How to tune a guitar

To tune a standard 6 string guitar to standard tuning (E A D G B E), use the following procedure:

1. Match the pitch of the A string (second from the top, second thickest one). Use another instrument, tuning fork or pitch pipe. You can also use an electronic device (called chromatic tuners or automatic tuners.)
2. Next, tune the low E string (the thickest one, the one on top). Fret the string on the fifth fret, and pluck it and the A string open. They should produce the same tone. Alter the tuning of the E string until they do. When they are close, the sounds of the two strings will wabble. As the wabble decreases in speed, the pitches are getting closer together. When the wabble stops, then you've got it.
3. Tune the D string open to the same pitch as the fifth fret on the A string using the above procedure.
4. Tune the G string open to the same pitch as the fifth fret on the D string open.
5. Tune the B string open to the same pitch as the FOURTH fret on the G string open.
6. Tune the high E string open to the same pitch as the fifth fret on the B string open.

You are done! Use this procedure with different frets to achieve alternative tunings

I have given a few lessons to novice guitarists and one thing I have noticed is this: when I hear a beginner pull out his/her beautiful new guitar and play, (s)he is almost always out of tune. Ack! No matter how well you're playing, you just can't sound good if your guitar isn't tuned properly.

If you asked me yesterday why beginners are often out of tune, I would say it is because they have not been taught how to correctly tune a guitar. But after reading fricto's node, I might now say it is because they have been taught...

How to tune a guitar incorrectly.

What you shouldn't do is tune the guitar by comparing open strings with the adjacent and lower pitched string fretted at the 5^th position through the strings. This is because all errors you make in the tuning process will be compounded, just ask an experimental physicist. You won't ever tune two strings to exactly the same frequency, so by the time you've gotten to the last string it probably won't be well in tune with the string you started at. Even when you use this method and have gotten each adjacent strings as in-tune as your ear can resolve, when you strum a full Emaj chord I bet you can tell it still doesn't sound just right.

The second popular method, which is actually what I hear most people doing, is another example of how not to tune your guitar. This is when one compares the 5^th and 7^th harmonics on adjacent strings, and tweaks the tuning pegs until the beat cancel disappears. I wonder how many guitarists are there in E2 reading this and asking "ay! What's wrong with this way, it's how I tune up!" The vast majority of people don't know that this will not really work. The reason for this is that your guitar is designed and built as a tempered instrument, i.e. it follows the tempered tuning, rather than the diatonic tuning. To tune perfectly to the 5^th and 7^th harmonics on your guitar will mean, strictly speaking, that your guitar will be out of tune. Note: I believe the second method is actually acceptable, and I sometimes use it, for tuning an electric guitar - the reason being that a lot of rock music with a distortion pedal really doesn't require your guitar to be well in tune. Plus, it's easy, and when you're playing with other people you really need to get them to SHUT UP if you want to tune your guitar perfectly - and this can be quite difficult. =)

How to tune a guitar correctly.

If you're just going to play RATM and stuff, you can probably get away with a combination of the above methods. But if you're getting into classical guitar, which I strongly recommend you give a try, then you will need to adopt a more formal approach to tuning. Actually, adopt a more formal approach to guitar playing in general. Flamenco, tango, and the various other forms of exotic guitar are, as a rule, a great deal harder than anything you'll hear Tom Morello play. My friends think I'm the local guitar guru because I'll play any RHCP song they can throw in front of me, but I still struggle with brazilian guitar - those guys are guitar virtuosos, incredible.

Right, the first step in tuning your guitar is to get a reference point. Ask your sister to play you an A on the piano. Or get one of those blowpipe tuning things, dunno what they're called. Or you could buy a tuning fork - The one you want for your guitar is A:440 Hz. Tune the 5^th string to A at 110 Hz - use the beat cancel. Note that this step is not really necessary if you are just playing solo, all you really need is to have the guitar in tune relative to itself.

Now that you have tuned an A, you mustn't alter the pitch of that 5^th string. You need to tune all the other strings relative to the A.

