I surprised myself tonight

[Swamp Yankee]

I've restrung guitars plenty of times, and each time I do it, I take a rough shot at quickly tuning to the vicinity of where I think it should be....I often find I get pretty close - but I never really concentrate because I know I'll always use the tuner

But tonight I was putting strings on my new electric and, already knowing my clip on won't give me a read out unless the guitar's amplified, I decided to really pay attention and try to get that 6th string to E by memory alone - then took my time and I tuned the rest by fretting.

After that, I plugged into the amp and checked the tuner - I was dead on tune with every string except for the B...I was a penny flat on that one

I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that again

[Kerbie]

It's alway the B string!

Congratulations...

[zmf]

Small victories are to be savored.

[fazool]

weird similar thing


I've been playing a lot of drop-D lately and going back and forth - a lot!


About 1/3rd of the time now I hit it without even tuning - just based on the cranking distance and a quick listen, then I check the tuner and its dead-on.

I used to chuckle a bit when guys at GC would tune a guitar and hand it me. When they left I'd put on my tuner and see how well they did. No one ever got as close as you did. If there was a trend, it was that they always tended to be slightly flat. No one ever went sharp. I wonder about that sometimes why the many times I did this the tune-by-ear guys would always be slightly flat. There must be something to it about the ear and brain that even though these guys weren't pitch perfect, they could always tell when they were too sharp.

I say this fully admitting that my pitch isn't terribly good. It'd be better if I wasn't lazy and tuned by ear more to get into the grove of it, but I just use the tuner every time out of habit and impatience.

[tbeltrans]

When I read the title of this thread, I thought of this...



...due to the aging population of AGF.

Tony

[rmgjsps]

Hey, SwampYankee, congratulations! Ya gotta take and savor your small victories, but, always remember, "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then."

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Swamp Yankee

....But tonight I was putting strings on my new electric and, already knowing my clip on won't give me a read out unless the guitar's amplified...

Why is that? All the clip-on's I've used pick up vibrations; doesn't matter if you're plugged in or not. I tune my electrics unplugged all the time. Some of my tuners also have a mic mode which certainly works better on a solid body when amplified. What kind of tuner are you using?

[ChrisE]

I did that once recently. I had been talking to a guy a know who's a real know-it-all about music, guitar, gigs, just about everything.

He was telling me about how he doesn't need a "nice" guitar since he can make anything sound good.

After I got off the phone with him I restrung my D-18 and tuned it up perfectly with no tuner.

I thought to myself--"HA! Let's see you do that Mr. Know-it All!"

Small victories.

[amyFB]

Proof that ear training CAN be taught, even if you aren't conciously making the effort.

I"m always a little tickled pink when I hit all the pitches correctly without a tuner.

[Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

....What kind of tuner are you using?

It was a D'Addario Equinox Headstock Tuner - the only one I had that's got a good battery in it.

It works fine on my acoustics, though the buttons are a bit hard to see when I'm reaching to turn it off and it's still on the headstock.

I put it on my new Supro Hampton and I couldn't get it to display unless I plugged the guitar into the amp.