Staying in tune while rehearsing at home or on stage with other guitarists you play with is crucial to a good performance. Why do you need a guitar tuner? Guitars tend to go out of tune for different reasons; the age and condition of the strings and temperature changes. Therefore, getting the best guitar tuner will help you keep your weapon of choice in tune.
With so many choices on the market, you might have difficulty determining the right tuner for your guitar. Since we want the best for you, we have rounded up top experts' reviews to track down the best guitar tuners available to buy. Keep reading, and you will find other information that you never knew you needed.
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Best Guitar Tuner
1. D'Addario Micro Guitar Tuner, Headstock Clip-On
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D'Addario micro headstock tuner is a lightweight and compact device that hides behind the headstock blending into the instrument, also perfect for maintaining your guitar's balance. It comes with an accurate transducer that picks up the guitar's vibration rather than sound.
This tuner has a simple chromatic layout screen that is easy to read. It signals green when in tune, yellow when close, and red when out of tune. Moreover, it comes with a readily available CR2032 battery with a long life so that you can enjoy maximum battery life thanks to the auto-off function on the tuner.
D'Addario micro headstock tuner features an adjustable padded clamp and a 360-degree swivel mechanism for optimal viewing angles and maximum positioning flexibility. Besides, it is ideal for both right and left-handed instruments with any size of headstocks. It is also perfect for electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, basses, and ukuleles.
Your audience can hardly realize there is a tuner in your guitar. Many guitarists use it worldwide, so we recommend you try it out.
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2. BOSS TU-3 Guitar Tuner
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Boss TU 3 is a bass guitar tuner pedal, which comes with high brightness mode for drop tuning support, outdoor visibility, and guitar/bass mode. Other functions consist of bass tuning up to three flats and drop tunings up to six semitones.
Boss TU 3 is powered by a battery, which allows a parallel connection for powering seven other pedals. It has true bypass switching mode, which may be an issue for the tone-obsessed; however, the normal Boss buffered output helps when using many pedals and long lead.
This pedal tuner has an accuracy of 1 cent, which is good enough for an inexperienced guitar player. The 23-segment LED display has a calibration range, which shows when in tune, when close, and when out of tune.
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3. Peterson StroboStomp HD (403884) Guitar Tuner
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StroboStomp HD 403884 is one of the most accurate clip-on guitar tuners on the market; the accuracy is at 0.1 cents enough for the most discerning of ears. The Peterson StroboStomp features a huge HD display, capo settings, drop tuning, and soft rubber-gripped jaws that can accommodate more than 50 of Peterson's sweetened tunings and other tuning quirks of some of the most popular models of guitars in the world.
The StroboStomp HD has a unique feature that you will rarely find in other tuners. You will find both buffered and true bypass modes, 135' sweetened tunings', and micro-adjusted reference pitch points, which are optimized for a variety of altered tunings and instrument types. Besides, you can save your own presets.
Sweetened tunings are not for everyone; however, when the tuning doesn't sound right, it is often the solution. Additionally, tuning a guitar with this guitar tuner can be tricky for beginner players, so make a plan to buy it if you feel you have all it takes.
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4. Polyphonic Guitar Tuner Pedal (TC Electronic PolyTune 3)
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TC electronic polyTune 3 is involved in polyphonic tuning, where you can tune all strings at once. It offers players the option between all-analog true bypass and buffered bypass, adjusting through internal Dip switches. It also gives you a fast, high-quality tone and an accurate tuning toll in a single unit.
The TC electronic polyTune 3 has an ultra-bright LED display for higher tuning accuracy and shows when in tune, when close, and when out of tune. It is worth mentioning that TC electronic polyTune 3 is praised by amateur and professional players for its simplicity in guitar tuning.
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5. Korg Pitchblack Advance guitar tuner
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This tuner has a cutting-edge design, which offers enhanced visibility, aided by a visible screen display in all light conditions. It comes with amazing 60-hour battery life from alkaline nine-volts and DC out, allowing a parallel connection for powering other pedals. Furthermore, you will find four-meter display modes: true bypass modes, regular mode, strobe, and mirror mode.
The accuracy of this Korg Pitchblack advance guitar tuner in strobe mode is 0.1 cents. It is one of the most accurate pedal guitar tuners on the market.
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6. Snark ST-2 All Instrument Clip-On Chromatic Tuner
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If you are looking for a tuner that is visible in low light, look no further. Snark ST-2 comes in different colors and a bright, colorful LED display that makes them visible. If you are looking for an entry-level guitar tuner that is small enough to throw in the jacket pocket or gig bag, this is a decent choice.
The display of this chromatic tuner rotates 360 degrees for easy viewing. The tap tempo metronome clamps on tight to your guitar headstock, providing a chromatic tuner that can switch between vibration mode that uses a transducer to convert and interpret the string's vibrations into a tuning reading and microphone mode for tuning acoustic instruments.
