Tuning E Question

[Mactuner]

I use a Snark tuner but if you want to go old school use a tuning fork. I have used an A fork and tuned the rest using harmonics. I saw a Taylor video where the factory luthier uses a fork and did the rest just by ear.

[lowrider]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

HI C1

When plucked, picked or struck, a string travels in a wider pattern, and then settles. When I first strike strings they tend to be sharp and then settle.

My digital tuners have faster or slower response, and the most sensitive is what I call erratic. If I pluck the string hard, it immediately registers the pitch and then almost wavers itself into a steady display.

The least sensitive almost seems to lag.

I like a digital tuner which is somewhere in the middle, but have learned to adapt to whichever one I use. My three primary ones are:

TC Electronics Polytune Clip - Acoustic
Korg Sledgehammer - Electrics
Snark - for about anything, because it claims +-2cent accuracy, but you can see the needle and the scale is large enough you can fudge pitches which need to be shaded.

My fourth is my Peterson Clip (which is an erratic one), and it goes to gigs which are out of doors because the screen is LCD (not LED) and you can read it in bright sunlight. It is SUPER accurate, but you can't tune in the middle of the band in the middle of a song with it.

The key to any tuner is find the most responsive part of the headstock to afix it to, and then play the string lightly.

If I tune my guitar with my Blue Snark, play it a little, then retune it with my Peterson Clip, it sounds like a new, much better guitar!

[Dreadfulnaught]

I used to use an E tuning fork and tune until there was no beat frequency, then used an iPhone tuner app, now have d’Addario soundhole tuners in several guitars. Bluegrass guys like them because they pick up your guitar and not others (mostly). I agree with dampening the other strings, because they seem to pick up sympathetic vibrations if you don’t. I get good results by plucking the string softly, I don’t know why but if I pluck hard the tuner schitzes out, Old battery will also make it schitz out. I always start with the string slightly flat and tune up. If I overshoot I detune and try again. I’ve been known to gently pull up on the string to make sure the ball end is seated well. If the strings are not in tune both open and at the 12th fret, they are old. Old strings never play true, especially up the fretboard.