Tuning your guitar

[elizap]

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...ciTtA/viewform

Hi! I am a student at Lehigh University and for an entrepreneurship class project I am looking to see how people tune their guitar and their suggestions on a better method! Please take this 2 minute survey to help me get a better idea on what the best way to tune your instrument is!

[pickinray]

Done. I think clip-on tuners (e.g., Snark) are hard to beat. Good luck with your project.

[ChalkLitIScream]

Done!

I was actually wanted to post a thread about tuners, but Ill give it a go here:

Why do most people still use dedicated tuners (clip on, soundhole) to tune their instruments?

I use an app called 'instrument tuner' and it gives me readings accurate to the cent, and also includes the frequency, accurate to 2 decimals. I back checked this to frequency generators to check that it was accurate (some other apps were off, so make sure to use a reference!) and it was.

Im part of a younger demographic here, so I will always have my phone on me 24/7, making it convenient for me. I could see some older folks here who dont use their phones as much, and would use the tuners. fair enough.

I also find that the phone's mic picks up surrounding noise so its hard to use in loud or public spaces. Fair enough. Not a tool for those who are performing or gigging.

If you use a pitch pipe/tune by ear/dont typically use an electronic tuner, fair enough. if it works for you, it works.

Any other reasons you use a tuner instead of apps?

[fazool]

Originally Posted by ChalkLitIScream

..an app called 'instrument tuner' and it gives me readings accurate to the cent, and also includes the frequency, accurate to 2 decimals. ...

You are confusing accuracy to precision. What they can read out in small numbers does not indicate how accurately they measure the frequency, rather how precisely they show their numbers.

Apps use a software algorithm to calculate the frequency heard by the microphone. A clip on tuner uses a piezo vibration sensor which are much more accurate and much (much) more responsive.

[Jeff Scott]

You're supposed to tune these things (guitars)?

[vindibona1]

With the exception of TC Polytune or Peterson Strobe I find most other clip-ons not accurate enough for me. I will only use a clip on when I've just changed strings and trying to get in the ballpark.

My go-to tuner is usually a Korg CA40. In fact I'll often daisy chain it with a Korg Pitchblack, but to be honest I use the Pitchblack mainly as a mute switch. the CA 40 is so easy to us and easy to read. Can be used plugged in or via internal mic. If I don't have that with me I'll use the Airyware app on my phone which I've grown very fond of.

[J. Scott]

Boss TU-3 phone app. Absolutely free and accurate enough for me.

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by ChalkLitIScream

Done!

...
Why do most people still use dedicated tuners (clip on, soundhole) to tune their instruments?
...
Im part of a younger demographic here, so I will always have my phone on me 24/7, making it convenient for me. I could see some older folks here who dont use their phones as much, and would use the tuners. fair enough.

I also find that the phone's mic picks up surrounding noise so its hard to use in loud or public spaces. Fair enough. Not a tool for those who are performing or gigging.

...
Any other reasons you use a tuner instead of apps?

I used to tune by ear, when I could hear it above the roar of the dinosauers and volcanos. Then, when Intellitouch tuners came out, ones that worked on vibration, not sound, I bought one right away. I was tired of being in noisy spots and not being able to hear well enough to tune. They were game changers and I still use the same one, 30 or whateveritis + years later. I have changed batteries only a few times; it works for years and years on one tiny battery. I am not much interested in cell phones, something else to become a slave to and something more to carry around, Mine stays in the car. My tuner weights far less than my cell phone and takes up a fraction of the space. It was also a lot cheaper.

[Beakybird]

The main reason I don't use an app is that I like to ditch the phone while I'm playing.

[bufflehead]

Funny that "tuning fork" wasn't an option to the question of how people tuned guitars. When I started playing, in the days before microchips, the tuning fork was standard equipment in every guitar case. Every guitar case.

[DesertTwang]

Originally Posted by Beakybird

The main reason I don't use an app is that I like to ditch the phone while I'm playing.

Yes, same here! Plus, since I play bluegrass a lot, I need to tune my guitar in noisy environments by definition. This rules out any phone app. But there is another, more important reason: when I play a gig, my phone is not on me, because I usually ask my wife to take video. Lastly, though, I like gizmos, and since we acoustic guitarists don't get to play around with a bunch of fun pedals and the like, a dedicated tuning gizmo is the least we can ask for. [emoji16]

[billyboy1962]

The TC Electronic Polytune clip-on is the best tuner I’ve ever used and is highly recommended. My two main gigging guitars stay in tune pretty well so I only ever retune between sets

[Wade Hampton]

After taking part in the poll about choice of tuners, bufflehead reminisced:

Originally Posted by bufflehead

Funny that "tuning fork" wasn't an option to the question of how people tuned guitars. When I started playing, in the days before microchips, the tuning fork was standard equipment in every guitar case. Every guitar case.

Yep. I had an A tuning fork, and when I was playing in bars where the roar from the crowd made it impossible to hear anything, I would strike the tuning fork and place its base against one of my teeth. That way the note reverberated in my head, and I would hold the guitar so the soundhole was against my ear and then tune the A string.

From there I would play two strings together at once, first the A and the D string, then the A and E, and would rely on how the back of the guitar vibrated against my chest to know when I had the strings in tune together. There's a discordant vibration when they're not, but as they come in together you can feel it. A perfect musical fourth is something you can feel, not just hear.

Turning away from the Neolithic guitar tuning practices we use to use back in the Olden Days, billyboy in the Mother Country wrote:

Originally Posted by billyboy1962

The TC Electronic Polytune clip-on is the best tuner I’ve ever used and is highly recommended.

That's my preference, as well. I own several of them now, keeping one of those or the less expensive (but equally accurate) TC UniTune tuners in the case pockets of the instruments I gig out with most often.


Wade Hampton Miller

[billyboy1962]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

After taking part in the poll about choice of tuners, bufflehead reminisced:



Yep. I had an A tuning fork, and when I was playing in bars where the roar from the crowd made it impossible to hear anything, I would strike the tuning fork and place its base against one of my teeth. That way the note reverberated in my head, and I would hold the guitar so the soundhole was against my ear and then tune the A string.

From there I would play two strings together at once, first the A and the D string, then the A and E, and would rely on how the back of the guitar vibrated against my chest to know when I had the strings in tune together. There's a discordant vibration when they're not, but as they come in together you can feel it. A perfect musical fourth is something you can feel, not just hear.

Turning away from the Neolithic guitar tuning practices we use to use back in the Olden Days, billyboy in the Mother Country wrote:



That's my preference, as well. I own several of them now, keeping one of those or the less expensive (but equally accurate) TC UniTune tuners in the case pockets of the instruments I gig out with most often.


Wade Hampton Miller

Mr Miller sir, you are a legend. You have inspired me to get my old tuning fork out

[pieterh]

I’ve answered the survey but to summarise:

I use TC PolyTune in my electric board as it is accurate enough, adjustable for reference pitch changes (eg A=442 hz etc) and mutes the signal when changing guitars.

I use the Korg clip on (AW-2) for acoustic and bass (don’t have a bass board yet!). I’ve tried other models but of all of those I’ve tried this is the one that both reads all the strings (many seem to have a problem with the E strings) and gives an accurate reading.

I also have the PolyTune app just so I’ve always got one to hand, though I prefer devices that don’t have to rely on a microphone, ie it’s good to be able to check tuning silently while someone else is talking or even playing. The app is useful when playing on my own somewhere!