• Tune the 6^th string by fretting it at the 5^th fret and comparing it with the open 5^th string.
• Tune the 4^th string at the 7^th fret to the 12^th fret harmonic on the 5^th string.
• Tune the 3^rd string at the 2^nd fret in the same way (to the 12^th harmonic).
• Tune the 2^nd string at the 10^th fret in the same way.
• Tune the 1^st string at the 5^th fret in the same way.

Congratulations, you should now be in tune. Hurl faeces at all those other idiots who haven't read this node, and pay them out for not knowing how to tune a guitar properly (hardly anybody does).

Now you just need to learn to play well.

srkorn: Ooh yeah, a floating whammy is a downright bitch. I hate those things. My electric (tigger) has one, which pisses me off since I love alternate tunings and can get whatever vibrato I might need with my left hand anyway (whoah, that sounds masturbatory).

Wim's homebaked solution for people who have got the shits with their floating bridge (I did this to tigger and the floater is no longer a problem): Unscrew the back panel, jam a fat chunk of wood (or something) behind the metal bit, as tight as possible. This will crudely force the bridge back, and you don't have the annoying floating bridge side-effects anymore. Of course this also means you can't play star spangled banner like Jimi anymore. =)

So, what's a body to do? To save time, I generally tune the low E, then the A, then the low E again, A again, D, low E (starting to see the pattern?), A, D, G, low E, A, D, G, B, then finally: low E, A, D, G, B, high E.

And now I hear you exclaiming, "Geez, what a pain in the ass! Do I have to do this every time?" Luckily, the answer is probably not. Most guitars with floating bridges are also equipped with locking nuts up at the head of the guitar, which allow you to fix the tension of the strings within a certain range... imagine a capo fastened on the 0th fret of the guitar, which keeps the string tension from altering if the tuning knobs move at all. Once you've tuned your guitar for the first time (after, say, adding new strings and stretching them out), fasten down the nuts, tune your A to concert pitch, and then proceed as described in the above write-up using the fine tuning pegs located next to the bridge.

A quick addition to the floating whammy bar tuning method - if you've just totally replaced the strings on your guitar, tuning up can take a while. Once you've gotten the strings on and have left them to stretch for a bit, start from the bottom E. Tune this quite a lot sharp - to F or G maybe. Next string, tune a bit less sharp. Next, even less sharp. The top E should be maybe a semitone, half a semitone out. Now go back to the bottom E and start again, trying to tune a lot closer to the note this time. After a few repetitions of this you should be in tune.

By the way, tuning by comparing a fretted note to an open note can be very bad, because when you push the string down onto the fret, you are stretching it. This especially goes if you've got an acoustic with high action or heavy strings. Usually I just tune my bottom string on the acoustic to some random approximation and say to hell with it. It's going to go out of tune any time I fret it anyway.

The all-time best way to tune would probably be to get a digital tuner. Look for one with both a jack socket to plug an electric into and a built-in mic (for tuning acoustics) and reference tone generator - good for putting a new set of strings on your guitar. I had one of these, but it went haywire. Incidentally, some models can also be used to tune other instruments such as a flute. My guitar FX unit also includes a tuner, albeit without a mic.

Contrary to wim's wu, if you're playing with distortion and you're planning to play any more than one note (and you're not using dissonance) it's quite important to be in tune. A power chord on a badly tuned guitar will sound pretty weird, and when you start adding thirds and so on into the equation, tuning is pretty important.

If you want to be even more precise, or you're cheap, you can tune up on your computer! Assuming you have a reasonably good soundcard with a mic or line-in port, you can get an adapter to step down from your large guitar cord to the smaller sized (but still compatible) ports on your soundcard (or, assuming you have a lot of the smaller cord, you can step up into the guitar). For those of us with un-amplified acoustics, you can just play into a mic or put it right in the sound hole.

I'd highly recommend AP Guitar Tuner (Free, Windows) for tuning off your computer.

Using a tuner also has the advantage of allowing one to tune up (or change into alternate tunings) between songs at a gig without any long drawn-out pauses - the only disadvantage being that the old joke about 'This is an old Chinese folk song - Tu Ning' is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Of course, it's always best to know how to do it 'by hand' for situations where you can't use a tuner for whatever reason, but it really does save a lot of time and effort...