Electronic Tuners

[skywalker]

Hi All

I was at a jam night recently, and after everyone was set up and ready the guit***** started tuning up, and taking ages over it. Not surprising really as it can be a noisy place. I offered to let him use my tuner, upon which he looked at me as if I had crawled out from under a convenient stone, and told me he didn't trust the things.

To be fair to him, he is a pretty fair guitarist, just a cr** singer. My tuning as always been spot on (my issue is disobedient fingers).

What does everbody think - love them or hate them??


Steve

[bremen]

[quote name='skywalker' post='180082' date='Apr 18 2008, 07:38 PM']Hi All

I was at a jam night recently, and after everyone was set up and ready the guit***** started tuning up, and taking ages over it. Not surprising really as it can be a noisy place. I offered to let him use my tuner, upon which he looked at me as if I had crawled out from under a convenient stone, and told me he didn't trust the things.

To be fair to him, he is a pretty fair guitarist, just a cr** singer. My tuning as always been spot on (my issue is disobedient fingers).

What does everbody think - love them or hate them??


Steve[/quote]

Doesn't trust the things? What's not to trust?

Tell you what I hate: people who sneer at people offering help.

[Huge Hands]

Electronic tuners as opposed to what? Tuning by ear?

I once did FOH sound for a "supergroup" consisting of Noel Redding on bass, Eric Bell (Thin Lizzy) on guit/vox and John Coughlan (Status Quo) on drums.

Noel/Eric spent about 20 mins tuning up independently just before the "curtain", and then as they started to play, were about a tone out and had to stop and start again. I think it was Noel who had just tuned up using his ear, but possibly both.

Mind you, it was only about a year before Noel died, and he looked pretty frail. I can remember clamping my "Huge Hand" onto his shoulder to ask him to play something for a line check, and I nearly shattered his bones.

Still, it was great to meet a legend!

[3V17C]

that guitarist who 'doesn't trust them' sounds like a bit of a tool to be honest! its not like its the dark ages - use the facilities!
i've got a korg rack one - mainly because it looks cool with the moving light!!


peace

c

[Oscar South]

for gigging a floor or rack tuner and some kind of mute function is pretty vital.

[The Burpster]

My guess is that to do it by ear with no referance is an excellent skill if you either have perfect pitch, or incredible memory for tones...

I tune using the 12 harmonic and 7th fret method- for practice. But if I play with someone else I use a tuner.

as for turning down your offer, sounds like an exhibitionsit to me.... Besides what does he do if he goes out of tune during a set?

[clauster]

I've got a guitarist like that. Plays really well, but won't use a tuner. Takes two or three songs to get to pitch.

[jakenewmanbass]

I [i]can[/i] tune from memory, but I will always check either with a piano or if with guitarists (tuning can vary more on a guitar) with a tuner. Most pertinently it's all very well that seeming twatty individual being confident in his own tuning, what if others are out, doesn't help the gig does it.
I very much agree with Bremen, people who sneer at someone offering help are arses, in particular if it is a guitarist that gives you that look, my advice is to take hold of his left pinky and bend it backwards (on the axis of the second knuckle) until a loud crack (or popping) sound is heard. Then smile and say, "never mind, you didn't [i]need [/i] that either"

[budget bassist]

I suck at tuning by ear, i prefer to just use an electronic tuner.

[s_u_y_*]

Sounds like he's got an ego issue... just record the gig. When he's out of tune, he'll realise his pride is misplaced.

Also, I've seen gigs when the guitarist tunes by ear in-between songs. It takes forever, because the environment is so noisy. At that point the audience loses attention. All for the sake of an ego trip.

Edited April 18, 2008 by s_u_y_*

[niceguyhomer]

I was in a band with a guitarist like that - pain in the dirtbox. We got together before a gig one night and agreed to play a song a semitone lower without telling him - you should have seen his face . He retuned a semitone higher and we started the next song in the right key so he was out again.

He got the message. :brow:

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I can tune accurately in well under a minute with noise all all around me and my bass unplugged.

I don't have perfect pitch, or probably even 'good-enough' pitch - just a Planet Waves SOS tuner.

[peteb]

When do ever see a pro guitar player not use a tuner live these days?

[Buzz]

Well, it's like most things really, depends on tuner.

