How did you tune up before tuners?

[RP]

How did I tune up before electronic tuners? Very, very poorly....

[The Bard Rocks]

When I didn't tune to others or have a piano nearby, I used a G tuning fork, got the G right, then tuned the other strings to that. I never liked to hear a pitch pipe, too dead-sounding (though that's what you want).

[jricc]

Originally Posted by Chickee

With the record player!

Same here frank d!

[jaymarsch]

I used a tuning fork in A for years. I think that I got my first electronic tuner in 2004.
Best,
Jayne

[raysachs]

Quite badly. If I was playing on my own, I just tuned to the low E, wherever it happened to be. If I was playing with others, I'd tune to someone who thought they were in tune. And if someone with a really good ear was around, they'd often touch it up for me... I don't remember when I got my first electronic tuner, but I remember being blown away that such a thing was possible!

-Ray

[TBman]

Tuning fork. I still have it in my gear box. I bought it around 1978ish, maybe sooner.

[PineMarten]

I started playing with lessons on nylon string guitar when I was a kid in the 80s. While there were the needle type of electronic tuners around, the teacher recommended using a tuning fork, and I remember being encouraged to check the relative tuning of the strings using harmonics rather than fretted notes. I don't think I owned a clip tuner until the mid 2000s, though I did have a cheesy Zoom effects unit with a tuner function I used playing bass in bands.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by TBman

Tuning fork. I still have it in my gear box. I bought it around 1978ish, maybe sooner.

Same same same. Mine is the high e note. Then, 5th or 4th fret plus harmonics.

My thirds were always sharp on cowboy chords until I discovered the James Taylor cents system (oh no, not THAT again!).

[TBman]

Originally Posted by b1j

Same same same. Mine is the high e note. Then, 5th or 4th fret plus harmonics.

My thirds were always sharp on cowboy chords until I discovered the James Taylor cents system (oh no, not THAT again!).

Back then I did a lot of cross tuning which included harmonics after tuning one string to the fork (1st string 5th fret, A440). I probably backdoored into the J. Taylor method without even knowing about it. I think a lot of us did. Even now I tweak it a bit depending on the guitar I'm using. The Snark doesn't have the final word,

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Chickee

With the record player!

Ditto - or with other people, when I got brave enough to play with others.

Tuning to records was always a crap shoot, though, as you had to guess the key first

At some point, I acquired a tuning fork, which I still have around here somewhere.

[Mbroady]

Had a pitch pipe and tuning fork (440). I seem to remember the old touch tone phones having a dual tone, one of them being close to an A. But that was back in the Late 60s....and you know the old saying....if you remember the 60s you weren't there.

[Picking Moose]

When I started playing guitar, in 1973, in Italy the telephone's line-tone (tuut-tuut-tuut) was an A. I tuned to that when I needed.
Then came the six-pack whistle, then the A tuning fork, then the battery powered tuning box, then the clip-on tuner, then the USB rechargable clip-on tuner.

[L20A]

A-440 tuning fork.
I remember a few times that I didn't have a tuner with me and I would call my home and get whoever answered the phone to go to the piano and play an A note for me.

[rampix]

Before I bought my first Intellitouch tuner I’d put my favorite Marshall Tucker album on the turntable, cue up Fire on the Mountain and tune to the record.

[leew3]

Same as above, a tuning fork in my guitar case. A real challenge in a noisy bar. My Zen On Justina electronic tuner (that still works well over 40 years later) opened up a whole new world of simple tuning. I could plug into it and didn't even need to hear the guitar to tune.