One of the great challenges for every newbie musician is the tuning of his instrument. With guitars, it is no exception: getting the proper calibration on the strings of the instrument can be a real headache for those who barely dabble in the art of playing guitar.
Eventually, the most versed manage to develop a musical ear capable of detecting the dissonances of their instrument, however, it is a long way of study, practice, and training to get there. And even then, tuning by ear may not be the most accurate method. This is why there are guitar tuners, devices that help us calibrate our instrument accurately, to achieve the best possible sound.
Standard tuners
These tuners are undoubtedly the most popular. They are already known as the “classics” and are quite accessible to those who are just beginning to dabble in the strings of their guitar. These tuners come with the guitar notes already established is standard tuning.
They work very simply: we select the string we want to tune, we emit a note with a click on it and the tuning device will indicate if we are close to the desired note and if we are below or above it. Older models indicate this information with an analog needle, while more modern tuners have a digital display: when tuning is achieved, the needle will remain at the same level as the note we want.
Chromatic tuners
These stand out over the standard tuners thanks to their complexity and enhanced functionality: these are empowered to indicate on which note the string we press is tuned. Thus, we can monitor in which note we are at all times. This feature is very useful since it allows us to reach alternative tunings, which would otherwise be very difficult to achieve.
In addition to these two types of guitar tuners, there are whistle tuners. These are, retro tuners, precursors of the standard tuner: they work very intuitively, similar to the tuning fork used to tune the violins. With the whistle, it is possible to tune the fifth string of the guitar and from this, calibrate the other strings. Finally, the most accessible but least reliable alternative: tuners that work through websites and applications.