Guitar tuning

Bill Duncan · From: Lenoir, North Carolina, USA

I have seen where people say they rarely have to tune their guitars. I have a SD 10 GFI ULTRA, a D 10 MSA, and a Shobud that is on loan to a friend. I have to tune every one of them fairly often. That is to be expected of course, when taken out. I also have to tune almost every time if I go up to play in the early morning. I also have tweek them periodically if I play for a long stretch. The GFI and MSA are about the same in tuning. Strings do move and they do need tweeking. Unless you do not mind them out of tune. Maybe it is just my guitars.

Ron Hogan · From: Nashville, TN, usa

If those "rarely" ones don't tune often, then there out of tune.

What can I say. Smile

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

When I left home briefly two years ago, I lost my prime spot. What was the music-room has been converted to the master-bedroom in my absence. I'm now in the smaller bedroom (we're in a condo) along with Susie's sewing/embroidery paraphernalia.

The Emmons now sits under a ceiling-fan and an A/C outlet. Once, that guitar was stable; now, I have to tweak it every time I sit down to it.

Perhaps this is the real hidden cost of my defection. Smile

Edited to add: I'm not in the small bedroom - just my guitars!
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Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

I was surprised when my guitar came up in tune day after day, show to show, for about three weeks. Then I did the math and realized most of the strings had been on there for well over a year. With a summer season just heating up I replaced the lot, which took care of the tuning anomaly, now I have to tweek it twice a day 🤔

If it ain't broke we can fix that too 😎

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I once read where a player said "I wound not play with a player that didn't tune first". That wasn't the stupidest thing I've ever read, but it comes pretty close. There is no designated time for "how often do you tune". Some players tune rarely, some after every set, some after every song, and some, even during a song! A crappy guitar, crappy strings, or a bad "ear" are the cause of many problems. The only proper time to tune is when the guitar sounds out of tune, and I would recommend you determine that with your ears - not by looking at a tuner. The reason for that is that the tuner will pick up discrepancies that cannot be heard in normal playing, and therefore they don't matter. Once the bar hits the strings, all those "few cent discrepancies" some players stress over go out the window, anyway. What counts is what you (and others) can hear. All the rest is superfluous.

I would recommend that you always play the guitar a few minutes before you tune it. Give the strings time to warm up, and get the parts moving and loose. This will eliminate a lot of retuning that's done, and make your subsequent tuning easier and more accurate.

And if it sounds good, it is good. Winking

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Believe me, Donny, I don't want to tune - I'd far prefer it if it was ready to play every time I sat down - but these aren't inaudible discrepancies. The A/C going on and off must affect it. Sometimes, when I first play, it'll seem okay but I'll eventually realize that it's not - it may be relatively in tune with itself, but it's all shifted a little sharp.

That's the only time I get a tuner out, just to confirm what I suspected. If I'm in the ball-park, it's ear-tuning for me.

Then there are those frequent times on the band-stand when we 'play' the guitar in tune, even when it's clear something's slipped. Pressure here, a slant there; it becomes instinctive.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

I always check my tuning before playing in a group. If it’s a gig, it’s usually going to be outdoors these days for me. Where I live, the temperature can change pretty drastically between sound check time and downbeat. I’ve never been on an outdoor gig here when the temperature and humidity stayed the same for 3 hours. So I check tuning every hour or so. Also as previously mentioned, a couple minutes of warmup does make a difference.

PS: Yeah Dave Grafe, new strings are the worst for trying to keep in tune!

Bill Duncan · From: Lenoir, North Carolina, USA

I remember a video with Chet and Jerry and Jerry was tuning. Jerry said, I like to play out of tune, it makes it sound like there's more of us.

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Jerry had a point - it's dissonance that makes a 12-string acoustic sound so big.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

That’s kinda the thinking behind a chorus effect too.

Tim Hurst · From: Newport, TN

I used to play 3 nights/week at a local motel lounge. The designated spot on stage for my steel after everyone else had staked out their territory was directly under the heat/AC duct, so whenever either came on, my tuning would go bonkers. This was before the days of the small tuners everybody has today. we had a Conn Strobe tuner for the whole band, and I had an "E" tuning fork that I kept between the necks. Not an easy task trying to stay reasonably in tune all night.

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Right, Fred - and isn't it the sounds crossing each other that drove some of us (when we were young and fit) to carry two amps?

Don't get me started on 'new strings'! My last paid work was at the end of 2019. I last changed all twenty strings in October, '20 and, despite the fact that they've crossed the Atlantic in a shipping-container since, I'm still playing them.

