Tuners

Stringed instruments need to be tuned... frequently. The human ear is pretty sensitive. Some almost perfectly so. Alas, mine is far from perfect. I can cringe at an off-key note, but I need help making the needed correction.

When I was younger, pitch pipes were considered effective tools. You blew a tone, and tuned the corresponding string to match. If you had a keyboard around, you could strike a key and do your best to match that. Some guys actually carried tuning forks. Still, we were relying on our ears to keep the whole band in tune.

The wonders of electronics changed the world. Plugged into an oscilloscope, I could achieve a scientifically provable state of tuning ecstasy. But those suckers were (are) expensive! And fragile.

Chromatics were a godsend. Compact and fairly durable, and not quite as pricey as oscilloscopes, all you needed to keep the band tuned together was an endless supply of batteries. Modern technology has made chromatic tuners even more compact and affordable. Thanks!

Currently, depending on venue, I employ one of two tuners. One is built in to my Boss ME-50B effects pedal:


I use this at shows and rehearsals. It's overkill for my needs, actually. For all of it's bells and whistles, almost all I ever use is the tuner and compression. Bought it at a great price off Craig's List, though. I like it. (insert missing "thumbs-up" smilie)

For everything else, I go with my Snark SN-1: (mine's black, not blue, though)


This cool little device clips to the head stock and responds to the vibration of the wood. Short of an oscilloscope, it's the most sensitive and accurate tuner I've ever used. And, while advertised as a guitar and bass tuner, it works just fine on my ukulele as well.

OK, enough of the product placement. I'm not getting any kickback for it, anyway.

I know we've got players out there... Fly, Martian, others. What are your tuner experiences/triumphs/horror stories? Still tuning by ear? Gone ultra hi-tech? Love to see and read your tales!

 

the in-line boss tuner is still the ticket for me......



1 bandmate swears by the clip on tuners,but that's for mando's and acoustics more so.

the couple acoustics I have down stairs usually need a tweak so....dial tone on your landline phone is damn near an A when in a pinch..hahah

but I use my ear a lot as well.....it too is an instrument so......gotta practice right.
--- merged: Jan 7, 2012 2:37 PM ---
wow...sorry,that is kinda big

 

I don't play but just ran across a favorable review for an iPhone/iPad chromatic tuner from bitcount called Cleartune.

Here's the website http://www.bitcount.com/cleartune/

 

I've used a few of the Boss TU series tuners, though never the stomp box, Fly. I know a couple of recording engineers that use them exclusively.

That Cleartune looks interesting, too, Craven Morehead. My phone is too dumb to use it

 

that clip on one is pretty damn sweet. These have all come quite a way since I purchased one. Can that be used on any instrument?

 

Hi Aquafox,

Not sure about the model posted, but my daughter started learning the guitar a couple of years ago, and there's little as miserable as an out of tune instrument, so I bought her a similar clip on (monochrome display, and rectangular body, but otherwise very similar) cost about £10 - so I guess about $15? It works by vibration/microphone, and functions on her electric and accoustic guitars. It's so much better than older methods that her teacher borrows it and tunes to my daughter, rather than vice versa when they have a lesson.

 

I had one just like that, Daniel. It disappeared when my daughter discovered it.

Snark makes an "all instrument" model that works from both vibration and tone. I use my on any stringed instrument. You are right: pretty damn sweet, aquafox.

 

i used to use gStrings on my phone, still do for my acoustic, but my amp (vox vt40+) has a built-in tuner that I use now for my electric. I figure that modern electronics have reached the point where even the average low-end cellphone probably has the hardware to be as accurate as an old oscilloscope was. I do still double-check everything though and hand-tweak a little bit. Putting all my open strings in tune by electronic means tends to make them a bit sharp by 5th fret use so I usually go through once electronically and then a second time to keep everything sounding nice.

 

When was your last calibration, Shadowex3? My Ric goes to the shop at least once a year.
I like tuning both open and harmonic. The 12 is a Goya, decent but not high-end. The neck could use an adjustment, but since I only play it at home, I just average between open and harmonic tuning, and tweak an needed, like you describe.

 

...this isn't a thread about Willravel's Eclipse.

Oops.

 

thanks. now I have to change my shirt. I just spit beer.

oh well, topless blends with pantless better anyway.

 

Oh, man , that was a fun mess of a car. It made me feel like a douchy 16 year old again.

Grumpy, my piano tuner has absolutely perfect pitch, the rare kind, and even he uses a machine. By ear is good in a pinch, but I think you're right to have a mechanical option. And I know basically nothing about them, so, with that, I humbly return to silently reading the thread...

