Why an Electric Guitar Tuner Is an Essential Piece of Gear

An electric guitar tuner is the most effective way to tune an electric guitar. It is also the method I strongly recommend to anyone seeking advice on guitar tuning. There are at least two reasons why almost all professional guitarists use electric guitar tuners. First, they appreciate the importance of being in tune. Second, they know electric guitar tuners are the most effective way to get in tune.

The first time I played a guitar was when I borrowed one from a friend in college. After a bit, he stopped by to look in on me. I strummed a few chords I had learned. To my surprise, he winced as if he was in pain. The guitar was not even close to being in tune. Having had very little musical experience, I could not tell that the instrument was out of tune.

Everybody knows that you need to do certain things in order to play the guitar, things like: pick notes, strum the strings, fret chords, etc. What is not so obvious is that developing a musical ear is just as important. For a beginner to really improve his or her musical ear, it is essential to consistently play in tune. Conversely, often playing out of tune will slow down the speed with which a beginner developes his or her ear. Making matters worse, many beginners do not want to spend much money on their first guitar. Unfortunately, one of the characteristics of a cheaply made guitar is that it goes out of tune easily. The scenario can result in real frustration.

It used to be that many people used the Boss TU-2 electric guitar tuner as their go-to tuner. The accuracy of a tuner is measured in terms of cents; a "cent" is defined as 1/100 of the distance between consecutive notes. The problem with TU-2 electric guitar tuner was its accuracy which was +/- 3 cents. Three cents is discernible by somebody with a good ear. Another problem happens if two people play together and each one tunes his or her instrument using a different TU-2 electric guitar tuner. The two guitars could end up out of tune (with respect to each other) by as much as 6 cents.

In the not-too distant past, a number of well-known professional guitarists used Peterson strobe tuners. Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash used to use a Peterson strobe tuner (he has since changed tuners). Andy Timmons, a guitarists' guitarist, also has used Peterson strobe tuners. The Peterson strobe tuners are accurate to +/- 1 cent. But there were two bad things about Peterson tuners. First, they were just downright expensive. Second, they were known to break down. If you search the internet, you can easily find several stories of people who bought a Peterson electric guitar tuner and, a short while later, it stopped working.

A new generation of electric guitar tuners has emerged in the last three years or so. These tuners combine the low-price and durability of the Boss TU-2 tuner with the high accuracy of the Peterson tuners. Anybody who has an electric guitar should seriously consider getting one of these electric guitar tuners.