The mark of a novice guitar player is an out of tune guitar. Nothing screams amateur hour like the sound of a cat being strangled coming out of a rockstar instrument. Tuning by ear takes a lifetime to learn, and who has time for that when there are athems to be churned out on the axe?
Fortunately, there are a vast array of tools at our disposal to cut down the time it takes to tune our instruments. Everyone walks around with a tiny computer in their pocket, and there’s an app for everything in life. Millenials don’t know how good they have it.
Few of us remember the time when tuning forks were still a thing. These days, tuning forks serve a very different purpose:
It’s no secret that we’re experts on the subject of tuning, so we thought we’d share our collective wisdom. Here are the Top 10 Guitar Tuning Apps available right now — in no particular order:
Best Guitar Tuner App #1: Pitchlab
Pitchlab has a very wide frequency range, which makes it a great tuning app for your guitar. It can analyze the pitch, harmony, and even waveforms of your sound.
Best Guitar Tuner App #2: gStrings
Every young guitar student has at some point in their life sniggered at the term g-string, which is only one reason why this app is great. It can control mic sensitivity, generate tones, and comes with setting for different temperaments.
Best Guitar Tuner App #3: Roadie Tuner
Although not a prerequisite, this app is an amazing companion to the Roadie 2. Not only can you program your own custom tunings for all stringed instruments, but the app also allows you to read relevant posts from our awesome blog to help you work with alternate tunings. Best of all? It’s free.
Best Guitar Tuner App #4: Martin Tuner
This app is developed by C.F. Martin & Co., and also comes with tutorials to train your ear. It includes a tutorial for restringing your guitar, and is overall a good looking app with loads of extra features.
Best Guitar Tuner App #5: iStroboSoft
iStroboSoft is a Peterson Tuners creation, and doesn’t come cheap. What you’re paying for, however, is quality — and anyone who’s had experience with Peterson tuners know they deliver.
Best Guitar Tuner App #6: Pano Tuner
If you’re a review-junkie, then the Pano Tuner might be a good choice for you. In addition to the great reviews, the Pano Tuner is also very flexible. It can tune quickly for jam sessions, or very accurately for recording sessions.
Best Guitar Tuner App #7: Cleartune
Although it comes at a premium, the Cleartune app is widely lauded as a great tuner for onstage situations. It’s also very easy to use, which makes it a good live show companion.
Best Guitar Tuner App #8: Guitar Tools
Avid readers of Ultimate Guitar will perhaps recognise this app. There is a bit of overlap between this and the Ultimate Guitar app, and Guitar Tools comes complete with a metronome and a library of chords.
Best Guitar Tuner App #9: insTuner
If you’re into low, droning tones, then you should try out insTuner. The app is known for being very sensitive to low frequencies, which makes it a good choice for Double Drop D tunings.
Best Guitar Tuner App #10: Guitar Companion
Finally, we’ve got the Guitar Companion app — a Swiss Army knife of a guitar tuner. It’s got a metronome, drum tacks, and chord generators. It also has a feature that helps you develop your ear.We hope you’ll try some of these apps out — leave us a comment below if we’ve missed anything!
Did we miss anything in our Top 10 Guitar Tuning Apps list? While you’re still here, go ahead and check out our new & improved Complete Guide to Guitar Tuning!