 

I took my acoustic to a local independant luthier a bit ago actually after giving up on getting it playable myself, he just adjusted the truss way further than I thought it could actually go and said other'n that it was in great shape and come back in 6 months when I might know enough to appreciate anything else he could do to it. My electric I'm not even going to bother with, it's an un-numbered "arbor" strat clone with a Nato neck and a poplar body.

 

My friend T totally rebuilt my Guild acoustic: reset the neck, fixed some stress cracks, installed a Fishman pickup and a brass plate under the bridge (amazing how that much that made for brighter tone!) and refinished. I blogged it in 4.0. Luthiers are amazing artists and craftsmen!

That Arbor should have an adjustable bridge. The harmonic at the 12th fret should be in tune with the open string. Adjusting to correct that is fairly straight forward. If your tuning is going sharp or flat at the 3rd through 7th fret, the neck needs attention. Personally, I leave that part to a pro.

 

I actually have 'perfect pitch' ('the rare kind' according to Willravel ... tons of stories about that) so I tune my A string to whatever tuning I want to use (usually either standard, down a half step, or down a whole step) and then tune the rest of the strings to that using the natural harmonics at the 7th fret. If I want a more exotic tuning than standard, I'll just tune the E string to whatever and then use the fretboard to tune the rest of the strings.

Thing is... my 'perfect pitch' isn't really perfect, in that the A that I hear in my head isn't always at 440, so when I'm playing with other people or recordings I'll usually just find a reference pitch online and tune the A string to 440, and then either use harmonics or the fretboard (depending on what tuning I'm using) to tune the rest.

Or... I use a VST, because my "rig" is comprised entirely in my DAW (REAPER + LePou plugins FTW!). For that, I just use the ReaTune VST that comes with REAPER. I'll go analog eventually, if I ever get into a legit band

Interesting. All of the dial tones I've ever heard are closer to F.

 

i'm jealous. is this something that's just a natural ability or can you learn it?

my technical ability is much better than my aural skills. maybe this is due to mainly learning by tabs and not picking up any instruments until my 20's? i have enough 'relative pitch' to be able to tune my guitar by ear as long as it's not way out. for those instances my trusty blue korg tuner works really well though

 

I was taught guitar at a very young age. I'm proud of the fact that I could play an A on a guitar before I could walk upright unassisted.
Because I was taught so young, I 'developed' this sense of what each pitch 'sounds like' and can now name off any pitch when I hear it. I can usually identify simple-ish chords, too.
There may be some stories of 'learning' perfect pitch, but I've never seen or heard of it. Most people like me just start out as young virtuosos playing an instrument at a very young age (usually piano.)

Also, trusty blue Korg tuners FTW! When I'm out with other people, that's what I use to tune.

 

sorry....thought the hahahhahah would have givin' away the fact that I was being facetious.........my apologies
--- merged: Jan 9, 2012 7:56 PM ---
you know......two things I've just read.......

1 :in regards to being in tune,properly set up guitar,good intonation and all.......you really do need a good luthier/guitar tech.... like grump says....other than your string changes and such,cleaning and all...every six months or so,wether needed or not,I take my gear to my guy......sometimes a tweak is needed.if not,quick jam in his shop.....win/win

2 :as for perfect pitch....I figure it can be attained by teaching your ears.over the years......I've been able to more easily drop right into any jam/tune,instrumental.whatever.....from teaching my ears to listen.......now do I have perfect pitch,no but,I see/hear myself getting better at it........it all comes to practice really.....

 

No problem. On teh interwebz it's really hard to tell sarcasm from not-sarcasm. It's cool.

I agree with everything else you've said. I give all of my guitars a thorough cleaning and set them up about once a year (sometimes more often if needed). Otherwise the fingerboard gets grimy and the intonation goes out the window on the higher frets. Could my guitars benefit from a set up from a professional technician? Absolutely. But I have not the money for such things (especially not on five guitars!), so my amateur touch is better than nothing.
I will also say that perfect pitch is a blessing and a curse. Blessing for the music, curse for everything else... if a note is even just out of tune it gives me a headache. And every single thing that has ever been made has some sort of resonant frequency and a pitch associated with it, and when those frequencies are accentuated and are 'in-between' two notes, it drives me absolutely bonkers.
For instance, my cubicle at work sits in the corner of a room against two walls. On one of those walls in an output vent from the heating system. When the fan kicks on, the pitch that arises is somewhere between a G and an Ab, but it's not reaaalllyyyy either pitch, so it drives me insane because it's not a pitch that I hear in my head, and when I try to compare it to other pitches it gives me a literal headache.

#firstworldproblems