Tuning your instrument

Unless you are blessed with perfect pitch, at some point you will need to consider how to accurately tune your instrument. Of course, if you’re a pianist, you just get someone who has been trained to do it for you. Not cheap, but easy! So, there are choices to be made, and there is plenty out there to choose from. As usual, we’ve tried to give you a range of products we consider to be worth trying.

No tech and environmentally friendly choices:

Pitch pipes and tuning forks are both used for tuning musical instruments and helping musicians find the correct pitch. So far, so good. So how do they work and what is the difference?

A pitch pipe is typically a small device which when blown into produces a music pitch. Rather like a harmonica. Some pitch pipes are chromatic and will give an octave scale (producing all 12 notes of an octave), while others are tailored for specific instruments like ukuleles or guitars, so cover a smaller range of notes. Chromatic ones are more versatile and are especially useful for choirs and singers, where you may well be asked to start on any given note. The upside of pitch pipes is that they are very portable, and not reliant on a power source; you just blow! The down side is that the accuracy of the pitch is determined by your technique, so you need to get your breathing right. Don’t over blow or under blow.

I’ve found the Tombo PE13e is a reliable product, with the TGI77 a good budget option.

Tuning forks have two metal prongs which resonate at a specific pitch when struck and placed on a surface which resonates to hear the pitch. You can get chromatic set, but these are eye-wateringly expensive (just over £200 last time I looked. Most people just buy one or two of a pitch they most commonly need (typically, C, G A, and, for guitarists, E -high or low). These days, tuning forks are mostly used by classical musicians and purists. Tuning forks give a very precise, pure tone, and because you only get one note, you have to learn how to tune the other notes of you instrument by ear. So, it improves your musicianship. These days there aren’t a massive number of manufacturers; I prefer those made by John Walker. They are a high-quality product and made in Sheffield.

Medium Tech:

Electronic, battery-operated tuners have become extremely popular, mainly due to their accuracy, and ability to enable you to easily tune more than one note. You can get clip-on tuners which are specific to certain instruments, but it’s always worth considering if there is a chromatic option as this will give you maximum amount of choice.  There are three kinds of battery tuners: Clip-on, stand-alone and pedal tuners.

Clip-On Tuners are relatively small, and as the name implies, clip on to your instrument (either the headstock or the body), which makes them a good choice for any string instrument. They work by detecting the vibration of the string you are tuning and giving a visual display which indicates when the string is in tune. They’re generally easy to use, portable, and because they work by vibration, they are not affected by any background noise. My personal preference is the D’Addario Planet Waves range. They do a good range of both chromatic and instrument specific, with guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, banjos, violins, violas, cellos and double basses all specifically catered for. They’ve really thought out how these best attach to your instrument. As you can see, fro example, the violin micro tuner attaches to the body of the instrument with a non marring lever clamp, whereas the cello/bass tuner attaches to the bridge:

D’Addario PW-CT-17 Eclipse chromatic tuner, which is available in various colours, if that sort of thing bothers you, is a best seller. It’s a very reliable, easy to use model. D’Addario have also produced a rechargeable version of the Eclipse tuner, the PW-CT-27.

I do also like the Snark Supertight ST-2 tuner. It’s chromatic, so will work on any instrument, and has a mic option as well as vibration, which means you don’t have to attach it to your instrument – you can just place it on any nearby surface. It also has full 360 degree rotation, and a very clear display. However, we did have a couple of returns where the head had become detached from the clip as the joint on the clip had broken. A good model, nevertheless, just handle with care!

Handheld or standalone tuners are small, portable devices with built-in microphones (for acoustic instruments) or input jacks (for electric instruments). For versatility, chromatic versions will work on any instrument, making them a popular choice. They display the pitch of the sound detected and indicate whether the note is flat, sharp, or in tune (usually by displaying in red for sharp of flat, and green for in tune). The Korg CA2 or CA50 chromatic tuners are both excellent choices. Just turn on, play, and the tune until the needle on the display is in the middle and the green light comes on, but sometimes the natural decay on the note affects the display. There is also in input and output for your instrument cable. Both models give allow you to calibrate your note precisely, and there is a little pull-out stand at the back which enables you to place the tuner in a more up=right position if you prefer. If you just guitar model the GA2 is a good option. All run on 2 AAA batteries which come with the tuner, so don’t throw the box out until you got the batteries out (they’re separated from the tuner in the ox, so open both ends).