The 10 Best Guitar Tuners

For anyone with a pedalboard, the Boss TU-3 is the stage standard, housed in the same tough metal stompbox shell Boss has used for decades. Step on it and it mutes your signal while a bright meter shows how close each string sits. A high-brightness setting helps on sunny outdoor stages, and a flat mode handles drop tunings. Boss backs it for five years. It only reads a plugged-in instrument, so an acoustic without a pickup is out.

The cheapest way to tune well is a clip-on like the Snark SN5X, which picks up the string's vibration through the headstock, so a noisy room barely matters. Its color screen swivels to face you and can sit on the front or back of the headstock, out of sight. It covers guitar and bass, and a coin cell comes in the box. The ball joint can loosen after a year or two of heavy use, and the plastic feels light.

Strobe displays are the most precise way to read pitch, and the Peterson StroboClip HD fits one into a small headstock clip. It reads to a tenth of a cent, and dozens of presets nudge certain notes so chords ring sweeter on guitar, bass, ukulele or violin. Peterson, a strobe specialist for decades, offers two years of coverage on it. The moving strobe bars take a few sessions to learn, and there is no needle mode to fall back on.

Beginners get the plainest read from the Fender FT-1 Pro: its backlight turns green the moment a note is in tune. Two hinges let you angle it on almost any headstock, and it works on electric, acoustic, bass and ukulele. One button runs everything, and a coin battery is included. Fender warrants it against defects for one year. It reads to about one cent, fine for most ears but short of strobe precision, and the screen is small.

If tuning feels like a chore, the Roadie 4 does the turning for you. Slip it over a tuning peg, pluck, and its motor turns the peg until the string is right, in under ten seconds by the maker's count. It stores more than 150 tunings, winds new strings and recharges over a USB cable. It needs geared pegs, bass players need the separate Roadie Bass, and it is a lot to spend for convenience rather than accuracy.

Players who want strobe precision on a pedalboard reach for the Peterson StroboStomp HD. Its large color screen stays readable in direct sun, and a setting chooses between a silent true bypass and a buffer that keeps long cable runs sounding clear. The same sweetened presets as Peterson's clip-ons are built in, and Peterson guarantees the pedal for three years. Strobe bars take practice to read, and it is a big outlay for a stage tool.

Strum every string at once and the TC Electronic Polytune Clip shows which ones are off, which saves time between songs. Guitar Player rated it the best clip-on overall for its big, bright display and sturdy stainless steel clip. Pick a single string and it switches to a needle view, or to a strobe mode for fine work. The display flips itself to suit how you mount it. It is bulky on a headstock.

Home practice suits the Korg TM-70T, a pocket tuner and metronome that can run at the same time, so you can tune between drills without switching devices. A fold-out stand props it on a desk, and it can play a reference note to train your ear. Korg rates battery life at up to 250 hours. It listens through a built-in mic, so a loud room can throw it off unless you add Korg's contact mic, sold separately.

No more hunting for coin batteries with the D'Addario Nexxus 360, a clip-on that charges from any USB port and gives about a day of tuning time per charge. Its clamp and screen rotate all the way around, so it can sit almost anywhere on the headstock and still face you. The bright display reads well on dark stages. It is a chunky clip, and once the battery runs flat, you wait for a charge.

Acoustic players who dislike a gadget on the headstock can tuck the D'Addario NS Micro Soundhole inside the soundhole edge, where the audience won't see it. It senses vibration through the top rather than sound in the air, and its color screen faces up at you. The calibration adjusts for bands that tune away from standard pitch. It works only on acoustics, and the tiny power button is fiddly.