speaking of tunings...

[Fragle]

...i remembered another question that was lurking around in my head....HOW do you tune your guitars?? tuner? ear-only? one reference tone and the rest by ear? and if so, what do you use as a reference note? tuner? powertab? recordings?

my ears suck, but my tuner sucks way harder and thats why i usually listen to master of puppets, taking that low e chugga chugga and tune my low e to that, and the rest goes by ear. if i tune it like the tuner says everything sounds horribly out of tune, especially the open D and E chords.....maybe i'm dumb *lol*

greets
fragle

[toejam]

Re: speaking of tunings...

My ears also kinda suck, but I've gotten better through the years. I can get the guitar in tune without anything, but it's hard for me to tell what key I'm in without some kind of reference pitch. [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Usually I do it with some kind of electronic tuner, sometimes by a song on an album or another guitar laying around.

[Ace]

Re: speaking of tunings...

BOSS TU-2 running off the second output of my VHT valvulator.

[JacksonConcept]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I normally tune by ear. Get E and tune the rest accordingly. I play by ear, always have.

Here's a good way to Tune the low E string by ear:

Take a song that the guitar starts with a Low E note such as: "Enter Sandman", Hear it in your head and just tune the E to that note! I just hum the tune in my head and I get perfect tuning every time. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[guitarsjb]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I mostly use my tuner (Fender pedal tuner). But I have been trying hard to train my ear. So what I have been doing is when I change my strings, I do them one at a time, and try to tune the NEW string by ear (using the other in tune strings for reference). I am actually getting pretty good at it.

[HeWhoIs]

Re: speaking of tunings...

99% of the time I use a tuner. I am getting better at tuning by ear though.

[VitaminG]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I use the tuner built into my Korg AX1500G for string changes. But if I'm giving the tuning a tweak on the fly, I've never had any problem tuning relative to the other strings. Either by 5th-fret-to-adjacent-open-string, or by hitting a pair of adjacent strings and tuning to the chord (the P4?). If one string is slightly off, you can tell - it just sounds "wrong".

If you are tuning up with a tuner & finding your chords are playing way out of tune, you might want to check your intonation.

[ChickenScratch]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I tune by ear because I have perfect pitch but I do have a Sabine ST-1000 for when my bandmates are noodling loudly and I need to retune.

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: speaking of tunings...

Totally by ear, but I use a tuner just to check my accuracy, which is usually about 95% correct all the time. Just years of ear training.

[1959burst]

Re: speaking of tunings...

TUNER!!!! oh yes i have perfect pitch but swear by electronic tuners especially good ones! CONN,PETERSON,SEIKO CHROMATIC ST-1100.to name a few................. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ears get fatigued and background noise too gets in the way.

[Ace]

Re: speaking of tunings...

As a tech I can't afford to chance tuning a guitar by ear and handing it off onstage, unless I wanted it to come flying back at me. Plus on stage it's so damn loud. Practicing in my room, I set my guitars up with a tuner when I change strings, then adjust by ear as necesary. If I am going to do any recording, or play with another person, I make sure that we both use the same tuner.

[1959burst]

Re: speaking of tunings...

oh checking intonation on a good tuner is a must [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] too!

[Fragle]

Re: speaking of tunings...

mmh....i guess in my case its the tuner (some crappy korg tuner, no pedal)...i know the b and g strings are the difficult ones that are seldom 100% accurate, but i guess some tuners get it just about right, and some get it a bit more right [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] but really, if i tune the open strings according to my tuner "right" it sounds way off....and its definetely not intonation, ´because the Gmaj "bar chord" (well, "" because i mean that open string one) sounds off, too, without any notes fretted.

but i seriously wonder that 2 out of 10 guys that replied have perfect pitch....i guessed hardly anyone has it. well.....i dont have, too [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] although i guess its great to have it. must be way easier to figure out songs or improvise if you have it

greets
fragle

[ChickenScratch]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I've played around with a bunch of tuners before I settled on my Sabine ST-1000. I got it because it's cheap and accurate. Plus it looks good taped to the side of my amp.

It always surprizes me when a tuner is not accurate. I don't care how cheap it is, it's built for a specific purpose so why not actually perform that purpose? I'm not saying a $12 tuner should be as spot on as a Peterson but at least it should get you close enough there.

[pro-fusion]

Re: speaking of tunings...

I've had a little Korg DT-1 tuner (not the rackmount) for years and years--and it has always served me very well. My G-Major has a built-in tuner, but it seems to be off. Can it be calibrated?

In general, once I tune one string to a tuner, I can tune the rest by ear--and after all these years I can at least get close to standard pitch purely going by ear on all strings. But I find that on Floyd guitars using a tuner all around is a big timesaver.