2014/01/06

Acoustic Guitar Tuner

A quality guitar tuner is a crucial tool in any guitarist's gig bag. A typical acoustic guitar has six strings, each of which is adjusted to produce a specific pitch (or musical note). While there are many varieties of guitar tunings, the strings on a standard guitar are tuned, from lowest to highest note, as follows: E-A-D-G-B-E.
"Tuning" a guitar refers to the process of precisely adjusting each string to produce the correct note. In order to accomplish this, a "reference pitch" is necessary. A reference pitch is a correct note to which the guitar may be adjusted (either higher or lower) until it perfectly matches. The reference pitch may come from another instrument, such as a piano or another guitar, or a tuning device, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe. Many electronic guitar tuners also feature a reference pitch emitter for tuning by ear. However, making accurate adjustments by ear can be challenging, and even frustrating, especially for beginning musicians.
That's where an electronic guitar tuner comes in. The main function of an electronic tuner is to automatically determine the pitch a string is producing and to visibly indicate whether that pitch is sharp (high), flat (low), or "in tune." The acoustic guitar tuner uses a microphone to detect the sound emitted from the guitar and displays its readings by LED or on an LCD screen. The most basic tuner is programmed for the standard guitar tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), while chromatic tuners feature the flexibility of tuning to match any note on the 12 note scale.
For tuning acoustic guitars, the quality of the tuner's microphone is very important, as this is only input source. The better the quality microphone, the more accurate reading you will receive. There are many cheap "entry level" tuners, but be careful, as you may end up frustrated by a tuner that is unable to correctly determine the pitch of your strings.

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