(Incidentally - and this belongs somewhere else - when I shipped the steel to Britain in Summer, '20 in its Wheel-Ez case, some damp had got in and the rubber case-lining had perished and adhered to the strings. Before the return container-journey, I read somewhere that newspaper would take care of the moisture. So it proved! Those strings were still good and shiny - the newspaper trick worked.)

Ken Pippus · From: Langford, BC, Canada

Air conditioning is bad, but in terms of making it hard to tune, not much is worse than one of those rotating ceiling fans with the big blades. Continuous "phaser" effect. Fortunately the electronic tuner ignores it, and you take what you get.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

If the temperature's fairly constant and the strings are over a week old, I rarely have to retune. That's the way it is at my house. When I was gigging (I've retired now), I would check the tuning after sound check or warmup and at the end of every set.

Being under an air vent, hot or cold, is the worst. Also moving between sunlight and shadow. Once we were playing directly into a setting sun. When the sun dropped below the horizon, my guitar dropped 10 cents in the space of two songs. Oh Well

Even passing clouds can affect tuning.

Banjo player says "What?".
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Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

I live in a temperate climate with two very stable guitars (an Excel and a Williams) so I don't have to fight the weather or much in the way of aircon.

But what I have learnt is what Donny says - I play for long enough to warm the strings before I even listen to the tuning. I used to mess with it right away, whereas once it's warm it's usually fine.

If a particular string won't stay in tune it probably needs changing. I change the fourth string more often than the others. I reckon this is because it gets raised and lowered in equal measure and gets hardened more severely at the nut and changer.
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Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

In Florida the inside of our house gets very dry. I have a humidifier to try to keep my steels from bending themselves up. It seems weird to me that it's so dry inside with all the humidity outside? Jerry Fessenden gave me that advice and it helps keep everything in tune even with the A/C and fans on.

Tommy Mc · From: Middlesex VT

The tuning on my guitar (1980 MSA S10) is very stable. At gigs and practice, I check it before playing, but it often is either right on, or needs a minor tweak on one string.

Temperature swings are always problematic, and AC is the worst. I can tune with the AC blasting, but then the warmth of my bar hand will warm the strings enough to throw them off while playing.

Jim Kennedy · From: Brentwood California, USA

I taught 6 string to kids, 10 to 14, for several years. I insisted that they tune every time they practiced, and we always tuned for every lesson. You have to learn to tune your instrument, and play an in tune intsrunment, to know what in tune sounds like. Pedal steel was no different for me, especially with the way the tuning is a compromise to sound in tune. On my steel I tune open strings every time I play, and tweak my pulls as necessary.
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Ian Worley · From: Sacramento, CA

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Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

It seems the strings on a steel guitar has to find a happy operating temperature and neutral stretch position before the tuning will be stable.

As a bluegrass player, I was taught to tune your guitar before you play, Wrong, By song 2 on a steel guitar, Stop and tune again.

When I played in a band I wanted my steel on stage for at least 30 minutes or more to temperature settle.

I have found if I just sit at the steel, Lay my picking hand on the strings and slide the bar up and down the strings and work the pedals and knee levers for a minute or two, Then check the tuning, After first week a new strings 3/4/8/11 may be all that needs tweaked. Then stay fairly stable for a couple weeks, Little tweaking, Then start work hardening at the changer fingers, Another week, Need string a change.

Bill Duncan · From: Lenoir, North Carolina, USA

I have paid a little more attention to when I tune my guitar and I notice that when set up in my studio in the mornings it is sharp. My studio is temperature controlled. After playing it, it does settle down to near in tune. It is hard for me to play with some strings sharp, so resisting to tune is hard. A little flat, not so bad. I usually play early morning and late at night. So, leaving it alone and not tuning to quick may be good. But, sharp is a killer.

I truthfully, do not find my GFI different in tuning fluctuations than my MSA.

Would it not require touch up if I played it sharp for a while? Maybe not. But playing sharp is irritating to say the least.

I have never worried about body flex, but I did check my GFI and it is about 1 cent. My MSA is about 4 cents. I still do not worry about body flex or whatever the correct terminology is.

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

Both of my Mullens stay in tune with themselves (pedals, knee levers, everything) just as nice as you please, so if I'm just noodling around the house by myself a tune-up will last about a week. If I'm taking a steel somewhere it gets tuned when I set it up and I make like Wilfred Brimley and check it often. Winking

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

Bill, I played a MSA Classic for about 17 years. It had a 6 string key head, The 1st and 12th key positions was blank. The 5th and 6th string had about 5" of dead string behind the roller. With a GFI Keyless if you pull the strings tight before locking the string with the screw, Seems to help a lot with maintaining tuning.

Bill Duncan · From: Lenoir, North Carolina, USA

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