The absolute easiest way to tune an acoustic guitar is with an inexpensive electronic tuner.  Coincidentally we just happen to sell the worlds best selling guitar tuner in our eBay store for well under $20.00 including delivery, batteries and one year warranty!

For a vast majority of guitar players the Korg GA-30 guitar tuner is the only guitar tuner you will ever need.  To use just play your 6 or 12 string guitar into the Korg GA-30 guitar tuner's built in microphone.  Press the button to select the name of the note you want to tune and use the LED lights and moving needle display to dial in the string tension. 

To properly tune a guitar it is important to tune to the target note in a sharp direction. That is if your target note is "A" and when you pluck your string you notice that it is sharper than your target "A" then turn the tuning peg to a pitch flatter than "A" and slowly tune up to "A" if you pass "A" then repeat the process. Always tune up to the desired note.

If you also have an electric guitar in your collection just plug the cord that normally goes from your guitar to your amp directly into the Korg GA-30 guitar tuner.

The correct notes for your 6 or 12 string guitar are (starting from the bottom string, the one closest to the floor when you are playing) E, B, G, D, A and E.  The last E is an octave lower then the first E.  For 12 strings guitars use EE, BB, Gg, Dd, Aa and Ee where the lower case notes are an octave higher the the upper case notes. 

Thanks for reading!

Evan