Electronic Bass Guitar Tuners

Electronic bass guitar tuners need to pick up even very low notes reliably: the E string on a four-string bass sounds at around 41 Hz, while the low B on a five-string bass is around 31 Hz. Here you'll find tuners whose manufacturers explicitly specify bass guitar support or a bass mode. Most are clip-on models that attach to the headstock, such as Revoltage CLT-4, TC Electronic PolyTune Clip, Boss TU-02 or D'Addario Planet Waves CT-17 Eclipse. For the stage and your pedalboard, there are pedal tuners including Boss TU-3, TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Korg Pitchblack XS Bass and Peterson StroboStomp HD. For the tuning machines fitted to your bass headstock, visit bass guitar tuning machines.

Clip-on or pedal bass guitar tuners?

A clip-on tuner attaches to your bass headstock and picks up the instrument's vibrations rather than the sound in the room. You can tune even in a noisy rehearsal room without a cable or amplifier, making it suitable for home use, rehearsals and acoustic bass. A pedal tuner connects by cable between your bass and amplifier, often as the first pedal on your pedalboard, and you switch it on with your foot. Both Boss TU-3 and TC Electronic PolyTune 3 can mute the output while you tune, so you can tune silently between songs. You'll find more models, including options for guitar, among the pedal tuners.

Can the tuner handle the low B on a five-string bass?

The low B at around 31 Hz is more demanding for a tuner than guitar strings. For a five- or six-string bass, check the description to see whether the manufacturer specifies a mode for five- and six-string basses or support for low B. Examples with these specifications include Boss TU-3, Korg GA-2 and GA-50, and Vox VXT-1. Peterson StroboStomp HD and StroboPLUS HDC have presets for both four- and five-string bass guitars.

What do polyphonic, strobe and chromatic tuners mean?

• Polyphonic: TC Electronic PolyTune 3 shows which string is out of tune when you strum all the strings together once. PolyTune Clip only tunes polyphonically in guitar mode; with a bass, you tune one string at a time.
• Strobe: Peterson tuners display pitch deviation as a moving band, which helps with fine intonation adjustments.
• Chromatic: The tuner recognises every note, so you can also tune to Drop D or lower the entire tuning by a semitone.