12-string guitar tuner

12-string guitar tuning notes

The low four pairs in octaves, the B and E pairs in unison.

A whole step down: D G C F A D

At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all.

How to tune a 12-string guitar with a tuner

Pick Standard or Whole step down, tap Start tuning and allow the microphone; nothing to install, it runs in the browser on an Android phone, an iPhone or a laptop, for a 12-string acoustic or electric guitar alike. Start with the low E pair. Rest a finger on the thin string, pluck the thick one and bring it up to E2 from below until it ticks. Then tap the E again, damp the thick string and tune the thin one. It is E3, an octave up, and the tuner names a note in any octave, so the same E chip reads it. Play the two together: they should sound like one bright note. Then A, D and G the same way, and the B and E pairs, both strings on one note. With the microphone off, a tap on a pair plays its note.

Go round all six pairs twice, three times on new strings. Twelve strings pull far harder on the neck than six, and the neck and top give as you tune: bringing the low pairs up drops the high ones a few cents. Treat the octave G gently. G4 at 392 Hz is the highest open string on the guitar, a minor third above the 1st string, on its thinnest string, often .008 inch: bring it up in small turns and stop at the tick. Many players keep the whole guitar a whole step down, D G C F A D, the second switch, and capo at the 2nd fret to play in standard keys.

Which string of a pair is the octave string

On most 12-string guitars the thin octave string sits on the bass side of each low pair, above the thick string as you hold the guitar, so a downstroke hits it first: that bright attack is much of the 12-string sound. Rickenbacker's electric 12-strings put it on the other side, the thick string first. The B and E pairs are two strings of the same gauge on the same note. That makes twelve strings and ten different notes, which is why a chromatic tuner jumps between E2 and E3 when you strum. Pluck one string at a time.

Why the octave G string breaks

For a plain steel string, the stress in the steel depends only on its pitch and its vibrating length, not on its gauge: stress = density × (2 × length × frequency)². The octave G is a plain string at 392 Hz over the full scale. On a 25.4-inch (645 mm) scale its steel carries about 2 GPa, 41 % more than the high E string of a six-string, and a large share of what the wire can take before it snaps. A thinner G doesn't help; a lower pitch or a shorter scale does. That is why it's the string that breaks, and why some players take it off and play eleven strings.

What a whole step down saves

String tension goes with the square of the pitch. A whole step down takes about 21 % off every string, and the neck, the bridge and the top feel all of it; a half step down takes 11 %. A capo at the 2nd fret then puts you back at concert pitch without adding any tension, since a capo shortens the strings instead of tightening them. On an old or lightly built 12-string, a whole step down is the safe default.

Best tuner for a 12-string: clip-on, pedal or phone

Any tuner with a chromatic mode, the kind that names every note, tunes a 12-string. A guitar mode that only waits for E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 may refuse the octave strings, which sit an octave above it; this page reads a note in any octave, so the thin E reads against the same E. The clip-ons recommended in an Acoustic Guitar Forum thread on 12-string tuners (January 2025) are TC Electronic's UniTune and PolyTune, the D'Addario Eclipse and the Snark, with Peterson's StroboClip for those who spend more. A clip-on reads the vibration of the wood and hears both strings of a pair just as a microphone does: damp the partner either way. A pedal tuner reads the pickup of an electric 12-string. A strobe tuner such as Peterson's is finer than you need for tuning and useful for setting intonation. A phone works best in a quiet room, held near the soundhole.

How to tune a 12-string without a tuner

Tune the six thick strings as on a six-string: each string at the 5th fret gives the next one up, except the G string, whose 4th fret gives B. Then each partner to its thick string, by ear. For an octave string, play the thick string at the 12th fret, an octave up, with the open thin string and turn until the wobble stops. For the B and E pairs, match the second string to the first, open. Unisons are easy to hear; octaves less so, and that is where the tuner earns its place.

Other 12-string tunings

This page has standard and a whole step down. Drop D, half step down, DADGAD, open G and open D are on the guitar tuner's switch, which also reads any octave, so it tunes a 12-string too. In each, the octave strings follow their pair: drop D's low pair is D2 and D3, open G's 5th pair G2 and G3. Where a thin string lands on the note of another string (drop D's D3 is also the 4th string's note), the tuner may light that string instead; the reading is still right.

12-string tuners, the machine heads

A 12-string headstock carries twelve tuning machines, six a side on most acoustics (sold as 6L6R sets), so the headstock is longer and heavier and the guitar can tip neck-down on a strap; lighter machines help. Ratios around 1:18, as on Taylor's 12-string sets, turn the post slowly enough to set an octave string without overshooting it. Rickenbacker's electric 12-string mounts six machines the usual way and six pointing back, like a classical guitar's, which keeps the headstock as short as a six-string's. Replacing a set, match the post holes and the screw positions, or the new holes go into wood that already has twelve.

Open strings in tune, chords still sour

That is intonation, not tuning. Tune a string open, fret it at the 12th fret and read the cents: they should stay near zero. Thin octave strings and their thick partners need different compensation at the saddle, and on many 12-strings the octave strings read sharp up the neck. A few cents is normal; more is a setup job for a guitar tech, at the saddle, the nut or the neck relief. Some players leave the unison pairs a cent or two apart for the shimmer. On a held chord, beats faster than about one a second mean a pair is really out.

12-string questions

What is the best tuning for a 12-string guitar? Standard, if the guitar is built for it and the neck stays straight. On an old or lightly built one, a half or a whole step down, with a capo for concert pitch. Open G and open D suit slide and drones; they are on the guitar tuner.

Are 12-string chords different? No. The tuning is a six-string's, so every chord shape is the same; each note just sounds on two strings.

How do I tell if my 12-string is in tune? Every string reads within a few cents here, each pair sounds like one note with no fast wobble, and a fretted chord at the 7th fret sounds as clean as an open one. If only the last one fails, see intonation above.

Is there a 12-string electric guitar? Yes. The Rickenbacker 360/12 is the famous one: George Harrison played it on the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night in 1964, Roger McGuinn on the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man in 1965. It tunes the same way.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.