Some of the cheapy ones are rubbish, the seiko one I bought off my mate for £15 is a really good tuner, tracks quickly and accurately, whereas the Korg GA-30 I got for £15 (left the seiko one at home) is a bit pants, struggles to find open low E (and even A), and takes its bloody time as well. It might not like flats with the tone rolled off however.

I'll be replacing it in the summer.

Edited April 18, 2008 by Buzz

[BassBomber414]

I always tune up using a Zoom B2 pedal which is very effective and then the guitarist tunes to me.

We found an old ZZ Top track recently that was recorded a semi-tone sharp.

Mistake ? Or did the engineer 'liven up' the track by speeding it up ?

No electronic tuners in '68 !

[Dood]

Ahhhhh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn there's nothing worse than hearing someone playing the 'tuning song' halfway through a set, when their ears have already been assaulted by an hour of the drummer's cymbal slices. Even worse when they attempt to do it at full volume! Grrrr... so unprofessional!

Silent tuning all the way!

[budget bassist]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='180166' date='Apr 18 2008, 09:37 PM']I can tune accurately in well under a minute with noise all all around me and my bass unplugged.

I don't have perfect pitch, or probably even 'good-enough' pitch - just a Planet Waves SOS tuner.

[/quote]
They any good?

Also do they work for drop tunings? say drop C or D standard?

Edited April 18, 2008 by budget bassist

[queenofthedepths]

I can't go out of tune on fretless
Nah seriously, for the past couple of weeks I've not been taking my tuner to practise coz it's part of my multi-effects and I can't be arsed lugging that around to hardly ever use it - it's simple enough to tune one string to the guitarists (who use electronic tuners) and then do the rest by harmonics, but I wouldn't do that at a gig... as dood said, nobody wants to hear the tuning song! It's unprofessional, annoying and a waste of time

[The Burpster]

Anybody actually got a Peterson Strobostomp?

I have really bad GAS for one (which means I'll end up with one!) it looks SH1t loads better than the BOSS analogue I"m using.....

[bass_ferret]

I really cant see the point of not using one if it is available. Been using one for years and like everyone else says, tune in silence.

[chris_b]

[quote name='skywalker' post='180082' date='Apr 18 2008, 07:38 PM']... I offered to let him use my tuner.... told me he didn't trust the things....[/quote]
The guy's a moron.
A few years ago Marcus Malone ran a jam night in south London. You got 2 numbers and if anyone took 10 mins to tune up he counted that as their first number. After a few arguments everyone came on stage ready to play!!

[warwickhunt]

Tuning by ear at a gig is one of my pet hates. I don't like it when a guitarist that I might be playing with does it and I like it even less when I go to see bands. Fair does if you've slipped out a bit during the song, a quick bling on the 5/7 harmonics to get you back but not every song and every string... buy a guitar that stays in tune!

I've used the same BOSS TU12 for the last 20 years and despite the plastic case being more Gaffa tape than case, it is one of the best and long serving, trouble free, bits of kit I have ever had!

[allighatt0r]

I can understand perhaps, if he's 70 and has a chronic fear of everything technology, but otherwise i have to say he's an idiot.

My ME50B has always served me well on the tuning front, 5 LEDs, with the centre one being green, it's quick. I've had far too much experience with cheap hand-held rectangular tuners, with a huge fan of LCD, only to take half an hour to wait for it to find what string I'm actually twanging.

I do use the 5th and 7th fret harmonic technique sometimes, but only because my brother taught me it.

[Moody]

This really gets my goat, I have a tuner, really really handy, always tune up using it. During "band practise", I'll tune up then our Guitarist and Vocalist will be like, "OK Moody, now tune to the guitar" - which of course she's tuned up by ear. Even though I can't tune up by ear - you can tell its well out. Once, after doing this I checked it again and I reckon I was in F or something ridculous. I just get on with it for a quite life. f-ing tools honestly.

Edited April 19, 2008 by Moody

[queenofthedepths]

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='180407' date='Apr 19 2008, 12:09 PM']I can understand perhaps, if he's 70 and has a chronic fear of everything technology, but otherwise i have to say he's an idiot[/quote]
"Back in my day, we didn't have ELECTRIC guitars, son!"

Who else tunes by harmonics? I like that you can also use the 12th and 7th fret to tune in fifths (for dropped D or whatever) or even the 9th and 5th to tune in major thirds (okaeey I have no excuse for that)