The six strings, thickest to thinnest
Standard guitar tuning is E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4. The letter is what your strings are named after; the number is the octave, and it matters — both outer strings are E, two octaves apart. If you prefer to tune to a reference pitch instead of the microphone, tap a tone below and match it by ear.
The numbering runs the opposite way to the thickness: the 1st string is the thin high E nearest the floor, and the 6th is the thick low E nearest your face. Every chart, this page included, counts them that way. The intervals are all perfect fourths except one — the gap between the 3rd (G) and 2nd (B) strings is a major third, and that single irregularity is why chord shapes change fingering as they cross those two strings, and why the B string has a reputation for never sounding quite right.
Tap a tone, then tune your string until the two sounds merge. Or just play each string into the tuner above and center the needle.
How to tune with the microphone tuner
- Start the tuner above and allow microphone access. Get reasonably close to the mic — an arm’s length is fine in a quiet room.
- Pluck one string at a time, moderately hard, and let it ring. The dial names the nearest note; check the letter first. If your low E shows D♯, you’re a semitone flat — tune up until the letter reads E, then center the needle.
- Check the octave number as well as the letter. Your 6th string should read E2 and your 1st E4. A 6th string reading E3 means the tuner has locked onto a harmonic rather than the fundamental; pluck nearer the neck and read the sustain, not the attack.
- Approach from below. If a string is sharp, drop it a little below the target and come back up. Strings tuned downward to pitch slip flat within minutes; strings tuned upward stay put, because the slack is taken up at the post and the nut rather than waiting to release.
- Work E → A → D → G → B → E, then re-check the low E. Tuning changes the total tension on the neck, which nudges the strings you already did. A ten-second second pass is the difference between “close” and “in tune.”
Acoustic, electric, nylon — what actually changes
All three tune to the same six pitches. What differs is how the instrument behaves while you are turning the peg, and that is where most of the frustration lives.
| Guitar | What is different about tuning it |
|---|---|
| Steel-string acoustic | The easiest to tune by microphone — it is loud and its fundamentals are strong. Hold it so the soundhole faces the mic and you can tune across a room. |
| Electric, unplugged | Quiet but perfectly readable. Get within a foot of the mic and pluck firmly. A solid body has very little acoustic output below the 5th string, so the low E is the one that needs you closest. |
| Electric, through an amp | Clean channel, moderate volume, no reverb or delay. Distortion generates harmonics that were never in the string, and the tuner will chase them. |
| Classical / nylon-string | Same targets, different physics. Nylon stretches many times more than steel, so a new set drops overnight and needs a week of daily retuning. The tuners are geared far lower too — a half-turn here moves the pitch about as far as an eighth of a turn on a steel-string. |
| Floating tremolo (Strat, Floyd Rose) | The bridge floats between string tension and spring tension, so tuning any one string retunes the other five. Tune all six, then all six again, two or three times, until a whole pass changes nothing. |
On a locking-nut Floyd Rose, do the coarse work at the machine heads with the nut unlocked, lock it, and then use the fine tuners at the bridge for the last few cents — and set the fine tuners to the middle of their travel before you lock, or you will run out of adjustment on the string that needs it most.
Why a perfectly tuned guitar still sounds slightly wrong
Get all six needles centered, play an open E major chord, and the G♯ will sound a little sharp. Nothing is broken and you have not mis-tuned. Your frets are laid out in equal temperament — twelve identical semitones per octave — and a genuinely sweet major third is about 14 cents narrower than the equal-tempered one. Every fretted instrument in Western music makes that trade, and the guitar makes it more audibly than most because so many first-position chords put their third on an open or nearly open string.
This is why guitarists mutter about the G string in particular: the plain third string is the thickest unwound string on the instrument, so it is the one most stretched sharp by fretting, and it also carries the third of the most common open chords. Some players answer this with a sweetened tuning — a few cents flat here, a few sharp there, tuned for the keys they actually play in. This page deliberately does not ship one: a sweetened offset is only right for one repertoire, and telling you your correctly tuned guitar is wrong by three cents would be worse than useless. Center the needles, and if a particular chord fights you, nudge the offending string by ear afterwards. Our guide to what cents actually are explains the arithmetic if you want to do this deliberately rather than by feel.