The accuracy of this guitar tuner is not posted. However, Snark ST-2 is accurate enough for most players and easy to grips with for beginners.
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The main categories of guitar tuners
1. Clip-on tuners
These tuners are usually clipped onto the guitar's headstock. They work by sensing the vibrations of each string as you play the guitar. Clip-on tuners are popular for guitarists who play in loud environments like concert stage or club. They are ideal for such environments as compared to other tuners.
2. Handheld tuners
If you want to keep it simple, this type of tuner is for you. These tuners are small enough to fit in your hand and feature a display with LEDs that show the note you play. If you play an E string, the LED will show whether the string is sharp, flat, or on the pitch. Just turn your guitar's tuner until the LED shows it's in tune. They are very straightforward to use.
3. Pedal tuners
These guitar tuners pedals are a great option for acoustic guitars with pickup because you have to connect your guitar to the pedal for it to work. It is not suitable for acoustic guitars with no pickup or output port of some kind.
Pedal guitar tuners have a LED display that lets you see whether the string you play is flat, sharp, or right on pitch. They are extremely accurate tuners and very well-known for on-stage use, as you can keep the tuner plugged in during a performance and check your tuning anytime you want.
4. Guitar tuner app
With the advance in technology, there are a few guitar tuning apps available for your smartphone. Although many of the free or inexpensive guitars tuning apps don't have many features, they are a remarkable new tool for guitarists to have in their tuning backup option.
Most of these tuning apps pick up your guitar through your phone's built-in microphone, and for that, they are best used in quiet surroundings.
5. Soundhole tuners
If you are fond of losing or forgetting to bring your tuner to a gig, a soundhole tuner will be the perfect tuner for you. These tuners are designed to fit inside of your acoustic guitar, giving you one less item that you will have to keep track of with your gear setup. Moreover, it can always be on, allowing you to tune the guitar whenever you need to easily.
6. Virtual tuners
These tuners are ideal for recording studios because they offer a single source to get every instrument tuned in sync. With this tuner, you have the option to use it either as stand-alone software or as a plugin within your DAW software. Therefore, if much of your music is made on a computer, this tuner is for you.
7. Rack tuners
These tuners are effective for those on-stage guitar players who use rack gear for tuning. Also, they are the perfect solution for recording studios since they have multiple ins/outs and can be incorporated into the most complex setups.
Factors to consider when buying the best guitar tuner
1. Tuning Accuracy
Consider the accuracy of the tuner usually measured in cents. Tuners have different accuracy; one may be more accurate than others. The accuracy measure is given, for example, like this 0.1cents.
2. Screen brightness
Most guitar tuners are more than bright enough and allow you to adjust the brightness to suit your situation, and this is helpful when the lighting is too dim or too bright. If you do many gigs and are on stage most of the time, you should be very careful about the display. A good tuner should be easy to read.
However, most of the new guitar tuners have a display that can be adjusted brightness; therefore, you are safe when it comes to brightness.
3. Power and battery life
Consider the battery life when buying a guitar tuner. A battery powers most clip-on guitar tuners. Some of them have rechargeable batteries, which can be convenient.
Pedal guitar tuners do not have a battery. All you have to do is hook them up to the pedal power supply.
4. Ability to mute signal
If you have an electric guitar, the benefit of having a tuner pedal is being capable of muting your signal on demand. An audience listening to you tune your guitar is the easiest way to look like a beginner. You can adjust your guitar's volume down with clip-on guitar tuners since they pick up the vibrations directly through the guitar headstock.
It is very handy to be capable of muting your signal at any time. You can use your guitar tuner to keep things silent while you change guitars, minimize the hum of your amp, or stop ear-piercing feedback while you are not playing.
If you have an electric guitar, we recommend getting a tuner even if your amp has an inbuilt tuner already.
5. The versatility of the best guitar tuner
Look for a tuner that is as versatile as possible. Handheld guitar tuners have both built-in microphones and a ¼ inch input that you can connect to, so they work with almost every type of musical instrument.
Clip-on tuners are also versatile, working with some non-fretted stringed instruments and most fretted instruments.
6. True bypass and Buffer
Some tuners use the true bypass, other tuners use a buffered bypass, and some provide you with the option between the two. The ideal option for you will depend on whether you have other pedals that have a buffer, how many pedals you have in your rig, and the quality of the pedals.
7. Price and brands
Guitar tuners are very affordable nowadays, and you can get a high-quality tuner for under a price of $60. Clip-on tuners are usually the most affordable, while pedal tuners can be higher in price. However, with the price, pedal tuners guarantee ease of use. If you the money, invest in a pedal and make your music experience better.
It would be best if you are looking for a brand that you feel right about it. If you don't have a personal preference, you can find a cheap but quality tuner from your favorite brand.
