Golly, all this advice!! I can see that I'll be spending the rest of the summer trying out different tuning methods. I must admit I really envy people like Martin Carthy et al, who seem to be able to effortlessly tune up or down an octave while chatting artlessly to the audience...

I didn't know it was that hot in Britain, Huw, sounds even worse than here. I do hope my folks in England aren't frying to death. Must give them a buzz and check on 'em.

Thanks VERY much for the screws pointer, Bill, didn't even notice them before. (Probably every guitar-player should be forced to attend a lecture entitled "Know Your Instrument" complete with diagrams before they start messing about on their own, but it's one of the pitfalls of being self-taught that you never know quite where things are supposed to be --oh, and you retain the ability to read music but forget the names of notes over time :( The inability to tune in my case is symptomatic of a need to spend more time learning bits that I didn't cover in teaching myself to play these instruments.)

There is no folk scene where I am so my main concern is tuning to the key I normally play in on my other instruments so as to minimise muddle (the key of C, I believe it is. See how limited my music theory is?) But the advice on tuning to other people's instruments is very useful. Time and again when I'm playing along to a CD I become very annoyed because the instrument I'm playing doesn't sound right with the other instruments. Grief, music can be complicated.

The cat, by the way, has stopped showing musical inclinations. Since the arrival of another cat, jealousy has sapped all his creative energies ;)

Cheers all,

Isabel