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. 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. 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.

Fender ft 004 clip on chromatic tuner