arthurhenry Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='chris_b' post='1225520' date='May 9 2011, 08:25 PM']What's the point? You don't need silence with a tuner and the most unprofessional thing is to listen to a musician tuning up during a set.[/quote] The point is, you should have the ability to tune by ear. You might never do it on a gig, but it's a basic skill when you play an (most) instrument isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='TimR' post='1225528' date='May 9 2011, 08:31 PM']Also you should only ever have one layer of string wound on the post this will affect your tuning.[/quote] i've never had any tuning problems with my usual 2 or 3, but ymmv. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 As with everyone else, i never tune before i leave home, unless i've been playing just before i set off. Otherwise its when i set my rig up, just before we start and in the interval. I once got hit by a car with my Ibanez GSR200 in a gig bag on my back, when i got to band practice although it had a nice chunk of the paint and body missing, it was in perfect Drop D tuning, which was what i was using, and my Squier also seems to stay in tune in my gig bag. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='Mr Fudge' post='1225560' date='May 9 2011, 09:03 PM']I used to do exactly the same thing with my acoustic guitar until I turned up at one gig and found that it had accidentally re-tuned to DADGAD. I took me 18 months to get out of Fairport Convention [/quote] LMAO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrenochrome Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I also strongly disagree with just tuning to other instruments. Intonation is likely to be cack up the neck and probably won't help vocals and vocal harmonies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='icastle' post='1225484' date='May 9 2011, 08:51 PM']No. No No. No No No. Are you and Dad3353 related by any chance? [/quote] @Marvin... Where was your Mum in April, 1972..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skej21 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 (edited) [quote name='Adrenochrome' post='1225611' date='May 9 2011, 09:47 PM'] I also strongly disagree with just tuning to other instruments. Intonation is likely to be cack up the neck and probably won't help vocals and vocal harmonies.[/quote] I strongly agree with this thread... "Going out of tune in your bag? How do you prevent it?" This might as well be called "Instrument going out of tune? How do you prevent it?" because the answer is the same... You tune it regularly! Edited May 9, 2011 by skej21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='Dad3353' post='1225625' date='May 9 2011, 09:58 PM']@Marvin... Where was your Mum in April, 1972..?[/quote] Could have been Bristol. Dad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1225553' date='May 9 2011, 08:56 PM']Tim you claim to have good ears in your sig yet have strapped a box to the back of the headstock to stop the tuners moving a quarter turn at most [/quote] Well he asked if anyone had a solution. I'm never one to resist a challenge. No one spotted the deliberate irony that it was the tuner box then? I play with a guitarist who will play for 20mins while the drummer sets up. We'll play the first song and at the end of the song I ask him if he has checked his tuning. Every week without fail he is out. It seems alien to me not to tune up as soon as you have put on your strap. As I said, I was just surprised at how far out the bass goes when it's in a bag compared to a hard case but now I've experimented and seen how much you have to turn the machine head to raise a semitone, I'm not so surprised. I suppose I'd never noticed how much I turn them. Just do it unconsciously really. I wonder how many people here could have said how many turns it takes to raise the pitch a semitone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='Marvin' post='1225628' date='May 9 2011, 11:07 PM']Could have been Bristol. Dad? [/quote] Does your Mum ever talk about Jerry Garcia with a trembling voice..? [url="http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/bickershaw-menu.html"]Bickershaw Festival, 1972...[/url] ...on the other hand, if you're redhead, I disown you outright... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='Dad3353' post='1225640' date='May 9 2011, 10:16 PM']Does your Mum ever talk about Jerry Garcia with a trembling voice..? [url="http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/bickershaw-menu.html"]Bickershaw Festival, 1972...[/url] ...on the other hand, if you're redhead, I disown you outright...[/quote] No. She's never been that far north and has never uttered the name of Jerry Garcia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='TimR' post='1225629' date='May 9 2011, 10:09 PM']Well he asked if anyone had a solution. I'm never one to resist a challenge. No one spotted the deliberate irony that it was the tuner box then? I play with a guitarist who will play for 20mins while the drummer sets up. We'll play the first song and at the end of the song I ask him if he has checked his tuning. Every week without fail he is out. It seems alien to me not to tune up as soon as you have put on your strap. As I said, I was just surprised at how far out the bass goes when it's in a bag compared to a hard case but now I've experimented and seen how much you have to turn the machine head to raise a semitone, I'm not so surprised. I suppose I'd never noticed how much I turn them. Just do it unconsciously really. I wonder how many people here could have said how many turns it takes to raise the pitch a semitone?