Tuning the B string .
 

G'day friends,
I've been playing Guitar for many years now and have a pretty good ear .. but .
I have a devil of a time tuning the B string... all the others,no problem.
Any one else have a similar problem ? or have an opinion on why I seem to have this trouble ?
Regards from OZ ... Charlie

Ha ha ha...have always felt this way! Get it as close as you can. I think this may be Werner Heisenberg's fault!

Charlie, it's not just a down under thing. I have had the same problem especially on one of my guitars. I got some help from Todd (Fitness1) on this board about this problem which tends to be due to the saddle. He gave me some advice on compensating the saddle, which is basically to remove some of the material on the front side of the saddle beneath the B string. I did it with a semi round file at about a 45* angle. Here's a picture of mine. This has helped my B string intonate better. Edit: I also forgot to mention as others have said below that using sweetened tunings helps a great deal.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...pse4grbm8h.jpg

Just a thought for you on this - you know, the E to B is a perfect 4th, a pretty easy interval to tune (I often tune with a unison, playing 5 on the B string to match the E, then also testing with an octave B on the E string - I hope that makes sense).

But having tuned the B 'perfectly', the next string G makes a wide major third (too wide for my ears, but that's the nature of our tuning). If you get tempted to bring the B down because it's too far away from the G... well, don't. It's just a wide major third, and correct given the notes we tune to.

Does this help at all?

I cross tune the B string. That is besides the 4th fret G string to open B string and then the b string 5th fret to the open E string, I will do the open D string to the 3rd fret of the B string as well.

If that doesn't work for me then generally its time for a new set of strings (most of my guitars have a compensated saddle). If I'm playing bluesy stuff its not so bad if its a touch flat, but other kind of music it can really be annoying.

Love the name 'Bung Hand' just knew it had to be an Aussie. :)

For me it's the low E. If I tune it 'perfectly', then the first song we play (in Key of G) it sounds off. I have to drop the low E down a few cents then it's dead on. I've had this on every guitar I've ever owned.

The B string for me is the indicator of when the strings need to be changed. The B is the first string to go for some reason. All the sudden it just won't stay in tune and it dawns on my it's time to change the strings.

The joke around here during band practice when the guitar is out of tune and I check it is, "It's the B... It's always the B!"

Does your guitar have a compensated saddle? If not you should replace your saddle with one, like in the picture, and that should fix the problem.

If you already have a compensated saddle, then, I have no idea how to fix your problem.

Attachment 4725

I tune both the bass E string and the B string slightly flat.
With a fully compensated saddle I can tune closer to standard but still slightly flat.
This fits my ear and makes my guitars sound right to me.
The funny thing is that when someone else plays my guitar, they don't like my tuning and bring the E and B back up to standard.
That is what their ears hear.

The low E often needs to be flattened to compensate for deflection which makes the string go sharp if you strike it with any force. Some guitars' nut slot are a little high and may also cause the string to go sharp when fretted, especially near the nut. The B string variation could be any number of things or combination.

I think that if you have to detune with E and B you might consider trying out James Taylor Tuning which compensates for a number of common issues.

I get a headache when we talk about guitar compensation, but underlying that complex matter is the simpler issue of recognizing that any string or note that seems off is off relative to other strings and notes. So a lot depends, as the above posts suggest, on what strings you tune relative to each other, and what chords you tend to play. I use a clip on tuner with no tricky adjustment to the desired frequencies, and get everything zeroed, and then play a few chords and fine tune by ear -- sort of the lazy man's compromise between exact tuning in the open position and good tuning when notes are fretted. A compensated saddle and a guitar that is fretted precisely, with its saddle positioned precisely, helps! So does a well-cut nut. A nut where the string slots are too high will be a bit off -- sharp -- at every fret!

+1 for the James Taylor “sweetened” tuning method. It really works for me to tame any acoustic. It’s the ACU preset in all Peterson tuners:

E: -12 cents
A: -10
D: -8
G: -4
B: -6
E: -3

I always tune the B string slightly flat... just on the verge of being in tune.

Back in the day, in concerts, Gordon Lightfoot used to talk about how hard the B strings are to get in tune on a 12 string. He had this whole horror story plot line about "The Belligerent B's" coming up in a cloud from Mexico ("Not the regular cloud; a more formidable one")...

I've used this. It works