How did you tune up before tuners?

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by jricc

Same here frank d!

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

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

You would just put Duane Eddie’s hits Rebel Rouser or Peter Gunn on the record player and you were golden. And judging by the “How Old Are You” thread, every one of you knew how to play those two guitarcentric songs and I certainly wasn’t alone tuning up to them!

Thank you Joseph. Thank you Dave. We did it like the cool kids!!! Bahahaha😎
frank d.

[Dave in Edmonds]

The E key on the family piano, then harmonics.

[DesertSage]

The Old Master Key for the 1st string, then each string relative to that.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Mirosh

That reminds me of another nifty way to use a tuning fork: while it's ringing, touch its base to the bridge of the acoustic guitar. Then everyone nearby can hear it.

I did that, as well, but the Irish bars I was playing in were so noisy that you couldn’t hear it with the tuning fork touched to the guitar bridge. In the Irish bars, the fork to the tooth was the only viable option.


whm

[Erithon]

Yet another tuning fork (A=440) user here. Can't say I miss it. (Both because I still have my childhood tuning fork and because I prefer to use headstock tuners.)

[stevo58]

We tuned to the banjo player.







Just joking.

[HogsNRoses]

Tuning fork. A or E. As ezpikins implies, pitch pipes do not meet the ISO 16 standard for accuracy, so they were banned first by my teacher, then by my wife.

https://www.iso.org/standard/3601.html

[dave42]

piano or pitch pipe
In the case of my gigging guitar there is a tuning fork. Who knows when I'll need it.

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

Pitch pipe to get the A, then tuned the other five by ear.
In the band, we tuned to the keyboard.

Exactly this, using overtones and checking some octaves. The 12 string was a bit of a nightmare.

[jim1960]

Before tuners, I tuned up poorly.

[donlyn]

How did you tune up before tuners?

With a 'Pitchfork' of course.

You could also tell the 'tine' with it.

And pose for paintings.

;-{ >

Don
.

[PineMarten]

Originally Posted by HogsNRoses

Tuning fork. A or E. As ezpikins implies, pitch pipes do not meet the ISO 16 standard for accuracy, so they were banned first by my teacher, then by my wife.

https://www.iso.org/standard/3601.html

It seems amazing that pitch pipes ever caught on as a tuning reference. Anyone who's spent time playing harmonica will be aware just how malleable the pitch of a mouth blown free reed can be, both through changes in embouchure and breath intensity. Most harmonicas come from the manufacturer tuned to A=442 or 443, since the notes will flatten when played loudly and it sounds better to have the quiet notes a touch sharp than to have the louder notes flat.

[EZYPIKINS]

Originally Posted by musicman1951

Exactly this, using overtones and checking some octaves. The 12 string was a bit of a nightmare.

That's for sure. My 12 string, when I first started, was an 11 string most of the time.

A brand-new set of strings, and the octave G would break, most of the time.

Started unknowingly tuning the octaves to a third at times.

[Side1LedZepIV]

"Satisfaction" by the Stones. Key of E

[Mandobart]

In school orchestra in the 70's we tuned our A strings to the piano. We tuned the remaining strings by recognizing the 5th's interval between the strings. We were taught to do this.

When I started acoustic guitar I tuned my guitar A 12th fret harmonic to my violin A, then used the 5th fret to tune the rest. Later I got a pitch pipe.

When I learned to compare the 5th fret harmonic to the 7th fret harmonic on adjacent strings I used that.

Before long I recognized the equal temperament nature of fretted stringed instruments - you can "tune" using any method you choose but you may find you're not in tune at every fret position. So I tweaked each string to sound right when I played first position chords, since that was the majority of what I played at the time.