A guitar tuner is something that most guitar players own, but just how necessary are they? Can a tuner also be beneficial to a bass musical instrument also?
The answer is yes to all the musicians out there. If you are someone that is just starting out and want to train their ears, or regularly have to tune in whilst in noisy environments, or just want to be able to get their instrument sounding right in a short space of time.
Added Value
A guitar tuner serves a number of different purposes, some of which are very important and some of which are just for sheer convenience. However, the main purpose is to provide a greater level of expression and freedom when playing the guitar.
For example, it is handy to know that upon the moment when a moment of inspiration comes to you and you want to pick your instrument up and play it, you have a tuner at hand so that you can get the job done quickly - thus allowing more time to actually play. If you are the kind of person that enjoys improvising or jamming out to songs, then you may possibly run into the problem of a string or strings being out of tune, and then you have to mess around attempting to work out if it is flat or sharp whilst playing away. Although this can of course be done by ear, it can be done so much faster with a guitar tuner and allows you to enjoy the moment more.
This is why it is important to keep a guitar tuner in a spot where you can easily grab it in those moments when you are ready to jam. Useful spots include guitar cases, desk draws, or with a clip on tuner, right on the guitar itself. However, you could go one step further and purchase an amp that has a guitar tuner built into it.
Setting Up A Guitar
For the purpose of setting up a guitar, a guitar tuner is an absolutely essential piece of kit and is actually the only reason that many guitar players have one in the first place.
Correcting the intonation on a guitar involved fully detuning each of the strings on the instrument. Once the required adjustments have been made, the guitar then needs to be tuned back to pitch. It is important to make sure that this is done correctly because if it has not, then the entire proceeds will need to be repeated. Whilst this is undoubtedly a long and tiresome thing to have to do, using a guitar tuner to help with it makes it so much easier and quicker.
Another handy use for a guitar tuner when first setting up the instrument is to determine if there is too much relief occurring in the neck of the guitar.
Tuning In A Noisy Space
Anyone that plays the guitar in a band or regularly performs live gigs by themselves, they will vouch for how difficult it can be to tune a guitar by ear alone in a noisy environment. However, a guitar tuner can help ease this problem.
