If you go to a gear board like The Gear Page and search on tuners, you’ll see a lot of talk about a tuner’s “cents.” A “cent” is hundredth of a 1/2 note. People like to talk about “cents” to compare the accuracy of the tuners that they use. In general, if a tuner is within 1 – 2 cents accurate, it’s not a bad tuner. Some, like the Peterson strobe tuners, are even more accurate, as in 10ths of a cent. All penis size comparisons aside (this happens on the boards a lot: “My tuner is more accurate that yours” kind of bullshit, I was amazed to see a video of James Taylor explaining how he tunes his acoustic guitars, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen “cents” used in this way.
Check out the video:
I have to admit that I’ve spent years hitting the exact center of the gauge when tuning my guitar. But what JT explains is something I’ve never seen before explained, BUT to be fair to myself, I have experienced this sort of “off” tuning with my Peterson StroboClip before I broke it. 😦
Peterson has what are called “sweeteners” built into all their tuners, which is why if you use a Peterson tuner, you need to pick the instrument you’re tuning. These, I believe, are similar in effect to what JT is talking about in that because of the construction and shape of different stringed instruments, you have to make compensations for each different string so that they “play” correctly.
When I first started using a Peterson StroboClip, I felt that after I tuned, my individual strings sounded just a little off. But when I actually played, the sound was so much better. My chords sounded so much more in harmony. I think this is the key to what JT talks about in the video.
I haven’t tried this yet as I’m writing this during a break at work, but I’m going to have a recording session tonight and will try it out.
Thanks JT! Even after all these years, I’m still learning stuff from you!
Guitar Gear 
Hi Brendan,
Some background info about this subject.
About a dozen years ago I got a call from Sammy Sanchez, JT’s tech at the time.
He wanted to know if it was possible to program a custom Sweetened tuning into JT’s stage tuner (a Peterson StroboStomp).
JT had some cent values he wanted to use which made it possible to tune open strings quickly while counteracting the typical string deflection and make it possible, if necessary, to put a capo on without re-tuning.
The plan was to program the cent values into the tuner to avoid having to remember which cent offset belonged to which string in the middle of a gig, just tune as normal and have the tuner do the rest.
I walked Sammy through the process of entering the cent offsets into the tuner and all was good.
A short time later I later met Sammy working a Ben Harper gig and Ben was also using the offsets, I seem to remember Keb’Mo’ doing likewise but I could be mistaken, this was back in 2005 or thereabouts.
The cent offsets also worked very well when I tried them on my own collection of guitars both with and without capos.
Those are some pretty respectable offsets, not just a cent here or there, but deviations of up to 12 cents in size.
It’s a useful and repeatable tweak IMO, worth trying before getting surgical.
JT was not interested in endorsing gear at the time, but was cool with us making it a stock preset Sweetened Tuning in future tuners, so that’s what we did, the preset is called ACU. It’s in the StroboClip that you own and in every Peterson made since around 2006.
The system of Equal temperament never was created with guitars in mind but its a starting point, you won’t get sent to jail for veering away from it from time to time to suit a particular situation.
John, that is totally cool! Had no idea the ACU preset was JT’s. Pretty amazing.
Agreed With John!
Ensure you’re turning the correct tuning key. For instance, on the off chance that you need to tune your D string, take after the D lead on the fretboard to the headstock where you can see the right tuning key to utilizing. Else, you may coincidentally turn the A string tuning key, ask why your D-line isn’t changing, and wind up breaking your string. Continuously twofold watch that you are turning the correct tuning key for the string, you’re tuning
Natalie, that is SO obvious, but also very useful. This happens quite a bit with beginning guitarists or ukelele players.
After seeing your helpful video I have to say that you are just incredible. Your article is very informative and very easy to understand. You just nailed it. There are a lot of things to learn from your article and video. But I need to say that I have faced some little problems about tuning some chords. It is very hard to keep a balance to tune some chords. Some are impossible I think, but I know that you will help me. I will wait for your response.
[…] James Taylor puts it, because of how guitars are constructed, and how the strings vibrate, the actual sound that they […]
I recently asked a musician what tuning a song was in that he played and his response to me was “It’s a half cent lower” that’s all that he replied with. I am not familiar with cents. I saw a video on cents the 3-6-4-8-10-12 but I am still a bit confused. Based off his reply would I just lower each string a 1/2 step? Or Do I need more info from the musician such as the Hz frequency he is using. Or if you were me and you DID understand his reply how would you tune the guitar?
Thank you
Michael, a “cent” is 1/100th of a semitone (or half-step). As there are 12 semitones in an octave, an octave is 1200 cents. So when that musician replied with “it’s a half-cent” lower, he might’ve meant a “half step” lower. I’ve never seen a tuner that could get to the fractional cent. 🙂
The Sonic Research Turbo Tuners can tune to tenths of a cent (1000ths of a semi-tone), so it is possible!
I know that now… 🙂 Thanks for setting the record straight! The Peterson strobo tuners can do the same and both my StroboStomp and StroboClip can be set for 1/2 step tuning up or down.