Guitarist tuning up

[ahpook]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1477054861' post='3159551']
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]

Those are indeed different situations.

[JTUK]

Mute... I expect him to know and deal with his gtr being in tune. I'd hate it more if he sounded out of tune

[jezzaboy]

A guy I played with did this after every song. He played a Les Paul and I was forever telling him to get it looked at but in 4 years he never did. He did it silently but it ruined the flow of the set sometimes.

Done my head in.

[martin8708]

A good guitarist will know when he is out of tune by just playing an open chord , G seems to be the best for my ears ( not that I am a good guitarist ) . If the chord sounds good , we dive into the next song .

Obviously ,he would probably tune up after a particularly energetic " Pete Townsend-esque " rendition of Mustang Sally or sets his guitar on fire a la Hendrix stylee.

Worst offender was when I was playing in a band with a guitarist who would never pay more than 50 quid for a guitar , he had 5 such beauties , combined with a permanently whistling H/H combo amp , it was truly an audio nightmare , or just very avant guarde playing .

[Lozz196]

Agree with that Martin, our guitarist can tell if he`s out of tune when playing, so then tunes up after the song has ended. I`m pretty much the same, I can tell when I`ve gone out of tune pretty quickly.

In an old band the guitarist used to tune between each song and it did used to break the flow of the music. I was also on guitar at that point. We both had the same guitars, and sometimes I wouldn`t even have to tune up between gigs. Think I got lucky there, never had an instument since that held tuning that well.

[Guest bassman7755]

I've played guitar in bands and never needed to tune up during the set, but then I always used a locking trem setup. As a bass playing in a band I dont care what the guitarist does so long as 1) it doesnt cause an necessary delay between songs and 2) it makes no noise. Generally the bands I have played in operate a strict no f*cking about making noises before/during the set except to play the actual songs. Having said that our guitarist in our purple tribute band occasionally checks his tuning at full vol but I let it pass as RB used to do the same thing and it actually adds a certain authenticity to the proceedings.

Edited October 22, 2016 by bassman7755

[Oopsdabassist]

One of mine has the habit of waiting for the drummer to start counting in...then 'hold on..I'm out of tune'
did it twice on Thursday when were at a jam night, only played 6 songs grrrrr,.


Lovely chap apart from that though

[scalpy]

Never mind the guitarist what about sax and trumpet players? Ours are lovely but one doesn't realise temperature and humidity make a massive difference and the other looks at the tuning pipe and goes, it's never been set there before, can't be right.

[PaulWarning]

our old guitarist was always tuning up, I think it was his way of saying "I didn't play a bum note I'm out of tune" yeah right! I play acoustic at open mic and never tune up apart from the start, mind you I haven't changed the strings in a year, hate new strings., If a bass is a bit out of tune nobody will notice anyway, well I don't

Edited October 22, 2016 by PaulWarning

[Skybone]

"Tuning stability" is the Guitarist's own specific variant of OCD.

[steve-bbb]

floyd rose lo pro edge locking system - you can tug the whammy bar as much as you like and it NEVER goes out

[Spike Vincent]

It's not as bad as drummers tuning up between songs.

[Spike Vincent]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1477068320' post='3159705']
Mine was in tune when I bought it.
[/quote]

Mine wasn't, I took it back.

[Marvin]

Some seem to think it's an acceptable way to pad out a set.

Personally I find it irritating, as much as a band member but also when watching a band.

[YeastieB]

Maybe it's his guitar. I was shocked when I tried a few what were supposed to be high-end guitars that many of them couldn't keep in tune after a few noodles. Just as bad as the cheap copy I had. Guitar I did buy is really stable.

[Woodinblack]

Ours does quite a lot. He has even stopped playing in the middle of a song to tune.
But really it depends on the guitar - I have some that go out of tune quite often and some others that basically never change.

[leschirons]

[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]

For the same reason they leave BEFORE it's lugged out.

[Roger2611]

I think it is an OCD thing, our guitarist re-tunes between every other song, he plays a mid eighties American Telecaster, so a decent guitar, every time he checks the tuning, surprise surprise it's still in tune but still he checks it.

I check mine twice during the set, both times on songs with at least 30 seconds before the bass comes in so it doesn't disrupt the flow of the set any more than absolutely necessary

[sprocketflup]

OCD person here then I guess, I check tuning (silently) before every song if theres time

[Beer of the Bass]

When gigging on guitar, there are a couple of tunes where I use the tremolo a lot and I'll always check tuning after those. It's rare that it'll need tweaking though, which I've been quite surprised about as I have a Jazzmaster tremolo.

[josie]

Machine head problem? My GMR is utterly stable - I give it as much time as I can to adapt to temp / humidity in the venue, then tune up and it stays tuned. On the Jazz, the E machine head was noticeably loose (A D G were stable). I had to (discreetly) check the E string tuning pretty much every song until I figured out how to tighten the head.

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1477135001' post='3160046']


Mine wasn't, I took it back.
[/quote]

Well you don't want to be strung along by an unscrupulous shop do you?