James Taylor’s sweetened tuning

[blindboyjimi]

I use Peterson’s ACU Sweetened tuning exclusively. It has always sounded the best for me.

[cdkrugjr]

I suspect that James Taylor Sweetened Tuning works very well if you’re James Taylor playing James Taylor’s guitars.

Whether or not it works for us, playing our guitars is largely a matter of luck. I’ve not come across a “better” tuning that justifies the complication, but maybe some day.

[GuitarsFromMars]

I would bet that anyone who uses a Telecaster would say "It's close enough", on a regular basis. I also bend strings to the pitch my ears hear. Good luck trying to play and write like James does, on his bespoke built Olson.

[Jwills57]

Guitar Tuning Theory is an imprecise deal, just the nature of the beast. If you have a good guitar and a good tech, you can usually manage to get the open string and the fretted 12th fret note to be in tune, neither sharp nor flat. That's pretty good, I think. The entire beast is a compromise of sorts; it's like a balloon--if you squeeze it one direction, it pops out in another. I think of the hundreds an hundreds of old-school recordings from the 1950s and 1960s that I love so much--Norman Blake and John Fahey and Doc Watson and Stefan Grossman, etc. I'm guessing the musicians playing those songs on those guitars didn't agonize as much about this as we do today. They got as close as they could and got on with it. I'm not saying don't fiddle with it but don't fiddle with it too much, at the detriment of enjoying the playing and the music.

[TedBPhx]

Don’t care for the sweetened setting on the Peterson clip-on. Sounds out of tune. Don’t use a capo either.

[turtlejimmy]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

First of all: I place my capo directly on the fret wire, and have done so for years. It doesn't get in my way, and it does NOT pull the strings sharp at all.

I've never heard of this before .... I tried it and it deadened all the strings. What sort of a capo are you using???



Turtle

[b1j]

I tried JT’s cents and found I liked how the major third notes behaved in first-position G, A, C, and D chords. Before I landed on his cents chart, I was always disappointed with the sounds. Not anymore. And to my ears it is equally effective on all four of my guitars — even the Gurian with Nashville strings. Just my experience. And I just have what we have decided to call mid-level guitars.

Try playing Sound of Silence with out-of-whack thirds.

Silly’s method of aiming for the thirds seems to be addressing the same issue, so I send him my unsolicited vote of approval.

Jackson Browne was quoted in the 70s as saying it is physically impossible to tune a guitar. That’s kind of fatalistic, but it lines up with the old adage (citation lost to history):

“Guitarists spend half the time tuning and the other half playing out of tune.”

[turtlejimmy]

Well, even pianos aren't really in tune, are they? We do the best we can. Personally, I just sing louder to mask the imperfections in string tuning.

How are you guys getting at these precise tunings? My headstock tuner doesn't seem to have any cents. What sort of a tuner does that?



Turtle

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I agree. I DO use a sweetened tuning ... for ME. As I tend to play a lot out of a first position C or G shape (with or without capo) I tend o tine thiswise :

1st - tune the G -3rd fret.
2nd -Tune the D on 3rd.
3rd - open
4th open
5th - Tune B on 2nd fret
6th -tune G on 3rd fret.

So, essentially a G chord but works equally well when using a C shape.

Works for me. It may/may not work for you.
I made this video in 2017.

I've used SM's tuning adjustment method above at times, and unlike the Peterson sweetened or the James Taylor method it seems to help sometimes.

[Glennwillow]

What I remember about the old recordings is that they so often sounded out of tune. And when I pull one up today to listen and then try to see if my guitar matches their recorded pitch, I routinely find that their guitar is tuned to something in between the standard notes.

When digital tuners first appeared, I thought they were the best thing since sliced bread because finally nobody needed to argue with anyone else about what was in tune or out of tune. We finally had an easy-to-use, third party standard.

The old players did the best they could, but in my experience they were often out of tune because so much was a matter of opinion. Sweetened or not, digital tuners along with better capos and better strings has really improved guitar playing in recent decades.

- Glenn

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by RussellHawaii

Here is a summary from B1j:

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

Anyone here use this tuning idea, and care to comment?

This obviously works well for JT's guitar and style of playing. It didn't work for me with my guitar.

Take a standard "cowboy" E chord, no capo. If you assume your first finger is going to push the G# on the third string a few cents sharp it will probably sound pretty darn good. But the E on the 4th string is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 cents sharper than the low E on the 6th string!

The science I've read says the human ear can detect 3-4 cents, 15 cents is enough to make your teeth grind.

My guess is that everyone can find a sweetened tuning for their guitar and playing that will work great with most chords in a given key. I lower my B string in the key of G to make the third of the chord work, but I have to be careful not to lower it so far it no longer works with the C chord.

Tuning is a compromise. Find what works for you. Maybe sweeten a little less drastically than 12 cents.

[RussellHawaii]

Originally Posted by turtlejimmy

Well, even pianos aren't really in tune, are they? We do the best we can. Personally, I just sing louder to mask the imperfections in string tuning.

Turtle

I’m the opposite, I play loud to hide the imperfections of my voice! BTW, I’m part turtle myself.
Glenn, I agree, I feel that the electronic tuner was the single best improvement to live sound in my lifetime.
SM, I agree your method would work well, I have a similar method (as described by Tony Rice in his book). The sweetening recipe is for using a tuner on each string. If one is tuning to other strings using octaves, or harmonics, or fretted notes as you describe, then a better result is possible.
For those who’ve clarified that this tuning won’t make me play or sound like JT… thanks, I was confused about that. [emoji56]
To everyone who takes my questions seriously, Mahalo! (thank you!)

[NoodleFingers]

Originally Posted by blindboyjimi

I use Peterson’s ACU Sweetened tuning exclusively. It has always sounded the best for me.

I do, too. And for those who might be interested in trying JT's tuning, the Peterson ACU Sweetened tuning is the same thing. It's set to JT's preferences.

[Guilty Spark]

I use a hybrid of JT "sweetened" tuning: in the ballpark, but not exactly the same.
I've found strummed chords do, indeed, sound "sweeter", at least on my guitars, using my hybrid tuning. I'll use a Snark as a starting point, then fine tune by ear in JT's direction.
If that makes sense.

[tommieboy]

Slight thread veer....

I use an old Korg TMR-50, and I am looking for something that is less overly sensitive. The needle sweeps across the dial wildly at times, making tuning a chore. Do any of you have the same issue with your electronic tuners? My acoustic guitar has no electrics, if that makes any difference.

Thanks,

Tommy