The Qwik Tune QT8 Automatic Guitar and Bass Tuner is a handy little battery powered gadget that may be suitable for younger inexperienced guitar players and new players who have yet to master the art of tuning.

It can be a helpful item to have and very often gets thrown in as part of the deal, (which was how we got ours many moons ago) when you buy a starter guitar pack. Do expect to pay anything from £6 to £10 for this tuner if buying it as a stand alone item.

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For a new guitar player the tuner can prove to be a great help, as guitars can and do often go out of tune very easily, especially when they are either new, or have had new strings fitted.

The tuner we had came in a small white cardboard box with a bright yellow lightening flash that says the tuner works to give you 'Lightening fast tuning' and this is true to a point. The rest of the box has a vivid purple design, which has white highlights and tells you the tuner is a hands free automatic device.

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The Qwik Tune QT8 Automatic Guitar and Bass Tuner can be used to tune any acoustic, electric or bass guitar to 'E' standard tuning. It has a handy and easy to read LCD which has a meter showing you how you are doing tuning wise and also shows the note you are tuning to. Its made of black plastic and seems sturdy enough when in use.

For use with an acoustic guitar all you need to do, is switch on your tuner and then play the note/ string that you want to tune up. You do need to use this in a quiet room as there can be outside interference otherwise.

You also need to stand the device really close to your guitar when using the tuner this way, otherwise the results are not good. The built in microphone is what picks up the sounds made by your acoustic guitar.

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If using the tuner with an electric guitar you can use the handy in and out jacks built in to the device, to plug your guitar lead into. You could use them to connect to a pedal board if you have one, but if doing that then a better quality tuner would be of more use.

Better tuners do cost more money and something like the Tu2 or Tu3, Boss chromatic tuner, which works very well indeed would suit a more experienced user with a pedal board. This would set you back around £55 to £65 so is not really a product I would advise a beginner to go for as its not cheap to buy.

There are other slightly more helpful chromatic tuners on the market, which sell for around the £20 to £25 mark which offer more than this basic tuner does. They are easier to use and offer greater accuracy.

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I did use the Qwik Tune QT8 Automatic Guitar and Bass Tuner for a while, but have been using the built in tuner on my Zoom effects pedal these days as it offers much greater accuracy, even though its an add on to the Zoom G2.

I think that tuning by ear will give better results than this cheapie tuner once you get a feel for how each note should sound when in tune. Obviously this can be hard to master for a new player, so this tuner can be of some small help for newer users.

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I do feel that its a fault of the device that there are no options for alternative tuning, as many guitarists do experiment with their guitar tuning, so that they can play different styles of music.

Many modern day metal bands use heavily dropped tuning in their music, so this tuner would not be of great help, if you want to emulate their sound. In this case once again a better quality chromatic tuner will be of more use to you.

The tuner is a basic one that can be useful, but as with most guitar products you do get what you pay for. I have found that the automatic note selection facility can play up some times, if you play a note too hard.

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Whilst the tuner has its faults it does offer you some basic assistance during your first few months of guitar owning/ playing.

Features of this tuner:
In and Out Jacks
Built in Microphone for use with Acoustic Guitars
LCD Meter
Automatic Note Selection
Can be used with Acoustic, Electric & Bass Guitars
Battery Powered

I would rate this tuner as a 2 to 3 star product. Its quite basic, though it can work well at times.

With a little more initial outlay you could get yourself a much better tuner right from the start, but if this is being thrown in as a freebie within a starter pack then I see no reason to turn it down.