There are many veteran guitar players who insist that the only way to tune a guitar is to do it by ear. But, for a new player, that can be a problematic. For most novice players, tuning by ear is a skill that hasn't been developed yet. Tuning by ear is a skill that can take years of practice to develop, and hone to a skillful level. Because of this, an acoustic guitar tuner is the first accessory a new player should buy. From past experience, I can tell you, that learning to play the guitar is frustrating enough without having to bother with learning to ear tune your guitar by ear. Buying a good guitar tuner will save you a lot of frustration and a lot of time. And that is time that could be spent more efficiently learning to play your acoustic guitar.

Choosing your acoustic guitar tuner will be determined more by the included features, the price, and what you want it to be able to do. And you will find that there are a lot of styles and prices available to choose from. You may get a free online guitar tuner, but, if you use these, you still must depend on your ear to tune correctly. You may even find a free acoustic guitar tuner download, but here again, that will only give you the note sounds for each string, and again, you still have to use your ear to tune the string. Fortunately, there are quite a few inexpensive tuners to pick from and they will do what you need to do easily and accurately. They will also save you a lot of time and hair pulling. Of course as with any purchase, you'll have to research and compare to determine the quality and to ensure that this particular tuner is going to do and what you want it to do.

These days, the two most popular types of acoustic guitar tuners today are the electronic tuner and the clip on tuner. Electronic acoustic guitar tuners, usually digital, are small tuners that incorporate a highly sensitive acoustic guitar tuning microphone that picks up the sound when a string is plucked. A digital pointer will indicate left or right of 90 degrees to indicate which way the string needs to be tuned. When the pointer indicates 90 degrees, the string is in tune. These tuners will vary greatly in price and quality and prices can vary from under $10 on up to several hundred dollars. Some will have features such as pitch pipe features, digital metronomes and other features, depending upon brand and price, in any case, $30 to $40 will get you a very good tuner that will fit your needs.

Another type of acoustic guitar tuner that is very popular is the clip on type. This small tuner is just clipped onto the guitar, usually onto the headstock, and tunes by picking up vibrations when a string is plucked. And, since they don't use an integrated microphone, and they are not affected by any noise in the area. Because of this, they are very popular with bands for use during gigs and tuning sessions. These also, we all vary a lot price wise, but a well made, really accurate clip on tuner can be bought in the $30 to $50 price range. Of course, you can spend a lot more money than that if you want, but, for the beginner and the recreational player the tuners in these price ranges will be more than acceptable.

Years ago, tuning by ear, a tuning fork or pitch pipes were just about the only ways that were available for tuning guitars. These days, a good electronic tuner will give you a very accurate results, and is a lot less time intensive and nerve wracking. And that's why the first accessory the beginning guitar player should buy is a good electronic acoustic guitar tuner.