How much time your guitar stays perfectly in tune?

[rov]

Hi everybody!. When you play your guitars, how much time does it stay perfectly in tune?. What factors affect changes in tuning?

[B. Adams]

Originally Posted by rov

Hi everybody!. When you play your guitars, how much time does it stay perfectly in tune?. What factors affect changes in tuning?

I don't really keep track of the amount of time, but my guitars stay in tune very well once they're acclimated to the environment. I try to let them adjust to the temperature and humidity before I play, and after that I rarely need to retune.

If I'm not taking them out of the house, they're almost always in tune right out of their cases.

[Joe Beamish]

There's a period of stretching after putting on new strings. Simply playing the guitar will put the strings out of tune, especially if you bend strings or pull at them (as in some finger style methods.)

Also there's the air temperature. When this changes, you will probably have to retune the guitar.

And I retune strings all the time, little adjustments. There's no permanent state of being "in tune." It's all relative. :0)

I might adjust a string after moving to a different key, or a different part of the guitar.

And then there's the capo, which will cause me to retune.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rov

Hi everybody!. When you play your guitars, how much time does it stay perfectly in tune?. What factors affect changes in tuning?

Hi rov

Till about the third string bend (in the same song).

[Brucebubs]

My big heavy 12-string Guild F-412 jumbo with it's dual truss rods seems to stay in good tune for weeks on end.

I might be imagining this but I'm finding round-core strings seem to stay in tune longer than hex-cores ... Martin Titaniums were particularly good.

[alnico5]

I can play a 2.5 hr acoustic set with my Taylor 412 and not need to tune. I can play a 4 hr electric gig with my Carvin and not have to tune. I do a lot of bends on both.

[BreedloveRDMH]

My guitars will stay in tune for a couple of days unless the humidity changes.
If I tune my guitar in the morning and the weather is clear then I know it will need tuning later that day if it starts raining?

Moisture swelling the woods has always been my own explanation to myself.

[rov]

But all you guys check tuning with the tuner or you just use your ears?. is it normal for a guitar to go some very few cents sharp or flat after some hours playing or it has to stay perfectly in tune?

[buddyhu]

Sometimes, my guitars seem stay well in tune for days, with maybe a couple of slight adjustments needed. Other times, it seems like I spend all night tuning and retuning.

Changes in temperature and humidity are sometimes the most likely causes. Or, sometimes it seems clear that the strings are getting old and it becomes harder to tune them (for me, both by ear and by electric tuner), presumably because something has happened (a loss of certain harmonics?) as they have aged.

But sometimes, I think I am just off, hearing wise. And while I love electronic tuners, I find that their readings are not precise enough to get the tuning “just right”: I always need to do a couple of slight adjustments that don’t seem to effect the readings on the tuner, but which make an audible difference to me. So if my ears are off, or are slightly congested, the tuning will never get fully dialed in that night.

So how much time do they stay in tune? Somewhere between 90 seconds to 4 hours...

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by rov

Hi everybody!. When you play your guitars, how much time does it stay perfectly in tune?. What factors affect changes in tuning?

A guitar is never perfectly in tune. Do you mean perfectly in tune with a tuner?

The environment (temperature, weather, etc.) certainly affects tuning. The age of the strings can be a factor. How often and how far you bend the strings can change tuning. Capos can change intonation.

[rov]

Originally Posted by musicman1951

A guitar is never perfectly in tune. Do you mean perfectly in tune with a tuner?

The environment (temperature, weather, etc.) certainly affects tuning. The age of the strings can be a factor. How often and how far you bend the strings can change tuning. Capos can change intonation.

Exactly, I mean perfectly in tune with a tuner?, is it possible for a guitar to be like this after some playing time?

[Dbone]

My RainSong doesn’t go out of tune ;-0. Does it count?

[phavriluk]

30 minutes at the most. Tuning changes with humidity and temperature (all that thin unfinished wood).

[lar]

Assuming minimal environmental changes and without playing it:

My steel string: for 3-4 days
My nylon string: for maybe a day (at best)

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by rov

Hi everybody!. When you play your guitars, how much time does it stay perfectly in tune?. What factors affect changes in tuning?

You're joking, right?