Weird tuning problem (guitar related)

[squire5]

Last night my band (and I) were doing a pub gig,as you do,and we were just about to start when our guitarist noticed that he didn't seem to be in tune with the rest of us.In fact his guitar ( Epiphone Les Paul Junior) was a semitone above the rest of us.
Now heres the scenario:
His guitar,through his tuner showed him to be perfectly tuned to concert.His other guitar (Gibson SG) through the same tuner, also showed perfect concert pitch,although one was audibly a semitone above the other.Other guitarist's Strat,through the same tuner showed it to be at concert. How can one guitar show such a marked discrepancy?This led to some severe head scratching at the end of the night.
I think personally that the LP Junior is at fault,but cant for the life of me think how.Any ideas?

[tommorichards]

Did you check against open strings or fretted notes? If fretted notes, it could be that his intonation is way out.

[gjones]

Intonation at the bridge. If the intonation is out, the open string can be correct but the fretted note can be out by a lot.

[squire5]

Intonation was my first thought also,and his.But hes an experienced guitarist and we ruled this out,because we were tuning using open strings as you normally do when using an electronic tuner.With the SG the 1st (E) was shown to be at concert,IE needle centred,2 green lights.Using the LP Junior,the 1st showed needle centred,2 green lights,but this string was audibly a semitone higher than the SG.Weird or what?

[BigRedX]

Are you sure that the tuner he was using hadn't been transposed by a semitone?

This has happened to a guitarist I worked with in the past. His tuner said he was in tune, mine said I was in tune, but when we played together it sounded horrible. Once we'd worked out what was wrong and reset his tuner and retuned the guitar, everything sounded good again. This is why (especially in the studio) it's best if everyone tunes using the same tuner.

[JamesBass]

What tuner is it? Did you use other tuners to check the LPJ?

Very odd if the LPJ is set up correctly!

[gjones]

I think the transpose button has been pressed on his tuner. He needs to read the instructions, and reset it, or buy another tuner.

[Woodinblack]

Yes, does he know it is tuned to concert, ie, my tuner has a bit in the corner that says 440, which I can change to tune to any other pitch. Is his on 440?

[squire5]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1385907113' post='2293395']
I think the transpose button has been pressed on his tuner. He needs to read the instructions, and reset it, or buy another tuner.
[/quote]

He has been playing guitar for as long as I can remember and knows how to use a tuner.Besides if the Transpose button had been pressed,the other guitars would not have showed normal tuning.

[Roger2611]

I have found the Boss TU tuners can be really bad for this, if you are a full semitone sharp all you get is a . next to the note you think you have tuned to i.e. G = intune G. = semitone sharp, it can be very easy to miss in a gig situation, both myself and our guitarist have suffered the same problem on occasions

[squire5]

Its a strange one right enough.I'm not sure what type tuner it was and I'll probably not see him till our next gig,whenever that may be.But I'd be interested to know how he sorted it out.Thanx for the input.

[Woodinblack]

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1385914613' post='2293544']
I have found the Boss TU tuners can be really bad for this, if you are a full semitone sharp all you get is a . next to the note you think you have tuned to i.e. G = intune G. = semitone sharp, it can be very easy to miss in a gig situation, both myself and our guitarist have suffered the same problem on occasions
[/quote]

But a semitone sharp on an E is an F, and that is a bit hard to miss.