Guitar tuner with custom tuning
This guitar tuner with custom tuning is for the songs your regular tuner can't handle. Pick a base instrument (guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, cavaquinho, viola caipira, or any instrument with 1 to 12 strings), set the note of each string with the − and + buttons or the note and octave menus, give it a name and tune right away: the microphone works out which string you played, shows the cents and tells you whether to tighten or loosen. It runs in your browser, free, with no sign-up and nothing to install.
How to use it
- Choose the Instrument. To start from a well-known tuning, use Start from a known tuning (Drop D, Open G, DADGAD, Nashville, Low G and more).
- Tap a string card to edit it and change the note with − and + (one half step at a time) or pick the note and octave from the menus. Listen plays the reference note for that string.
- Name your tuning if you like. When the notes match a known tuning, its name fills in on its own.
- Tap Turn on microphone and allow access. Play an open string: the tuner lights up the closest string and shows whether it is flat or sharp. To tune one specific string, tap its card; Auto goes back to detecting strings on its own.
- Use Copy link or Share to send the tuning to someone. Save on this device keeps it in Your tunings.
Help and explanations
When the tuning is ready, it becomes a link. Anyone who opens it gets the same tuning, with the same name and notes, and can tune their own instrument on the spot. Teachers can send the tuning for the next lesson and bands can agree on it before rehearsal. The last 10 tunings you save stay on your device so you can reopen them with one tap.
What an alternate tuning is
An alternate tuning is any way of tuning the strings other than the instrument's standard. On guitar, standard is E A D G B E from the 6th string to the 1st. Change one or more strings and every chord takes a new shape, open strings ring against the melody, and some full chords need only one finger. A lot of well-known music was written this way, and only the original tuning makes your guitar sound like the record.
There are three big families. Open tunings make a major chord with the open strings, great for slide and for thumb-picked bass lines. Drop tunings lower only the lowest string, usually by a whole step, which puts power chords under one finger. And down-tunings lower every string by the same amount, a half step or a whole step, to suit a lower voice or to make the strings feel slinkier.
Famous alternate tunings to start from
Several already have their own tuner on this site. Drop D (D A D G B E) is the gateway to rock and metal riffs, and Drop C takes everything down another whole step. Open G (D G D G B D) is the tuning of slide blues and plenty of Rolling Stones riffs, and Open E (E B E G♯ B E) is another slide favorite. DADGAD is the sound of Celtic and fingerstyle guitar. To sing more comfortably there is half step down (E♭ standard) and whole step down (D standard).
Beyond six standard strings there is much more: Nashville tuning swaps the four low strings for thin ones an octave higher, like the octave strings of a 12-string guitar; Hawaiian slack key players use open tunings such as Taro Patch (D G D G B D) and G Wahine; the baritone guitar sits a fourth or a fifth lower; and the ukulele has a Low G version with a low 4th string. Brazil adds the viola caipira, with tunings such as Cebolão and Rio Abaixo. All of them are under Start from a known tuning: pick one and change whatever you want.
Watch the string tension
String tension grows with the square of the frequency. Raising a string a half step adds about 12% tension; a whole step adds about 26%. One or two strings a whole step up are usually fine; raising several, or going further, stresses the neck and the top and can snap a string. That is why the tuner shows a warning when a string is more than 2 half steps above the instrument's standard. To play higher without cranking the strings, use a capo: the capo calculator tells you which fret to put it on.
Going very low has limits too: a string that is too slack flaps, buzzes against the frets and goes out of tune with the slightest pressure. Very low tunings such as baritone or Drop B work better with heavier strings. Whenever you change several strings at once, go through the whole tuning two or three times: the neck settles into the new tension and the first strings you tuned drift a little.
Tips
- Always tune up to the note: if a string goes past it, loosen below the note and come back up. The tuning peg locks better and the string holds its pitch longer.
- To work out a tuning by ear, start from standard, play along with the song and change one string at a time with − and + until the chord matches the recording. Then save it with a name.
- The link stores the notes in the page address itself: bookmark it or pin it in a chat to pull the tuning up at rehearsal.
- On low strings the microphone sometimes picks up the octave above. If the reading jumps around, tap the string's card to lock the tuner to it, just as you would on a regular guitar tuner.
Frequently asked questions
What is an alternate tuning on guitar?
Any tuning other than standard E A D G B E. The most common ones are open tunings (Open G, Open D, Open E), drop tunings (Drop D, Drop C), DADGAD and down-tunings (half step or whole step down). They change the chord shapes and let open strings ring along with the melody.
How do I send my tuning to someone else?
Tap Copy link or Share. The name and the notes are written into the link itself, so whoever opens it sees exactly the same tuning and can tune right away, with no account and nothing to install.
Is my tuning stored on a server?
No. The tuning travels only inside the link you send, and the Your tunings list stays in your browser on this device. Clearing browser data erases the list, but links you already sent keep working.
Can I tune a 12-string guitar, mandolin or viola caipira?
Yes. On those bases each card is a pair of strings: octave pairs show both notes (the low string and the thin one an octave up) and the tuner recognizes either of them. Unison pairs show a single note.
Can tuning up damage my instrument?
Raising one or two strings a half step or a whole step is usually safe. Raising several strings further than that adds a lot of tension to the neck and top and can break a string. Use a capo to play higher, and switch to lighter strings for tunings well above standard.
Does it work for instruments that are not on the list?
Yes. Choose Other, set how many strings or notes it has (1 to 12) and pick the note of each one. It works for regional, luthier-built or homemade instruments such as a small lyre or a 3-string cigar box guitar; for wind instruments and voice the chromatic tuner is easier.
Is the microphone audio recorded or uploaded?
No. The sound is analyzed in your browser, on your device, and nothing is recorded or sent to a server.