[/quote] Ha didn't spot what the box was (I'm only on the iPod) nice one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='arthurhenry' post='1225495' date='May 9 2011, 08:03 PM']I agree with most of what's been said, but there's some concern about over-reliance on tuners. We should all be able to tune up by ear without a problem. For me, I can only recall one tuning problem onstage in 24 years of playing. If you put your strings on properly and stretch them out enough, you can give the strings a fair bit of abuse without going out of tune. If I need to adjust my tuning during a song or a gig, I'll usuially do it by ear. I check with a tuner during the break.[/quote] You can't always hear yourself well... and tuning *in silence* is much better for the audience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='arthurhenry' post='1225561' date='May 9 2011, 09:03 PM']The point is, you should have the ability to tune by ear. You might never do it on a gig, but it's a basic skill when you play an (most) instrument isn't it?[/quote] and it's a skill that we pretty much all who have some experience have developed over the years. But if you tell me that getting 3-4 guys on stage to tune up by ear is better than using tuners... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='Marvin' post='1225672' date='May 9 2011, 11:46 PM']No. She's never been that far north and has never uttered the name of Jerry Garcia [/quote] OK, must have been the Other One... I'm sure your Dad's a great bloke; my respects to your Mum. (We may have drifted slightly off topic, perhaps; sorry, all...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 [quote name='mcnach' post='1225702' date='May 9 2011, 11:35 PM']But if you tell me that getting 3-4 guys on stage to tune up by ear is better than using tuners... [/quote] There are exceptions though. Like I said earlier,it's better to tune by ear if you are playing with a piano that isn't in tune-at least then everyone will be together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Also for those marvellous moments when your electronic tuner has gone utterly tits up (battery failure, pint inside it, forgot to bring it etc.) it is bloody useful to be able to shout at the nearest musician "Oi, give us an E mate" and be able to take it from there, rather than gawping like an utter muppet and asking if anyone out there has a leccy tuner you can borrow. You will look an utter twat in this circumstance. I spent many years tuning to the aforementioned old harmonica that I kept in my gig bag, and checking that me and the other guys in the band were in with each other before beginning. Not hard to do, only got a leccy tuner a couple of years ago when I realised everyone else was doing it, and the faces I got when I made the E jokes were getting less amused. Also a keen user of the Jimi Hendrix "mid song retune" method when abusing whammy bars on my strat. Worth having the ears still you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I play Jazz. I don't need to tune up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='Johnston' post='1225840' date='May 10 2011, 08:47 AM']Sod off the lazy bugger should tune up like the rest of us You whats really annoying. When the keyboardist won't de-tune like the rest of us [/quote] I once worked a gig with a piano player who only played in C but changed the tuning on his keyboard for every song. Needless to say, I didn't play with him twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='Bilbo' post='1225919' date='May 10 2011, 10:06 AM']....I once worked a gig with a piano player who only played in C but changed the tuning on his keyboard for every song. Needless to say, I didn't play with him twice....[/quote] That Irving Berlin was crap as well. He only ever played the black notes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='Bilbo' post='1225919' date='May 10 2011, 10:06 AM']I once worked a gig with a piano player who only played in C but changed the tuning on his keyboard for every song. Needless to say, I didn't play with him twice.[/quote] I had the same experience at a pickup gig a few years back. Horrible. He would also occasionally decide mid-song "OK, let's go up to B", which for him meant pressing one button once, but for me, playing fretless, meant all of my open tuning intonation checks had to be rethought on the hoof. Keyboard players eh! Re tuning generally, I don't use a tuner. Like Bilbo, I play DB or fretless. No point having them in tune, just shows up your bad intonation even more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1946 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I started playing 12 string guitar in a Seekers type group in the late 60's, no tuners then so I used pitchpipes, tuning fork, or the nearest piano if there was one. As long as I had one note I was fine, I have a very good ear, (the other one isn't bad either) Tuners? Pah, spoilt rotten these days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='BottomE' post='1224911' date='May 9 2011, 11:26 AM']this is a joke thread right?[/quote] Yeah, come on, someone admit it, please. Surely the ultimate wind-up thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='EssentialTension' post='1225485' date='May 9 2011, 07:52 PM']Even the Beatles had a Commer.[/quote] Two of them have come to a Full Stop though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toneknob Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 [quote name='tauzero' post='1226301' date='May 10 2011, 03:18 PM']Two of them have come to a Full Stop though.[/quote] I prefer their psychedelic period Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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