TUNELIT

6 strings · E Standard

Guitar tuner.

Tune a 6-string guitar with your mic or by ear. Standard E A D G B E, Drop D, half step down or any other tuning, at any A4.

Tuner · Any tuning

Tune your guitar.

Pluck a string and the meter shows how far off it is. Tap any string to hear it at its true pitch and tune by ear.

  • Pick any instrument and tuning
  • Shift it down or up by half steps
  • Set A to anything: 440, 432, 442…

E A D G B E

The sound never leaves your device.

Keys: Space start or stop · ← → half step · ↑ ↓ A (Shift: bigger steps) · 1–9 string · M mode · R hear · − + volume · L copy link · Esc done

Ready

Tap Start, then pluck any string.

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Strings · tap to hear

Standard tuning

Guitar tuning

Standard tuning runs E A D G B E, from the thickest string (String 6) to the thinnest (String 1). Most songs, lessons and tabs assume it.

Pluck one string at a time and let it ring. The meter leans toward Low or High, in words as well as by position, and shows ✓ in tune when the string is right. Bar, Needle or Strobe: pick the meter that reads best for you.

Tip. Tune up to the note, not down to it. If a string is sharp, loosen it a little below the note first, then bring it up. The tuning gear holds better that way.

Why players use it

Why E Standard

E Standard, E A D G B E, is the tuning guitars are built and set up for. A normal string set is made for these pitches, so the strings feel firm, the low E speaks clearly, and a guitar in good shape plays in tune all the way up the neck.

It is also the tuning everyone shares. A riff from a friend, a lesson or a songbook almost always expects these six notes, so you can play The Beatles, then Iron Maiden, then The Offspring without touching a peg.

On the records

Who plays in E Standard

Most of rock was played in it. On TuneLit 2,946 songs use E Standard, more than the other sixteen tunings on these pages put together. The Rolling Stones lead with 285, then Deep Purple (223, from Shades of Deep Purple to Splat!), The Beatles (184), AC/DC (183) and Queen (166), where Brian May tuned his home-built Red Special to E for almost every song. Iron Maiden have 163 here; only two of their songs drop the low string.

Being in E Standard does not always mean being at A 440. TuneLit measured the records, and many sit off concert pitch: the Bon Scott AC/DC albums are 10 to 34 cents flat as a whole, Iron Maiden's 1980 debut runs about 22 cents sharp, and The Beatles' engineers changed tape speeds from song to song. The Tune buttons below carry each song's measured offset, so you tune to the record, not only to the note names.

Songs on TuneLit

Famous songs in E Standard

Each song has its own page: the exact tuning, the pitch of the record and how to get there string by string. Tune sets the tuner to the record, cents included.

2946 songs · 35 bands

Every E Standard song on TuneLit

Open a band to see its albums in this tuning; each album page lists its songs, every one with its own Tune button.

The Rolling Stones 285 songs
Deep Purple 223 songs
The Beatles 184 songs
AC/DC 183 songs
Queen 166 songs
Iron Maiden 163 songs
Pink Floyd 150 songs
Aerosmith 143 songs
ZZ Top 143 songs
Roxette 135 songs
Green Day 133 songs
The Offspring 130 songs
Megadeth 124 songs
Foo Fighters 111 songs
Metallica 89 songs
Radiohead 77 songs
Led Zeppelin 64 songs
Pantera 63 songs
Van Halen 63 songs
Queens of the Stone Age 49 songs
Black Sabbath 42 songs
Sepultura 42 songs
Soundgarden 36 songs
The Pretty Reckless 33 songs
Linkin Park 20 songs
Nirvana 20 songs
Sonic Youth 16 songs
Rammstein 15 songs
Jimi Hendrix 12 songs
Slayer 11 songs
Deftones 9 songs
Stevie Ray Vaughan 4 songs
Clawfinger 3 songs
Guns N' Roses 3 songs
Slipknot 2 songs

Playing tips

Playing in E Standard

Reach for a capo before you think about retuning. The Beatles did it all the time: Norwegian Wood has a capo at the 2nd fret, Michelle at the 5th, Here Comes the Sun at the 7th. A capo only raises the pitch, though; a song that sounds lower than your open E needs one of the down-tuned pages.

If a song in E sounds a half step off, check whether you are hearing a live version: Metallica have played their E Standard songs half a step down on stage since the mid-1990s, and Nirvana did the same by 1992. Any normal string set works here. Now and then, compare the 12th-fret harmonic with the fretted note at the 12th fret: if they differ, the saddle needs moving.

E A D G B E

Standard tuning: notes and frequencies

Guitar, E Standard: notes and frequencies in Hz at three common A4 references
StringNoteA = 440A = 432A = 442
6E282.4180.9182.78
5A2110.00108.00110.50
4D3146.83144.16147.50
3G3196.00192.43196.89
2B3246.94242.45248.06
1E4329.63323.63331.13

Measured

How the tuner hears a guitar

Every guitar string, E2 (82.41 Hz) to E4 (329.63 Hz), sits above the range where phone mics fade. In our phone-mic test the guitar range read within about 1 ¢, and clean test tones within 0.2 ¢.

error through a phone-mic model your guitar strings

How the tuner listens →

String tension

String tension

A typical 10–⁠46 set on a 25.5″ scale pulls about 103 lb (47 kg) in E Standard, or 17.1 lb per string on average.

Check string tension → String by string, with your own set and scale length.

  • String by stringPounds, kilograms or newtons for each string, so you see which one goes slack first.
  • Your set, your scalePick a common set or type your own gauges, on any scale length.
  • Any tuning, any A4Drop, standard and open tunings, shifted by half steps, at the A you use.

Other guitar tunings

Shift the whole tuning

The tuner can move all six strings together, from an octave down to an octave up, and add fine cents on top. Each step keeps every chord shape the same.

  1. F♯ StandardAll strings 2 half steps higher. Notes: F sharp B E A C sharp F sharp
  2. F StandardAll strings 1 half step higher. Notes: F B flat E flat A flat C F
  3. E StandardThis pageThe usual tuning. Notes: E A D G B E
  4. E♭ StandardAll strings 1 half step lower
  5. D StandardAll strings 2 half steps lower

Questions

What are the standard guitar notes?

From String 6 to String 1: E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 (E Standard). At A4 = 440 Hz they are 82.41, 110.00, 146.83, 196.00, 246.94, 329.63 Hz.

Acoustic, electric or classical: does it matter?

No. All three use the same standard notes. Nylon strings on a classical guitar stretch more, so check them twice in the first days after a string change.

Can I tune my guitar lower or higher?

Yes. Use the ◂ ▸ arrows on the tuning chip to move every string by a half step. One half step down takes about 11% of the tension off; one half step up adds about 12% (approx.).