Howto: Tune A Guitar

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:17 pm

Today, I tuned my old guitar. It's not been out the bag in about a year or more.

Ofc, it sounded out of tune. So here's what I did.

I found a dynamic mic that was floating around the house. 3.5mm jack, you know, typical karaoke junk.
I stuck it in a cardboard tube I had (a tube mic?) to keep it balanced on the desk and started up Kristal with a signal analyser plugin. FFT size to 32k and zoomed into the low region. Then I found the correct frequencies for each string on wiki and matched the FFT display.

To my surprise, it worked. Although I had to noise gate the input because it was so noisy.
Then I screwed around a little with some pitch shifters/reverbs and crashed my PC three times trying to get ASIO working.

How do YOU tune guitars? With real equipment?
Need a Tshirt that says *HACK TUNER*

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:46 pm

An A 440 tuning fork.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:49 pm

ROFL

I'm in the same boat, I just scored my GF's old electric guitar last week. It came out of a moldy cupboard and was covered in crap. Anyways, $102 later it was serviced, cleaned and had the warped bits screwed back down... Can you imagine how class it is. Anyways it sounds alright, once it was "intonated". I tune it with a cheap portable tuner. I know when it's out of tune but god only knows how to tune it without some sort of equipment.

I'm also an Hack Tuner, there's more room on this shirt. Razz

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:00 pm

I use a cd player with a song I'm familiar with. I don't beat myself up about tuning until I'm recording then I use the built in tuner.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:23 pm

I don't get the Frak Tuner thing.
Is there anything to get?

Not being musical, I have no idea if something is off-key or detuned or whatever. Zero chance of tuning by ear.

I hate to visualise this shirt, you need to get a photo of it once you get a few more Hack comments on it.
Or if its imaginary, photoshop them on.

Part of the reason I ask is, I know theres' a few VSTs that act as tuners, and some software on Linux that does the same. Does anyone actually use them and do they work?

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:28 pm

...until I'm recording then I use the built in tuner.

Built into Sonar. It works for me.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:39 pm

Oh. Missed the whole built in tuner thing. :S

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:27 pm

Ya don't have to be musical to tune a guitar. You just need to be able to play 2 harmonics at the same time and listen for the beats (oscillations for the techies amongst ya'll).

Step by step:

1. Plug into the double Marshall stack or Mesa of your choice, crank the overdrive, and turn it up to 11.

2. Hover the tip of your LH middle finger just slightly above the fattest string directly over the strip of metal that bisects the fingerboard at the 5th fret.

3. Pluck the string with a plectrum (guitar pick) and quickly move the LH middle finger away from the string's top surface. Do this several times until it produces a loud ringing tone.

4. Sing an A-440 - you should have learned how to do that in high school music class (we did) - and turn the tuning machine one way or the other until it sounds the same as the note you're singing. Now your A string is in tune (assuming you can sing on pitch). Redo #3.

5. Now, while that tone is still ringing, do the some thing on the next string up, except do it on the wire that bisects the 7th fret.

6. With both tones ringing, listen for the oscillations (tech talk again for "beats"). The farther out of tune the 2 strings are, the faster the beats will be. turn the tuning key of the string you're trying to tune until the beats slow down to almost nothing. I say almost, because if you make them stop completely, the 2 strings will be perfectly in tune and you'll be accused of being a classical musician. If you play punk or garage rock, you can stop here, cause it's "close enough for _________"(insert whatever genre of music you look down upon).

7. If you find the need to (country and jazz players), continue on with the same procedure for all the strings until the guitar is perfectly in tune. When you get to the 2nd and 3rd thinnest strings, you'll find that the above method for some reason doesn't seem to work, so just fake it with those 2 strings. it won't matter anyway unless the "intonation" is set perfectly for your guitar (requires the skills of highly paid technician who will keep your guitar for 5 weeks to do this 1 hr job.)

There you have it. Your guitar is now IN TUNE. Of course, once you do your 1st Pete Townsend windmill on it, or fondle your whammy bar, you'll have to start the whole procedure over from step #1. Or you could just smash the dang thing in frustration and ask the guitar tech for another one.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:33 pm

I'm not sure cMonkey can do that with his guitar, let me explain:

"It's not been out the bag in about a year or more. "

Anything in the above sentence stick out to you, make you want to rap the lads knuckles?

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:39 pm

Yeah, he keeps his guitar in a "bag".

Aren't ya supposed to just lean it up in the corner with the strings facing the wall so the neck will bow and that high priced technician can have your guitar for more than 5 weeks. I think it must work kinda like banks - he gets the use of your guitar to make himself more money instead of you making the $$.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:43 pm

AwedOne wrote:

high priced technician can have your guitar for more than 5 weeks.

I am seeing a trend here...

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:00 pm

Hey, with Remy Ann being silent today, someone's got to be sarcastic.

it's a tought job, but...

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:02 pm

I don't play guitar, OK! Nor can I sing on pitch.

This is why I ended up on the faders.

It has been in a bag leaning against a wall for a while though.

"you'll be accused of being a classical musician" Laughing

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:09 pm

Quote:

I don't play guitar, OK! Nor can I sing on pitch.

This is why I ended up on the faders.

have you listened to any of my songs? words like "catterwalling" come to mind.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:20 pm

I don't know who developed the "gig bag"...but that is a big piece of crap, for want of a more employable word in a family oriented forum.

Take a wooden product and enclose it in a bag so to carry a precision instrument around in all-weather. It is probable the first most reason for a guitar, a cheap guitar even, failing over a brief period of time. No support of the crucial neck/body alignment, a heat trap that warps wood not to mention the user slinging and pitching the bag with guitar inside that only leads to broken electronics, parts and limbs. And then the high priced technician has to have your guitar for more than 5 weeks:)

Nothing on you CM Wink

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