Tuning

hello I have an acoustic guitar just put new strings on now I can not tune the 5th string or second the 5th string will tune to low e or g but can not get anything in between I have checked the strings and they are all in the right place

Hmm, interesting. What do you mean you can't tune the 5th string? Are you using an electronic tuner?

1 2 3 4 5 6

E A D G B E

You're trying to tune it to B, correct?

Hello sorry that should have read second string

Trying to tune to A string

I have noticed with some clip on tuners that sometimes they do not respond to low frequencies , on my Snark's is a bit that way . The black one and it is afew tears old , so not sure of the model . Have found if you play the open string harmonic at the 12th fret, it responds straight away . For beginners , lightly rest your finger on the string at the 12th fret and pick it , you should hear a ring , this is a harmonic of the open note , tune the string to that .

So, you could techincally tune to the right notes but, are you in the right pitch? This is where no one gives you much direction other than 'here's your tuner, have fun...'. To get 'close, you gotta use your ear. Luckily Guitar Tricks has a reference tuner to work against: Click >>

A couple things to keep in mind -

1) Using an audible reference to help you tune gets you to get used to what is the actual right note at the right pitch (ie - A @ 440). It helps train your ear.

2) While it may not get you 'exactly' in tune by doing a 'call-and-response' audible of this reference tuner (versus your guitar note), it gets you close. Your tuner can take over from there.

Do this tuning by ear thing often enough and eventually you can get pretty close to the actual right note/pitch though I think I find that I'm usually about a half step off when by ear...Close but no cigar ;)

So, though I can't say for sure that getting to the right pitch is the actual answer, just my guess from what you had in the original post.

Thank you for all the replies still can not get the "A" string in tune going to buy another set of strings and start over