity, it was only a matter of time before someone made one into a guitar tuner. A tuner pedal works by plugging your electric guitar into the pedal with an instrument cable. The pedal then identifies the electrical signal coming in through the instrument cable as a pitch, and displays that pitch on the display of the pedal.
Donner Tuner Pedal
TC Electronic POLYTUNE 3 NOIR
The advantage of this design is that it allows players to instantly tune-up on-stage, without plugging-in to a separate channel.
They’re not as “feature-rich” as some other tuners, but they are quick and easy.
Multi-effect Tuners
Many multi-effect guitar pedals, have a tuner included. This offers the power of a multi-effects pedal, with auto tuning built in.
NUX Studio Series Solid Studio
Boss TU-30 Metronome Tuner
Metronome Tuners
Many multi-effect guitar pedals, have a tuner included. This offers the power of a multi-effects pedal, with auto tuning built in.
Polyphonic Tuners
Polyphonic tuners are the new breed of pedal tuners. They allow you tune all 6 strings of your guitar in a single strum.
They quickly became popular because they are huge time-savers, especially on-stage.
ROADIE 2 | Smart Automatic Guitar Tuner
Rockbard Stage Tuner
Rack Tuners
While pedal tuners were an effective solution to on-stage tuning, they didn’t make sense for those who used rack gear. In this case, a rack tuner was the obvious solution.
As a huge side-benefit, the extra large 19″ casing allowed for more sophisticated hardware, and a ton of advanced features.
They also provided an ideal solution for recording studios, since they offered multiple ins/outs. They could be easily incorporated into the most complex setups.
Soundavo PMX-3300
Sound Hole Tuners
For acoustic guitar players, handheld and clip-on tuners are another accessory to keep track of.
Since musicians are sometimes less-than-responsible, there was a demand for a better tool.
D’Addario NS Micro Acoustic Soundhole Tuner
12 Sound Hole Magnetic Pickup Transducer Tuner Kit
To solve this problem, sound hole tuners were eventually invented. They allow players to permanently mount a tuner inside the guitar body. Some models allow for silent tuning, which is perfect in loud environments.
App Tuners
These days, you can do almost anything with a smartphone app. Guitar tuning is no exception.
There are tons of different tuning apps available.
Many people feel that the mics on smartphones are designed for speech, and not for music. There are problems with app tuners, due to the hardware, not software.
Virtual Tuners
In 2008, before app tuners existed, The Peterson Company invented a computer-based virtual strobe tuner known as the StroboSoft. This strobe technology was less sophisticated than a standard mechanical strobe, because it couldn’t pick up harmonic partials.
Peterson StroboPlus Chromatic Handheld Strobe Tuner
Virtual tuner is an online windows program for tuning a musical instrument, like a guitar. The program detects the frequency being played and displays the results in a frequency meter. It also displays the note closest to the frequency.
