
You can see this whenever you play a string through a tuner, whenever you play a note it goes sharp before returning to pitch. The harder you hit the strings, the more you will pop in and out of tune. You want your intonation to be bang on so that fretted notes sound as in-tune as open notes, but that is not always achievable, and is often contingent on your guitar’s construction. Stringed instruments are dealing with a lot of frequencies, a lot of reverberations, and your tuning depends on a number of factors, not least your setup. At least, not totally, and that is because stringed instruments are volatile. Here’s the elephant in the room your guitar is never in tune.

Pros would no doubt be better off with a strobe tuner, especially in the studio, but if your ear cannot pick up that amount of accuracy, is there any point in spending the extra money? How accurate are clip-on guitar tuners? They will be cheaper, easier to use and a quality chromatic tuner will be accurate enough to make your guitar sound in tune. Which clip-on guitar tuner is right for your needs depends on a number of factors, but we’d say that if you are a beginner, and likely to be playing a beginner’s guitar, you might be better off using a chromatic tuner. If they can be a little bit fiddly to operate at first - with the tuner displaying a spinning circle of the reference note and the note that you’ve picked, and you’ve got to tune very carefully until the display registers the correct pitch - the accuracy is incredible. This is a great option when time is of the essence, such as during a gig, or a recording session where the clock is ticking.įinally, you’ve got the strobe tuner, the most accurate and the most expensive of the options available. For quickly identifying tuning problems, there’s nothing better, and it’ll save you going string to string as with a chromatic tuner. These allow you to play all six strings simultaneously and will display which notes are in tune and which are not. The display might either show a needle or LED, typically showing green when you reach pitch. Here you play one note at a time and the tuner can tune to each of the 12 notes of Western music’s chromatic scale. Perhaps the most common is the chromatic tuner. There are three main types of guitar tuner and each one operates a little differently. (Image credit: D'Addario) Which clip-on guitar tuner is right for me? While most clip-ons should be okay for all finishes, it’s always best to check it is suitable for your guitar’s finish before taking the plunge. Now, a quick word of caution if you own a vintage acoustic or a very high-end instrument with a delicate nitrocellulose lacquer finish: some manufacturers, such as Snark, recommend that you don’t use them with fine finishes. And if everyone is using the same tuner, then you’re all tuning to the same standard and your jam sessions will be even more harmonious. Share it with your bandmates if you have a ukulele or bass guitar player in your ranks, it will tune them up, too. You can keep it in your case or in some cases your pocket.


SNARK GUITAR TUNER SPECS PATCH
Using a clip-on guitar tuner takes out another variable in your signal chain you won’t need another patch cable, it’s less cable to go through, and if you’ve got a long and complicated signal chain there’s fewer worries about high-end roll-off or other neurotic considerations that keep guitarists awake at night.Īnother practical consideration, and we’re definitely not cork-sniffing here, is that the clip-on guitar tuner is portable, typically taking a lithium-ion battery. There are other advantages besides pedalboard space. The clip-on tuner could make that a reality.
SNARK GUITAR TUNER SPECS FREE
Removing the tuner would free up some valuable real estate for, ooh, an analog delay pedal, for example. Of course, you could stay in tune with a pedal tuner, or with a fancy rack-mounted unit like the Korg Pitchblack Pro, but let’s imagine your pedalboard is already overcrowded as it is. Some acoustic-electric guitars will have an onboard tuner in their pickup and preamp system, but otherwise a clip-on is your best bet.įor electric guitar players it is a little more complicated. For acoustic guitar players, it’s a no-brainer. There’s no question a tuner is an essential tool for 99% of guitarists out there. And besides, your tuner will help you make adjustments to your guitar’s intonation - so it can be in tune at all - and facilitate alternate tunings if that’s your bag. In the past, we might have tuned by ear to a tuning fork or reference pitch, and that was more or less good enough for rock’n’roll, but this approach takes training of the ear to be anywhere near accurate. That’s easy – because you are not a sadist and you wish to keep your bandmates and audience sane! There’s nothing worse than an out-of-tune guitar, or indeed the sound of a guitar tuning up.
