Mandolin tuner

Standard mandolin tuning: G D A E

Both strings of a pair on the same note, eight strings in all; the gauges, in inches, are a common medium set. At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all.

How to tune a mandolin with a tuner

Tap Start tuning and allow the microphone; nothing to install: it runs in the browser on an Android phone, an iPhone or a laptop. The tuner asks for the G pair first, then D, A and E. Pluck one string of the pair and let the pick come to rest on its partner, so only one sounds: that is the rest stroke, and it keeps the reading steady. Bring the string up to the note from below. At five cents or closer, held for a moment, it ticks and moves on to D. Tap G again to tune the partner the same way, then play both together and listen. A mandolin is tuned like a violin, in fifths, G3 D4 A4 E5; it just has every note twice, eight strings in four pairs.

The tuner gets each string within five cents. Your ear does the last bit: two strings a few cents apart beat, a slow wobble in the sound, and the wobble's speed is their difference in Hz. Five cents apart, the A pair beats 1.3 times a second, the E pair 1.9 times, the G pair only 0.6, which is why the G pair is the hardest to hear. Turn the second string until the wobble slows and stops and the pair sounds like one string. That is the point of the old advice not to tune both strings with a tuner: the needle sets the note, the ear sets the pair. Tuning both to the needle is not wrong, it just leaves them up to ten cents apart, one a little flat and one a little sharp; on the E pair that is nearly four beats a second.

Electronic, clip-on or online mandolin tuner

Any chromatic tuner, the kind that names every note, tunes a mandolin. A clip-on on the headstock, a D'Addario Eclipse or a Snark for instance, reads the vibration of the wood and hardly hears the room, so it works at a jam. A phone, a laptop or this page reads the air and hears everything, so tune somewhere quiet. Neither can tell the two strings of a pair apart: both hear the pair as one note unless you damp a string, which is why the rest stroke matters more than which tuner you use. Peterson's strobe tuners have mandolin presets they call sweetened, which move some strings slightly off equal temperament on purpose; this page tunes every string to equal temperament.

How to tune a mandolin with an electronic tuner, any brand: set it to chromatic and A = 440, start with the G pair, play one string with the rest stroke, come up to the note from below, then its partner, then D, A and E. Go round once more, because tightening one pair moves the others a little, and finish each pair by ear. An electronic tuner finds how many times a second the string's wave repeats and names the nearest note; the cents are how far you are from it, a hundred to a semitone.

How to tune a mandolin without a tuner

Each pair is a fifth above the one below it, and a fifth is seven frets. Get the G pair right first, from a piano, the tone generator (196 Hz) or a tap on the G above with the microphone off. Then:

1. D pair: the G pair at the 7th fret is D4. Play it with the open D pair and turn until the wobble stops.
2. A pair: the D pair at the 7th fret is A4.
3. E pair: the A pair at the 7th fret is E5.

Within each pair, tune the second string to the first. Check the result with the tuner afterwards: small errors add up over three fifths.

How to tune a mandolin with a guitar

A guitar in standard tuning has all four notes:

A guitar tuner tunes a mandolin in chromatic mode. A guitar string mode expects E A D G B E at the guitar's octaves: the mandolin's G is there, the guitar's 3rd string, but its D, A and E sit an octave or two higher, and not every string mode accepts that.

Other mandolin tunings: cross tunings

Old-time players cross-tune for fiddle tunes in one key, so the open pairs ring as drones. This page has standard tuning only: tune the pairs that stay on the chips above, the others on the any-note tuner.

Going back to standard, retune twice: a cross tuning changes the pull on the neck and the bridge, and the pairs you didn't touch drift too. A four-string mandolin, single strings instead of pairs, as on many electric mandolins, uses the same G D A E.

Why a mandolin won't stay in tune

The bridge floats

A mandolin bridge isn't glued: the strings hold it on the top, and new strings or a big retune can drag it toward the neck. Change strings one at a time so it never comes loose. Where it sits sets the intonation. Tune a pair open, play it at the 12th fret and read the cents: the fretted octave sharp, move the bridge back toward the tailpiece a millimetre at a time; flat, toward the neck. Check the G pair and the E pair, the two sides of the bridge. If the open strings are in tune and chords go sour up the neck, this is why, not the tuning.

New strings stretch

A new set keeps going flat for a day or two. Lift each string gently from the fingerboard along its length, retune, and repeat until it holds. Tune up to every note from below, so the string doesn't stay caught at the nut and slip later. Old strings do the opposite: dull, rusty or worn strings stop holding pitch at all, and the set needs changing. Tune every time you pick the mandolin up.

The tuning machines and the weather

Mandolin tuners, the machines, usually come four on a plate, one plate per side. A button that wobbles has a screw in its end; a bushing that rattles in the peghead hole can be pressed back in; a gear that slips means a new plate. Replacement plates are made for A-style and F-style pegheads and for a post spacing: measure the old plate before you order. Wood and strings move with temperature and humidity, so a mandolin carried from a cold car into a warm room drifts for a while: let it settle, then tune.

The rest of the mandolin family

Mandolin questions

Are mandolin chords the same as guitar chords? The names are, the shapes are not. A guitar is tuned mostly in fourths, a mandolin in fifths like a violin, so every chord has its own fingering.

Can a ukulele be tuned like a mandolin? Not on its own strings. G D A E needs the top string at E5, a fifth above a ukulele's A4, and a ukulele string isn't made to go there; it takes strings made for that tuning.

Which mandolin for bluegrass? A carved top with f-holes. The F-style, with the scroll, follows Gibson's F-5 of the early 1920s, the model Bill Monroe played; the A-style is the same idea without the scroll and usually costs less. Round- and oval-hole mandolins sound rounder and sweeter and are common in Irish and folk music. They all tune G D A E.

Which famous songs use a mandolin? R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion (1991), Rod Stewart's Maggie May (1971) and Led Zeppelin's The Battle of Evermore (1971) put one up front.

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