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How To Tune A Guitar, Tune
Your Guitar, Guitar Tuning, & Bass Tuning
Guitar
Tuner
Using is Guitar Tuner or Auto Guitar Tuner is
the most popular way to tune an electric guitar or acoustic guitar. Most
are battery operated and perform a variety of tuning functions. The most
simple guitar tuners will tune your guitar to a basic E tuning (E,A,D,G,B,E).
Most guitar tuners will say 440hz on them as well. This is just a hz meter
reading and it's fine that it says this for E Tuning. Many
guitar tuners have an input to plug your electric guitar into or a built in microphone
to pickup you acoustic guitar sound. Plug your guitar into the input and
your display should show you a meter that picks up your guitar string sound when
you pluck a string. Your low E string is string
number 6, the A string is number 5 and so on until you
reach string 1 which is your high E string. Now, pluck the first string
(Low E) and you should see your meter moving. You should turn your guitar
tuning peg until the meter reaches the middle of the meter or 0 mark. It
may take some trial and error to figure it out, but it's overall pretty simple.
Now pluck your A String (Number 5 on the tuner). Tune this string until it
also reached the 0 reading or middle of the meter. The closer you are to
the middle or zero, the more perfect your
guitar will be in tune. Pluck your D String and tune to
the middle meter reading. Now continue with each string until you have
tuned all six strings of your guitar. Browse some Brands of Guitar Tuners
below, or Visit our Guitar Tuner
Store.
Guitar Tuning Modes
There are different keys or modes to tune your guitar as well. Some
guitar players may tune to Eb (E flat). For example, some early Van Halen
songs are tuned to Eb (E Flat). There are also open tuning modes as well.
Some guitar tuners have functions to let you tune to these different keys as
well. Just pick the mode you would like on the auto guitar tuner and tune
each string to the middle 0 meter reading and you should be fine.
Drop D Tuning
Many hard rock songs now a days are tuned to Drop D Tuning. Drop D
Tuning is actually not that hard to accomplish on your guitar. Basically,
you should tune your guitar normally, for example to a standard E Tuning as
described in the first paragraph. Feel free to use your guitar tuner and
tune to E. Once you are in Standard Tuning drop your Low E String to a D
tuning. In order to do this place your index finger on the second string
on the 5th fret and play this note. This is the note D. Now, play
your Low E Sting while holding the D note on the second string. Tune the
Low E String down one step to match the D Note your playing on the 5th fret
second string. Once the notes match you are now in drop D tuning.
Make sure to tune down to Lower octave D and not up to match the exact D note on
the A string.
Some songs that utilize Drop D Tuning are the Foo Fighters song Everlong and
Unchained by Van Halen. Also, if your guitar has a Floyd Rose Tremelo
system you may be able to add a device called the D Tuna. This was
invented by Eddie Van Halen himself. Basically, it is attached to your
trem (whammy bar) fairly easily. Once it is attached, you can easily tune
to Drop D Tuning by pulling the mechanism. It's a nice device to be able
to drop D tune on the fly. There is also a fine tuning part of the Drop D
Tuna that uses a tiny hex wrench to fine tune to drop D. A very nice
feature. Most EVH Peavey Wolfgang guitars came equipped with the Drop D
Tuna. The Peavey Wolfgang guitar has been discontinued, but click here to find
Used Peavey Wolfgang Guitars.
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Tuning a Floyd Rose Tremelo or Trem Guitar
Most Floyd Rose Tremelos (Whammy Bars) have fine tuning knobs so that you can
tune while your guitar strings are locked at the neck. The stings are
locked at the neck so that your guitar doesn't go out of tune when you use the
Floyd Rose Trem or Whammy Bar. Tune your guitar normally and lock the nut
at the neck, then fine tune using your Floyd Rose fine tuning knobs. The
tuning knobs should be near the mid position when you manually tune. That
way once your locked at the neck you have some room to turn the knobs and fine
tune your guitar. Once the guitar is locked at the neck position try fine
tuning with these knobs to get in tune. Manual tuning in this section
above refers to tuning using your pegheads on the headstock while the nut is
unlocked.
Tuning A Guitar By Ear
Some more experienced guitarist can tune there guitar by ear. For
example, they can listen to a song and figure out that a song is in E or Eb
tuning and play the song. For example, Back in Black by AC/DC is tuned in
E. Try tuning your low E string to a specific song you know and want to
learn on guitar. Once you have the E string in tune, try tuning the rest
of your strings by pressing and playing the note on the seventh fret (Note E in
Standard E tuning). The Low E note should match the E note on the second
string (A String, seventh fret). Match the notes and tune the second
string while playing the low E string and the note E depressed on the seventh
fret. Just be careful that you don't go to far and tune to a higher note.
Keep doing this for each string until finished. Note, the B string can be
a little tricky in this method so you may have to play a D Chord to get this
one. This tuning method is more for experienced guitarists and may not
work for you right away. This is just a way that I used to tune my guitar,
please don't feel that this method is the schooled musician way to tune a
guitar. It's usually best to use a guitar tuner.
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Tuning Guitar By Ear With Harmonics
There is also a way to tune using harmonics. Once you know where you
want your Low E string to be tuned, try playing the harmonics on the 5th fret of
the low E string and the 7th fret of the A string. Harmonics are played by
barely touching the string at the fret. The harmonics on the 5th fret of
the low E string and the 7th fret of the A strings should match notes. So
you can try to tune your A string by matching the harmonic that your playing on
the Low E. Again, this is just and idea for you to try out and not a
typical schooled way to tune your guitar. This is just another way to find
out if your in tune. Also, the harmonic on the B string doesn't always
match up exactly. So please keep this in mind. This tuning method is
for more advanced players as well.
How to Tune A Guitar Links
Above we have listed several ways to tune your guitar. Tuning a guitar
can be frustrating at first, but with the help of modern auto guitar tuners it
can make tuning your guitar a simple process.
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