Kevin Dean Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 How often does your guitarist tune up at a gig , Mine does it nearly every song that's not normal is it ? I think he's got crap machine heads or being ocd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 We have two guitarists. One is always tuning up. The other one rarely tunes up on stage, but breaks a string more often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuNkShUi Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Not a problem for me, he tunes up at start of each set. If he had crap tuners though, i'd prefer he did tune up between songs rather than play with some strings out of tune. Aslong as it's a silent tuner and he doesn't take longer than a few seconds I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassjim Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 I tune/check tuning after every number discreetly and muted using my floor tuner. If its a run of songs like a segway then I make sure I had a quick check just prior. Any where in the set where I have an opportunity to do so, I check it. The change in room temp, new stings ect all effect tuning so I like to be anal about it. I like the guitarist to be anal about too but to also try and do it discreetly and professionally ie: not the old ding ding,,,ding ding,,,,dang dang ,,,,dang dang ect so we all can hear it or to take a long time to do it. Id rather the gitard was leaning on the OCD about it than the couldn't care less. Quite often, unfortutnatlley, I find my self saying between numbers to current regular gitard: "check your tuning....its a bit out". And even more so at rehearsals along with "can you turn that down, and rather than sit on your amp can you stand away from it a bit and tilt it towards your ears rather than pointing it at...ect ect" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HengistPod Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Our guy is always on the ball. Has a tuner on his pedal board thingy and is always in tune before and during a set. If it becomes necessary, he manages fine in a standard between-song gap being filled by some nonsense from someone with a microphone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 My guitarist ex swore by the Floyd Rose bridge setup (with heavy-metal-ready whammy bar...). He's one of the few guitarists I never noticed needing to tune up after each song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 (edited) The 2 guitarists in my band (and myself included) have tuner pedals on our boards, and check tuning between numbers (not [i]every[/i] gap though). Takes seconds and is silent. I'd rather we do this than have the set descend into a train wreck. It's got much quicker now that they've got locking trem systems - one's a Floyd Rose and the other is a Kahler. Edited October 21, 2016 by paul_5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 I like to seize every available opportunity between songs to discreetly check my tuning, using a muting pedal. As to your original question, I don't notice my guitarist checking his tuning during gigs, and nor is he noticeably out of tune. So he's either doing it once at the start of the gig, and the guitar is staying in tune, or he's doing it discreetly between songs. Either way, that's fine by me. S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz39 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Eric Johnson is famed for his OCD tuning between every song on stage. I can get that it would be annoying. Depends how much string bending you do I guess. You can do it quickly enough with a clip on or floor tuner - half your strings will be in tune anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 (edited) IME unless his guitar is very crap or he's keen user of a non-locking vibrato system, then it's entirely down to OCD/comfort blanket. Any modern guitar (that's something made since the mid-70s) is very unlikely to have machine heads so poor that they are causing string slippage. On the other hand he might not be fitting his strings properly in a way that they don't slip. I personally think that a lot of guitarists spend far too much time between songs fiddling with their tuning and completely ruining the flow of the set. No one in the audience wants breaks in between the songs where the musicians muck about with the gear even if it is silently. In the days when I was playing non-programmable synths, which are far more time-consuming to set up for each new song than a simple guitar tuning check, I made sure I knew exactly how to get to each new setting as quickly as possible from the moment the last note of the previous song had died away to where I needed to come in on the next without the band having to wait for me. I don't see why guitarists can't do the same. For me learning this is just as important as learning what to play on the songs themselves. Also IME you have to be very out of tune for most of the audience to even notice. I once did a gig where our guitarist had accidentally managed to change her pedal tuner from A440 to something else. For the whole set we played completely out of tune with each other although perfect in tune with ourselves. Only our (very musical) drummer noticed anything and kept asking us to check out tuning, which of course according to our individual tuners was perfectly fine. It wasn't apparent what had happened until the next rehearsal where it was much easier to hear that we were out of tune with each other! Edited October 21, 2016 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Sorry. Misread the title. I thought it was "Guitarist TURNING up:... Don't they all? All the time? They need their little amp knob twiddling fingers sawn off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 And talking of TURNING up... Why do singers always turn up AFTER all the gear has been lugged in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 If he does it a lot I certainly don't notice and it doesn't interfere with the flow of the gig. I suspect he doesn't retune that much during a set. Mind you, he makes his own guitars... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markstuk Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 One of mine tunes up between every song.. Drives me mental... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 [quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1477050819' post='3159508'] One of mine tunes up between every song.. Drives me mental... [/quote] Not heard of prestretching the strings then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassjim Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1477049686' post='3159487'] And talking of TURNING up... Why do singers always turn up AFTER all the gear has been lugged in? [/quote] because they can. they have the power. they are bastards. they chose wisely when deciding their musical path. i wouldn't use them unless it was nessaccary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markstuk Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1477050898' post='3159509'] Not heard of prestretching the strings then? [/quote] I think it's a nervous thing more than than anything else.. He's not a new strings before every gig sort of guy,,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Why wouldn't you take the chance to check your tuning if you have the opportunity ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 [quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1477051215' post='3159514'] Why wouldn't you take the chance to check your tuning if you have the opportunity ? [/quote] There's doing it when you have the opportunity (during a guitar-free song intro or while the front man is telling the audience something important), and obsessively compulsively doing it between every song irrespective of whether your guitar has gone out of tune and holding up the flow of the set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Basses do hold the tuning much better. It depends as well on string bending, vintage gear and heavy rhythm playing. So long as it is on mute I don't think it is a problem- obviously coupled with talking to the crowd whilst it happens so you don't lose them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisK1975 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Tuning I don't mind, BUT, why oh why do they always fiddle with their settings SOOO much?!?!? Our guy even does it in the middle of songs! Drives me mad! Just finish the song and make your adjustment before the next song! No-one can tell the difference anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 The problem with guitarist tuning issues is that the worst offenders retreat into a huffy sort of bubble and refuse to accept reassurance ('It sounds fine') or advice ('Tune the string [i]up[/i] to pitch, not down'). As Red points out, the problem is rarely the tuning pegs. Most often it's a binding nut, failure to stretch in the strings before tuning, wildly incorrect intonation and (less often nowadays) the 5 / 7 harmonic tuning method. All these issues are surmountable. The other challenge is that electronic tuners are great for some keys and positions but not others. So the guitarist tunes up, everything sounds fine with the guitar tuned to itself. Then he plays a song in - say - the key of C and hears some sour notes. So he re-tunes which - of course - makes absolutely no difference to the greater scheme of things. Rinse and repeat. The really glaring examples of assonance often occur on the G string from about the fourth fret upwards. The only way round this is to start with the basic electronic tuning then adjust individual strings by ear to 'sweeten' the tuning for maximum flexibility. With a bit of simple preparation it's fairly easy to fix the tuning issue. The big challenge is getting the main offenders to listen to helpful suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mep Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 The start of each set. Also if he id out during the set but that isn't too often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Mine was in tune when I bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 If it interferes with the flow of the show it's not on. We did have this problem with guitarist a while ago. He is no longer our guitarist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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