Best Guitar Tuners 2020
By: The Gear Dude | Date: 5th May 2020
An electronic tuner is an essential accessory for any musician playing a strings instrument. I mean, you can’t make music without one some would argue! For years and years musicians relied on pitch pipes that you would blow into that would produce a tone. Then you would attempt to match the pitch of your instrument to the tone from the device. Seems like that would be a struggle, right? Tuners have come a long way in recent years. Some are smaller than a quarter and clip onto you’re instrument to be carried with ease. You will also see them in pedal format to be included into pedal boards. Whatever format you choose and works best for you most will be what is called a Chromatic Tuner. A chromatic tuner is able to detect every note in the scale regardless of octave, I believe this is an invaluable thing to have. In this article I want to discuss what I believe are the best options available to you today.
Boss TU3 Guitar Tuner
The Boss TU3 is the long-awaited successor to one of the world’s best-selling pedals, The Boss TU2. Chances are that if you have ever shopped for a pedal format guitar tuner this is one of the first ones you have come across. The Tuner has a 21 segment LED display with a brightness control and is extremely accurate. It has a chromatic mode as well as a guitar/bass setting as well. Plus, you can connect an optional daisy chain to it and power up to seven additional Boss pedals.
Boss TU30 Chromatic Tuner
Ask any musician what two of the most important accessories you need, and you get the same answer, a Tuner and a Metronome. Boss has combined the two into the same device with the Boss TU30. This pocket-sized device packs all the functions you would need to tune your instrument. It has a chromatic Tuner, guitar bass mode, a microphone for tuning acoustic instruments and a connection for electric instruments as well. The metronome comes pre-loaded with numerous rhythm patterns and a killer visual display.
TC Polytune 3 Guitar Tuner
How can tuning an instrument be exciting anyways?!? Enter the TC Electronic Polytune 3. This is the current version of TC Electronics stomp box sized tuner pedal. This Polytune series is unique because it has a polyphonic tuning mode. How does that work? Rather than going through all of your instrument’s strings one at a time simply play all 6 at once! Polytune’s display will switch automatically to a display showing all 6 strings at once so you can see which ones are sharp or flat. The newest version of this tuner has a built in BonaFide Buffer which preserves your tone for long cable runs.
TC Polytune Clip Tuner
The TC Polytune Clip is a clip-on version of the Polytune 3 tuner pedal. Featuring the same big bright LED display this clip-on tuner may be small but is feature packed. Those left-handed players should not feel left out. The display automatically will flip itself over, so it is right side up! Polyphonic tuning makes life easy; you can play all six strings at once and see what’s sharp or flat. The clip is sturdy and made of metal so it should withstand getting dropped.
Korg CA-2 Chromatic Tuner
No frills, no BS, no bells and whistles. The Korg CA-2 is exactly that, a simple plug in style instrument tuner. It has an input for electric instruments as well as a microphone for acoustic ones too. It boasts a 200 hour battery life with an auto power off function. Being a chromatic tuner some will use this for brass band and orchestra use as well.
Korg Pitchclip 2 Plus Tuner
The Pitchclip 2 plus is like many other Korg tuners, no frills and no bells and whistles. However, that does not mean it isn’t a great tuner. The Pitchclip 2 plus has a reversable super bright display that can swivel for both right and left-handed instruments. As well the Pitchclip 2 has improved low frequency pickup which is excellent if you play in lower tunings and a 24-hour battery life.
Peterson Stroboclip HD
The Peterson strobe tuner is what your luthier uses to set up your favorite guitar, as well it’s also the tuner that your favorite artists guitar gets tuned with night after night. The StroboClip HD is their new clip on version of this industry leading tuner. This tuner has an unmatched accuracy to 1 thousandth of a semitone. Plus, it has 50 sweetened tunings preloaded to get you’re chosen instrument that much more in tone. The new HD display regardless of light level is very easy to read. The clip has soft rubber clamps which will not harm you’re instruments finish.
D’Addario NS Micro Clip
The D’Addario NS Micro is a super low profile and feature packed tuner that is so small you may forget its even there. Its low-profile design is very sleek and modern and looks great onstage. The display on the back will swivel 360 degrees and has a reversable display that allows you to fit it on either the front of the back of your instrument’s headstock. You can also change the displays color as well.
D’Addario CT20 Tuner
As gear gets smaller and smaller, we find ourselves looking for smaller tuners to fit on our pedalboards. The D’addario CT20 fits that need with ease! The slim and small footprint allows you to save precious room for additional effects. The D’addario CT20 has a tour grade aluminum enclosure which will stand up to any levels of abuse you can throw at it. Also the display is a very bright high visibility full color LED screen that you can read at near any level of light you may encounter.
