Guitar String Frequencies

Most guitarists learn the six open-string names — E, A, D, G, B, E — before they ever see a number beside them. That is enough to get through your first lessons. But behind each letter sits a physical measurement: how many times per second that string vibrates back and forth. That measurement is frequency, expressed in Hertz (Hz).

Knowing the frequencies for standard tuning is not academic trivia. It explains why your low E feels harder for a phone microphone to track than your high E, why tuners talk in cents as well as note names, and why two guitars can both read "in tune" yet sound slightly different. This reference covers the Hz values for EADGBE, where those numbers come from, and how they connect to what you see on EasyTuner's strobe dial when you tune.

What Hertz Actually Means on a Guitar String

One Hertz equals one complete vibration cycle per second. Pluck the open low E string and, if it is tuned correctly, the string body moves back and forth roughly 82 times every second. Your ear interprets that rate as a pitch — a low, steady E. Pluck the high E and the rate jumps to about 330 vibrations per second. Same note letter, different octave, very different frequency.

Several factors set a string's natural frequency: its length (nut to bridge), tension (how hard you have turned the peg), and mass per unit length (string gauge and whether it is wound). Shorten the vibrating length by fretting, and frequency rises. Tighten the peg, frequency rises again. This is why tuning is really the act of adjusting tension until each open string lands on its target Hz.

The A4 = 440 Hz Reference

Modern tuners — including browser-based tools like EasyTuner — calculate guitar pitches from a single anchor: A above middle C (written A4) at 440 Hz. That convention, formalised as ISO 16, is what most digital tuners, piano tuners, and recording software assume by default. Every other note in the chromatic scale is derived mathematically from that anchor using equal temperament, where each semitone is an equal ratio rather than a slightly uneven natural interval.

You may occasionally hear orchestras tune to A4 = 442 Hz for brightness, or encounter historical pitches slightly flat of 440. For guitar practice, session work, and playing along with most backing tracks, 440 is the practical standard. EasyTuner's reference tones and microphone detection both use this system, so the E2 target on your screen is the E2 defined relative to A4 = 440 — not an approximate guess.

Standard EADGBE Frequency Chart

The table below lists the six open strings in standard tuning, numbered from the 6th (lowest) to the 1st (highest). Frequencies are shown to two decimal places, which is more precision than your ear can separate but matches what a good electronic tuner displays.

• 6th string — E2 — 82.41 Hz (low E, the thickest string)
• 5th string — A2 — 110.00 Hz
• 4th string — D3 — 146.83 Hz
• 3rd string — G3 — 196.00 Hz
• 2nd string — B3 — 246.94 Hz
• 1st string — E4 — 329.63 Hz (high E, one octave above the 6th string's E)

How the Six Frequencies Relate to Each Other

Standard guitar tuning is mostly a chain of perfect fourths: E to A, A to D, D to G. Each step multiplies frequency by roughly 4/3 (about 1.333). The exception is the gap from G to B, which is a major third — a slightly smaller jump — and that is part of why open C and G chord shapes feel natural under your fingers.

Octaves always double the frequency. E4 at 329.63 Hz is exactly twice E3 (164.81 Hz), which is twice E2 (82.41 Hz). If you play the 12th-fret harmonic on the low E string, you are hearing the same pitch class as the open high E, though produced differently. Recognising octave relationships helps when a tuner briefly flashes the wrong E — the microphone caught a harmonic before the fundamental settled.

Drop D tuning changes only one entry in the chart: the 6th string becomes D2 at approximately 73.42 Hz. Everything else stays identical to standard tuning. EasyTuner loads the correct targets automatically when you switch tunings on the home page or on a dedicated Drop D tuner page.

Cents: Finer Steps Than Whole Hertz

Hertz is useful for identifying which note you are near, but guitar tuning demands finer resolution. Musicians use cents: one cent is one hundredth of a semitone. One semitone spans 100 cents, and on a guitar fretboard one semitone equals one fret.

The relationship is logarithmic, not linear. On a low string, a deviation of 5 Hz might be dozens of cents — clearly out of tune. On the high E string, the same 5 Hz might be only a handful of cents. That is why EasyTuner shows cents on the strobe dial rather than asking you to memorise acceptable Hz windows per string. When the display reads within about ±5 cents of the target and the stripes stop spinning, you are in the zone most players consider musically in tune.

Reference tones on the fretboard are generated at the exact target frequency for each string. When you compare by ear, you are matching Hz for Hz. When you use Tap to tune, the microphone estimates the frequency of the vibrating string in real time and converts that reading into note name plus cent deviation.

Why the Low E String Behaves Differently

At 82 Hz, the low E sits near the bottom of what many built-in laptop and phone microphones capture cleanly. The fundamental wave is long and slow; small background rumble — air conditioning, traffic, desk vibration — can compete with it. Guitar pickups and dedicated clip-on tuners work closer to the source partly for this reason.

Pitch detection algorithms also contend with harmonics. A vibrating string produces a fundamental frequency plus overtones at integer multiples. Microphones sometimes lock onto a strong overtone before the fundamental is clear, which can make a tuner think you are an octave high until the note decays. EasyTuner applies instrument-aware processing for guitar strings, but the physics still reward a firm pluck, a quiet room, and patience on the 6th string. If readings bounce, try plucking nearer the 12th fret and let the note sustain.

When Exact Hz Matters — and When It Does Not

Recording alongside fixed-pitch instruments (piano, synth, quantized tracks) benefits from tuning closely to 440-based references. If everyone is within a few cents, chords stack cleanly.

Purely acoustic jamming sometimes tolerates a wider spread. What matters most is that the six strings agree with each other — internal intonation — even if the whole guitar is a few cents sharp or flat relative to absolute pitch. Temperature shifts, humidity, and string age pull individual strings at different rates. Checking the chart mentally is less useful than running through the strings again after ten minutes of playing.

Capo placement raises every string's sounding pitch by the same number of semitones. Clamp at the 2nd fret and your open shapes sound a whole step higher; the physical open-string frequencies you measure are no longer the EADGBE values in this chart. Tune open first, then capo, then fine-tune if needed.

Using This Chart with EasyTuner

You do not need to memorise six decimal places. Keep the chart as a reference when something looks wrong: if you expect E2 but the dial suggests a note far away, the string may be an entire step out, or the wrong string was plucked. The tuning chart on the home page lists the same targets in note-name form (E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4) beside each string.

For a full walkthrough of the tuning workflow — reference tones, microphone permission, auto-advance, and troubleshooting — see our guide How to Tune a Guitar. To hear and match these frequencies yourself, open the free guitar tuner, tap the speaker beside any string, and compare the sustained tone to your open string while watching the cent readout lock in.