Alternate tunings, each on its own page
Because this is a chromatic tuner, it reads any target — not just the six standard notes. The tunings below each have a page with the target notes docked right under the dial, so you are not translating a chart in your head while you turn a peg. Every one of them is described as a change away from standard tuning (E–A–D–G–B–E), which has its own reference page — the six frequencies, the string numbering, and why the gap between G and B is smaller than all the others.
| Tuning | Notes | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Drop D | D–A–D–G–B–E | One string moves. Power chords on one finger, and a low D drone |
| Half step down (E♭) | E♭–A♭–D♭–G♭–B♭–E♭ | Everything down a semitone — slacker strings, easier bends, lower vocals |
| Open G | D–G–D–G–B–D | Open strings sound a G chord. Slide and country blues |
| Open D | D–A–D–F♯–A–D | The same idea in D — deeper, and the classic bottleneck tuning |
| DADGAD | D–A–D–G–A–D | Neither major nor minor. Celtic, modal, and endlessly droney |
| Drop C | C–G–C–F–A–D | A whole step below drop D. Heavier gauges strongly recommended |
Any tuning that lowers the strings a long way needs a heavier set to stay playable, and a heavier set changes the pull on the neck — so a permanent move to drop C is a setup job, not just a retune.
Which guitar is in your hands?
If it has six strings and the thick one reads E2, you are on the right page. Otherwise:
- Twelve strings in six pairs — the 12-string tuner. The bottom four courses are octave pairs, not unisons, and that skinny octave G is the string everyone snaps.
- Seven or eight strings — the 7-string tuner (B standard, drop A) and the 8-string tuner (F♯ standard).
- Six strings but a much longer neck — probably a baritone guitar, tuned B, A or C standard. The intervals are identical to a guitar’s, so every shape transfers; the scale length is what lets it sit that low without going slack.
- Four thick strings — the bass tuner, which is the same E–A–D–G an octave down.
- Six strings but tiny — a guitalele, tuned a fourth above a guitar, so a guitar chart will have you tuning it apart.
When tuning is not the problem
The string goes sharp with a ping. That noise is the string releasing where it was binding in the nut slot — the tension you added was sitting behind the nut until it let go all at once. Pull the string gently away from the fretboard after each adjustment to make it release on purpose, and if it happens on the same string every time, the slot needs lubricating or opening up.
Open strings are fine, fretted notes are sharp. That is intonation. Compare the harmonic over the 12th fret with the note fretted at the 12th: if the fretted note is sharp, the saddle moves back, away from the neck. It is worth checking after any change of string gauge, and it is the single most common reason a correctly tuned guitar sounds sour up the neck. More on the causes in why your guitar won’t stay in tune.
It drifts every few minutes. New strings, almost always. A fresh set stretches for its first few days; speed it up by tuning, lifting each string an inch off the fretboard, and retuning, three or four times over. If a week-old set still will not hold, look at the winding at the post — three or four neat turns downward, not one turn crossing over itself.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work for electric guitar, or only acoustic?
Both. An unplugged electric is quiet but perfectly readable — play close to the microphone and pluck firmly. If your electric is running through an amp, tune from the amp’s sound (clean channel, moderate volume); heavy distortion adds harmonics that can make any tuner’s reading jumpy.
Is a classical or nylon-string guitar tuned the same as a steel-string?
The same six notes, E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4, at the same pitches. What differs is behaviour, not targets: nylon stretches far more than steel and a fresh set can fall most of a semitone overnight, taking a week to settle. Classical tuners are also geared much lower, so a turn that would be reckless on a steel-string is roughly the right size here.
The tuner shows the right letter but my chords still sound off. Why?
Letter-right is only half the job — a string can read “E” while sitting 40 cents flat. Center the needle on every string, not just the letter. If chords are still sour with all six needles centered, the usual culprits are old strings, intonation (covered in why your guitar won’t stay in tune), or the equal-temperament compromise that makes the open G–B third sound wide on every guitar ever built.
Why does tuning one string on my Strat knock the others out?
A floating tremolo bridge is held in balance between the strings and the springs in the back. Change the tension on one string and the whole bridge tilts, which changes the tension on the other five. Nothing is broken — you simply have to tune in circles: all six, then all six again, two or three times, until a pass changes nothing.
Should I tune with a capo on?
Tune the guitar open first, then fit the capo, then check. A capo pulls every string slightly sharp because clamping stretches it, and how much depends on the clamp pressure and your action — so a guitar tuned open and then capoed is measurably sharp at the capo. Retune with the capo in place if you are staying there; there is a fuller treatment in our capo and tuning guide.
My low E reads as E3 or E1 rather than E2. What does that mean?
The letter is right and the octave is not, which is exactly what the octave number exists to catch. E3 usually means the tuner locked onto the string’s second harmonic instead of its fundamental — pluck nearer the neck and read the sustain rather than the attack. E1 means the string really is an octave low, which happens after a restring when a wound E has been wound on but never brought up to pitch.
How often should I tune?
Every time you pick the guitar up, honestly — it takes under a minute. Wood and strings move with temperature and humidity, and new strings drift constantly for their first few days until they finish stretching.