• Electric Guitar Tuning Tipsguitar image by Bosko Martinovic from Fotolia.com
  
  Tuning your electric guitar can be tricky, depending on the type of hardware you have. Some electric guitars contain a specialized tuning system called a Floyd Rose; however, most electric guitars contain just the basic peg tuners. Some specific tips can help you tune your guitar with more ease such as using cross tuning techniques, octave checking, accurate tone references and extra tuning tools.
  
  

Tone References

• It is important to use an accurate reference so your strings are perfectly tuned when tuning your electric guitar. Some of the best references are electronic sources such as metronome tuners, computer software, such as GuitarPro or a keyboard or piano. There are many different tone ranges, but the most common tuning is E A D G B E. Tune the largest string to E and the following descending strings are tuned to A D G B E.
  
  

Cross Tuning

• One of the most effective ways to tune your guitar quickly is by using a technique called cross tuning; this is especially beneficial for tuning Floyd Rose guitars. Cross tuning works by creating less tension on one specific part of the guitar neck. Skip strings instead of going in order from top to bottom. Start by tuning the top E string, B string, A string, G string, D string and small E string. You may have to do this more than one time to get the guitar perfectly in tune.
  
  

Octave Checking

• An effective way to check if your guitar is in tune is by using octave checking. There are several frets on the guitar that when pressed will create a chime, or identical note with the string below it. To do this, press the 5th fret on the thick E string, then hit the open string below it. This should create the same exact note; if not, then your guitar is not in tune. The same technique will work for all the other strings using the 5th fret, except on the G string it will be the 4th fret. At least one string must be in tune in order for this technique to work. You can use this string to tune all the rest of the strings by using the octave technique.
  
  

Tuning Tools

• Some players use extra tools to help speed up the tuning process. A popular tool is a tuning key which works by wrapping it around the guitar tuning pegs. This tool makes it a lot faster and easier to wind up the guitar strings when tightening and loosening the tension for tuning.