Tuning issues (hint: it’s not your tuners)

[AcornHouse]

StewMac‘s latest How-to video covers tuning issues and how to fix them. Well worth watching regardless of your experience level.

 

[Opsimath]

Thank you so much for that video! Sssooo much I didn't know, as in almost all of it. Since my Snark is definitely a crutch I'll need to work on that.

 

[Canard]

Excellent. Thanks for posting.

Other points to consider:

Something perfectly in tune doesn't sound good. It is lacking in warmth. The best piano tuners tune by ear with reference to tuning forks for checking an absolute pitch point such as A 440. They aim for rich choral dissonance, the piano sounding like choir of human voices. A guitar is no different. Being a fretted instrument, a guitar naturally leans toward choral dissonance anyway.

You can speed tune using harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets but as you go up from the E 6th and A 5th strings you will get progressively out of tune, compounding micro tuning errors, because harmonics are natural intervals and the guitar is an equal tempered instrument--purposely out of natural tune to allow for modulating keys. If you use harmonics to tune, you will struggle to get you B 2nd and E 1st to play in tune with the rest of the guitar. If you are tuning an acoustic guitar, you can tune the string with the best 12th fret intonation to pitch and then tune all other strings to unison or octave or double octave notes on the best string. You will then be in as close to perfect equal tempered tuning as possible. But then you need to go through a process of slight detuning, checking how the guitar sounds at different places on the neck, checking octaves here and there, equalizing intonation errors that may exist on other strings (as the guy in the video points out) until you have your guitar singing like a little silver-throated choir.

Inappropriate strings can cause a guitar tuning problems. Very light gage strings on a short scale instrument can cause a number of problems. The strings do not provide enough tension over the scale length to lock tuners, especially vintage worn tuners, and strings go out of tune easily. Lack of tension can also lead to random sharp fretted notes here and there. Sometimes this can be addressed by skilled technique and familiarity with the instrument--don't fret so hard here or there--but this is harder with barre chords. Sometimes it can be addressed by putting the guitar out of tune at the 12th fret, moving the bridge saddle to even out intonation problems (as the guy in the video says). But if you slap on a set of medium gage strings, often these problems just disappear. And as a bonus, your PUPs open up.

PUP height can also make a guitar sound out of tune, particular on Strat-style guitar, particularly with light strings. The magnetic pull on a string interferes with the string's vibration and causes false overtones. Switching to heavier strings or lowering the PUP can resolve the problem. But again ... there is a balancing act. Fix the problem completely and you lose the Strat-style guitar's lovely, unearthly metallic howl.

 

[Westerly Wood]

I do whatever my snark tuner tells me to...

 

[davismanLV]

I do whatever my snark tuner tells me to...

Woody, you're soooo tuner whipped!!

 

[Rocky]

FINALLY! Somebody gets that you don't need any stupid 'lock twists' to keep your strings stable at the tuner. I hate it when I have to remove strings other people have installed.

Something perfectly in tune doesn't sound good. It is lacking in warmth. The best piano tuners tune by ear with reference to tuning forks for checking an absolute pitch point such as A 440. They aim for rich choral dissonance, the piano sounding like choir of human voices. A guitar is no different. Being a fretted instrument, a guitar naturally leans toward choral dissonance anyway.

This is especially true with 12-strings. There's a sweet spot of being ever so slightly out of tune that makes them sound better.

 

[Uke]

I do whatever my snark tuner tells me to...

Exactly. I use a snarklike tuner. I use it once before playing, then adjust to my ear, then if it isn't in tune, screw it -- life's too short. Just play. However, I've not always been this way. I used to be pretty obsessive about tuning, but I just got tired in my older years.

 

[Uke]

This is especially true with 12-strings

I love 12-strings -- as long as somebody else owns them and tunes them!

 

[fronobulax]

Exactly. I use a snarklike tuner. I use it once before playing, then adjust to my ear, then if it isn't in tune, screw it -- life's too short. Just play. However, I've not always been this way. I used to be pretty obsessive about tuning, but I just got tired in my older years.

Tuning is in the ear of the beholder and not in the number an electronic tuner registers. So far, so good. But if you have an audience and most of them think you (or your ensemble) are out of tune then you have lost them. I have seen performers interrupted by audience members offering to help them (re)tune their guitar and people just get up and leave because the performer was out of tune and unwilling to do anything about it.

If you are the only audience then your approach is certainly working for you

 

[Uke]

But if you have an audience

Absolutely -- most of the time the dog is my audience.