12-String Guitar tuner – Standard
E-E-A-A-D-D-G-G-B-B-E-E · Standard
Press “Start tuner” – the browser will ask for microphone access. Sound is analysed on this device and never uploaded.
This free online tuner listens through your microphone and shows how close each string of your 12-String Guitar is to Standard tuning (E-E-A-A-D-D-G-G-B-B-E-E). Play a string, watch the needle, and turn the peg until the meter glows green. If you prefer tuning by ear, tap any string card to hear its reference tone.
About Standard tuning
Standard is the reference tuning for the 12-String Guitar – the pitch the instrument normally ships at, and the starting point every other tuning on this page is measured from.
Played open, the strings sound E-E-A-A-D-D-G-G-B-B-E-E – from E2 at the bottom to G4 at the top, a span of 2 octaves and 3 semitones.
Standard is re-entrant: the strings do not rise steadily in pitch, so the string nearest your thumb is not the lowest note available. That is deliberate, and it is a large part of why the instrument sounds the way it does.
A 12-string is six courses of two. The bottom four pair each string with one tuned an octave above; the top two courses are tuned in unison. Those octave pairs are the entire sound – the chorus and shimmer that makes a 12-string recognisable in one strum.
Tuning one is twice the work and twice as unforgiving, because a course that is slightly out beats against itself. Tune each string of a pair individually against the tuner rather than trying to hear the pair as one note, and expect the neck to need a lighter set than a six-string: twelve strings at pitch pull hard.
History
12-String Guitar
The twelve-string guitar appeared in the United States at the start of the 20th century, probably influenced by the double-course instruments that Mexican and Italian immigrants brought with them. In the 1920s factories such as Oscar Schmidt, maker of the Stella brand, turned them out cheaply, and that is how they reached the blues: Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) and Blind Willie McTell made the Stella twelve-string a voice of its own, often tuned several steps below concert pitch to ease the heavy tension.
Pete Seeger and the folk revival of the late 1950s brought the instrument back, and in 1963 Rickenbacker introduced the electric 360/12. George Harrison played one in A Hard Day's Night in 1964, and Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker jangle defined the sound of the Byrds a year later, setting the template for folk rock.
Where the Standard tuning comes from
Standard twelve-string tuning pairs each of the four lower strings with an octave string and doubles the two top strings in unison. This arrangement took shape with the American twelve-strings of the early 20th century. Early blues players such as Lead Belly usually tuned it well below concert pitch because of the heavy tension, while the folk rock of the 1960s – George Harrison and Roger McGuinn on the Rickenbacker 360/12 – established it at standard pitch.
Other 12-String Guitar tunings
Standard
Drop
Chords for this tuning
How do I tune my 12-String Guitar to Standard?
Allow microphone access, pluck a string, and the tuner will detect it automatically. The needle shows whether the string is flat or sharp – adjust until the reading is within ±5 cents (E-E-A-A-D-D-G-G-B-B-E-E).
Which notes are used in Standard tuning?
Standard tuning for 12-String Guitar uses the notes E-E-A-A-D-D-G-G-B-B-E-E, listed from the lowest string to the highest.
Can I tune without a microphone?
Yes. Every string card plays a reference tone – tap it and match your string to the sound by ear.