Guitars that tune good

Subject: Guitars that tune good
From: 53
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 10:25 PM

All of my guitars tune good except one. Has any one had a guitar that doesn't? Bob

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From:
Date: 28 Mar 02 - 10:55 PM

I have played for 41 years and I have found the best tuning is accomplished with an electronic tuner. The grade of instrument, no matter the brand has a lot to do with it also. Your instrument may have a warped next and you may be able to have the warp adjusted out. To see if it is warped, look down the neck from body to head stock. There may be slight twist. You also may have a box in your neck. Place a metal straight edge on the full length of the neck and hold it eye level. This can also hopefully adjusted out. When all else fails, take your instrument to someone who knows how to work on your type of instrument. Good craftsmen are hard to find. Don't trust any TOM, DICK OR HARRY to work on your instrument. I play a l967 Martin D-28 and like my instrument very much. It tunes easy and holds its tuning for quite a long time. Wish you the best. It happens to the best or better of us. Part of playing, I guess.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: 53
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 10:59 PM

Some guitars just tune better than others, cause you can feel it when you tune.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 11:18 PM

I suppose you mean "Guitars that tune well"?

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: 53
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 11:24 PM

Nope, Guitars that tune good.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: weststar
Date: 08 Apr 02 - 11:28 PM

My old Epiphone tunes right to where you twist it and stays on pitch for weeks. the electric tuner helps speed up the twisting.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:04 AM

My Guild and my new Martin tune quite well. My old O-16NY however has tuners that need a good throwing out. They are Grover Stay Tites. I am in irons over replacing them with new stay tites for sake of originality or using new Mini Grovers.

The Ovation I had before the Martin tuned well but sounded awful. And actually my old FG 180 tuned easiest of all and kept the tune as long as I didn't pound on it.

Don

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:07 AM

I've never tried tuning anything with my guitar...

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:23 AM

Well, 53, if you really mean guitars that tune GOOD, then you probably don't give a shit whether they are actually in tune most of the time:)

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Peg
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:24 AM

I am no guitarist, but I found my old Tachamine to be very user-friendly along these lines...

I miss the ole bugger. If anyone sees one of those ole "lawsuit" jobs for sale, let me know...

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Ned Ludd
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 04:04 AM

Best guitar I've had for tuning was my 'High pressure laminate 'Martin. Even stayed in tune at Paddy's night gigs! sounded crap though.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 08:04 AM

I was interested to hear that so many of you favour electronic tuners. Tried them but, whilst some are accurate on open strings, (not all I hasten to add!)they don't help in acheiving 'tempered' tuning, so when you move around the neck or put a capo on, the thing goes out of tune (don't tell me how to put a capo on properly, I use Rick Fieldings suggested method and it works!). I now use a tuner just to get the pitch for bottom E and then tune the rest by ear using the tempered tuning method using harmonics on the 5th & 12th frets (subject of a thread some months ago). Sounds way better, holds tuning all over and keeps my ear in practice for quick 'between numbers' adjustments and retunes.

SJ

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 08:08 AM

Should have said that it works just the same on both my cheapo Yamaha and my not-so-cheapo but oh-so-wonderful Lowden.

SJ

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: 53
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 11:30 AM

Take a listen to Waylons song, Lucenbach Texas.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 11:35 AM

The relevancy escapes me completely, 53!!

My Martin D28 just hangs in there once tuned and sounds beautiful. I'm in love with it. Is there any hope?

A

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 11:38 AM

I was talking to a guitar busker in Bath years ago, and he amazed me by dropping the tuning slightly on his D string if the song was in the E register, and cranking it back up slightly for a C key. I have tried it several times, and it seems to sort of work.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:33 PM

Skipjack,

Yep, tempered tuning removes the need for that

SJ

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,Slickerbill
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 12:53 PM

Hey Peg. I've got one of those ol' Takamine lawsuit jobs your're talking about. Kind of my second guitar now; bought a Larrivee. I assume you're talking about the D-28 Martin copy? headstock, script, purfling and all?

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 01:17 PM

Three guitars: A Guitarra Artesana classic, an Arcangel Fernandez flamenco, and a Go travel guitar. They can all be tune good, fine, well, and/or accurately.

I suppose they work okay for some people, but I've found electronic tuners to be a pain in the butt. I tune the 5th string 5th fret harmonic to a 440-A tuning fork (you can check to see if the 5th string is in tune by getting the fork vibrating and touching the handle of it to the bridge or soundboard; if it's in tune, the 5th string will sing a 440-A back at you), then tune as Strollin' Johnny does: 5th and 12th fret harmonics. Then I check octaves all over the place. Works fine, and the guitars are happy in all keys.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 01:17 PM

My Alvarez 12 string was almost always out of tune until I got my electronic tuner. This device has saved me hours of fooling around with trying to get the sound right.

