Guitar Tuner Is The Guitar Players Best Friend - Get The Best One You Can
One of the most important aspects of being a solid guitar player
is recognizing the vital concept of keeping your instrument in tune.
That's because one of the most important things you can do as a musician who plays the guitar, whether it's solo work or in a band, is maintain your instrument in tune.
A guitar is said to be in tune in 2 ways. It can be in tune to itself, where the six strings of the guitar are correctly tuned to each other. This is sufficient when you are playing solo, and the vocals if any are adjusted to wherever the guitar is tuned. On the other hand, when the guitar is being used in a band, with any number of other instruments, it's very important to spend the time on tuning and be sure it's perfect, or as perfect as possible. Nothing sounds worse than a group of instruments out of tune, and nothing much can do more to sabotage an otherwise good performance by talented musicians.
Your fellow band members will be eternally grateful if you have a continual vigilance in maintaining your six guitar strings in perfect tune. (or at least as much as humanly possible)
Guitars, by their nature, have a way of going out of tune even as they are being played. Because of this fact, it's a good idea to have an electronic guitar tuner that is capable of remaing in line in the signal path as you play. This will allow you to constantly monitor the tuning of your guitar, and make appropriate adjustments between songs or whenever necessary.
There are many choices when it comes to types of guitar tuners. Pitch forks, pitch pipes, various types of electronic tuners, etc. For many years now, the chromatic electronic tuners have been the standard and they are the best tool for the job. They are well worth the price.
Here is a photo of a Sabine tuner purchased several years ago that is still on the job today. It is a chromatic tuner, meaning it has all the 12 steps of an octave and will tune to any of the steps if needed. This is important for certain situations and comes in handy when you least expect it. On the front display of the tuner there are 12 LEDs for scale notes and 3 LED indicators for showing flat, sharp, and in tune.
This tuner also has a 1/4 inch input on the left side for connecting to the guitar signal. And on the other side it has another 1/4 inch connector jack to have the signal continue on to the effects and amplifier. This feature allows the tuner to remain in the signal chain during any playing or performance so you can continuously monitor the tuning status of your guitar and make any changes as you go along.
This is a great way to keep your playing sounding in tune with the other instruments. This tuner also has a built in microphone for tuning acoustic guitars, or pretty much any other type of instrument you want to tune up. This tuner runs on a 9 volt battery(which lasts almost forever) and also has a connector for a power supply on the back.
Other features of an electronic guitar tuner you might find helpful include the ability to set a note on the tuner to the pitch of the note played by another instrument, (like a horn for instance), and once set to the single horn note, the tuner will allow you to easily tune your guitar for playing along in tune with the horn section. Also a sometimes handy feature of a tuner is the ability to output a tone of a note when needed. This is helpful for tuning up with certain instruments.