I have a question though. Lately I have noticed that, where I almost always had to tune up from slightly flat as the strings loosened, I now nearly always must tune down because the sound is sharp. Is this a result of increasing humidity or warming temperatures? Or are the strings shrinking?:>}

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 01:19 PM

I read somewhere that the best way to tune is fret every string in turn to the same note, and tune to that note. Normally an E. Seems to work fine.

But normally I just use an electronic tuner, because that's a lot quicker. And it helps you spot which strings have gone out even in a noisy environment like a session when you can't even hear them too well.

Getting some decent tuning heads, preferably the individual sealed sort, can make a lot of difference to the ease of tuning.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: C-flat
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 03:32 PM

I wonder if anyone has come across the Yamaha AES FG. This is a signature model electric guitar by Frank Gambale featuring the "Fretwave" system. Basically the first and second frets have kinks in them below the G and B string respectively which forces you to tune those strings fractionally flatter than standard fretting allows. The idea is to compensate for the neccessary compromise in tuning that all fretted instruments suffer. I've not had the pleasure myself and at £1699 it's not likely that I will but I'd like to know if anyone has and what they thought. Frank Gambale is quoted as saying "It's so much more in tune,it's scary"...but I suppose he would wouldn't he!

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 04:03 PM

Simple things to do to minimise tuning problems:

1. When you put new strings on, don't let them overlap themselves on the machine head peg, or they'll slip forever.

2. Change strings as often as you can afford. And them clean with something like Fast Fret.

3. Buy a set of Gotoh's, 1:18 ratio. Best machine heads in the world. My Taylor came fitted with the worst machine heads in the world. Whatever they were, they soon got changed and I eventually did the same on my Martin. Both guitars are miles better now.

4. If using an electronic tuner, as I do, make sure the battery is good. If the needle (or lights) start wavering excessively then either the battery or the strings are on their way out. Don't forget the pick-up battery if you plug in the tuner.

5. Still on tuners, once the guitar's "in tune", you may need to make fine adjustments to get it ringing properly. The top E on my guitars always needs to be sharpened just a touch (so suspect the tuner!).

6. When tuning, always tune "up" to pitch, i.e. from flat to sharp, so that the tuning peg bites on its cog. If you tune from sharp to flat, the string will go flat as you play.

Pete

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 04:17 PM

I don't care so much about the guitars that tune good, but let's talk about those Firm Feelin' Women..

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: MichaelAnthony
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 04:40 PM

Some guitars do stay in tune better. In fact, I almost bought a cedar-top Taylor, but the thing would stay in tune.

Now I have a nice larrivee and it stays in tune very well.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Gypsy
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 09:14 PM

I'll point out what Pete said...check the tuners. No matter how good the guitar is, with lousy tuners......and you can always upgrade those.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: SlickerBill
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 09:53 PM

Hey MichaelAnthony, do you find your Larry goes out more often during certain times of year? When I bought it this was my one concern; that the difference in humidity from where it was built (west coast) to here (manitoba) would really cause problems. And at certain times that seemed to be the case. I've been using a better quality "in hole" humidifier, and I've noticed it seems to have settled down. SB

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: Peg
Date: 09 Apr 02 - 11:56 PM

Slickerbill:

Aye, that's the one! I loved mine; just the right size for my freakishly small hands. Lovely sound, too, for the price (I think I paid $325 for it back in 1985). Who knew they'd become an oddball rarity because of copying that design?

I sold mine after a summer in England left me dead broke and waiting for my financial aid to kick in during graduate school; dumb move.

I don't suppose you wanna sell yours? ;)

peg

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: GUEST,SlickerBill
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:51 AM

Peg; Geez I dunno. I've had er quite awhile now. She's not my main guitar, but I've written some of my favorite songs on her. Got her set on open tunig for quick changes. She's actually a pretty good slide guitar as well as it turns out. I'd hate to be sittin' here wishing I could buy her back. SB

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: 53
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:06 PM

My D chord always sounds a little sharp when I use my Boss TU-12 tuner but I check it 3 different ways and its right by the tuner and wrong by my ear, so I just make a comperize and do a little of both.

Subject: RE: Guitars that tune good
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 04:27 PM

I've sometimes imagined how a pissed off employee in one of the factories where they make these things might send out a batch which had been rigged so that some of the notes were a little off. "That'll learn the bastards..." s/he'd mutter, thinking of all the ructions it'd cause.