Guitar and Bass tuning

[Stamp]

Can any member of the PH band make me a CD with the 4 notes of the Bass guitar and the 6 notes of the lead guitar please to help me tune my guitars.
I have only just started and find the tuner gizmo I have naff. If I had a note by note ditty on a cd, it would help no end.

[Tank Slapper]

Can't help with a recording, but this might be of help.

[celticpilgrim]

Crackin, just leave out the B and E (obviously) for the Bass.

And just remember to play both VERY LOUD!!!

[rick_172]

This is a recording of the tuning notes for a 6 string
guitar.

[url]http://rick.runtingz.com/tuning.mp3[/url]

Rick

[Stamp]

WOW. Cheers guys.

[Size Nine Elm]

Buy a decent tuner - even if its twenty quid, it should be able to do the job - and more accurately than by ear.

[simpo two]

If you have a slow PC will it play flat?

[Rob-C]

Size Nine Elm said:

Buy a decent tuner - even if its twenty quid, it should be able to do the job - and more accurately than by ear.

I'd beg to differ re tuning by ear - I usually have to tweak the tuning even though the electronic jobbie says it's spot-on. Everyone's ear is different though and your mileage may vary.

[fido]

i try to tune to whatever key i'm playing in
e.g. play each note of the C-chord on the 3rd fret,
if that's where i'm palying most of my stuff.

even with a good tuner, i find intonation & scale differences (inadequacies of tempered tuning) result in a less than perfect sound.

[Eric Mc]

I still use my old pitch pipes for basic tuning and then fine tune by ear.. Pitch pipes are VERY cheap and don't need batteries (obviously).

[dilbert]

I couldn't tell an "A" from a "R flat" outright.

If you play the guitar, and I guess many other instruments, once you have the first string the rest are easy.

All you have to do is to get the the strings to "beat" with each other. You will easily hear the modulation products, but you have to get the right ammount of "pluck" on the strings.

You can only hear the the "beat frequency" when the strings are producing, more or less, the same sound level. Different strings will decay at different rates, so there is only a relatively small window where you can hear it.

You can also feel the modulation products in the neck of the instrument.

FM radio uses the same technique, believe it or not.

>> Edited by dilbert on Monday 10th October 09:34

[gbbird]

if you can get the bottom e right (have you any metal/hard rock cd's which will almost certainly have songs beginning in e), then one way to tune is to then play each string while fretting at 5th (except for the 4th string which should be fretted at 4) and then tune the string above to exactly the same pitch as the fretted one below

[B17NNS]

gbbird said:

if you can get the bottom e right (have you any metal/hard rock cd's which will almost certainly have songs beginning in e

Guns n' Roses always tuned down to E flat.

Don't know why, useless bit of trivia acutally.

I'll get me coat.

[Vitesse39]

No point in tuning any more accurately than by ear, if you can't hear if it's out, then nor can any one else.
Other thing is that no guitar (even Pages Les Paul or Petrucci's Ibanez) will be perfectly in tune by the time you get 7 frets up.
Probably the tuner you've got will get you started and on you go from there.

[dieseljohn]

Also remember if your starting from a long way out to go around all the strings at least twice as changing the tention will bend the neck and alter the tuning of all the strings you have done so far.

[Rob-C]

Gazboy said:

I'd imagine a 2 grand guitar, if set up properly, will be in tune all the way.

You'd be surprised. A good many 2 grand guitars are more like £1700 of good marketing and about £300 of guitar.

With the best will in the world, if set up correctly it'll be perfectly in tune at the open string and the 12th fret, and "acceptably" close at every other fret.

Of course different people have different ideas of what's acceptable and the system of 12 equal semitones is only an approximation anyway.

[Jay GTi]

Gazboy said:

Vitesse39 said: No point in tuning any more accurately than by ear, if you can't hear if it's out, then nor can any one else. Other thing is that no guitar (even Pages Les Paul or Petrucci's Ibanez) will be perfectly in tune by the time you get 7 frets up. Probably the tuner you've got will get you started and on you go from there. I'd imagine a 2 grand guitar, if set up properly, will be in tune all the way. Which is why they cost 2k in the first place, and not £300.

Kind of, the intonation of a guitar will go out over time regardless of how much it cost. However, your lovely hand-built £3000 Custom Shop Fender will be able to get near-as-perfect intonation easily and will stay that way longer than your £200 Korean copy, which you'll probably never get close to perfect intonation with.

[Tank Slapper]

Vitesse39 said:

No point in tuning any more accurately than by ear, if you can't hear if it's out, then nor can any one else.

That most certainly isn't true. It is often easier for listeners to hear tuning than those playing. It's not uncommon for people to be corrected for tuning in orchestras (even at professional level) because sometimes it just isn't obvious.

Some people (especially other musicians) are more sensitive to it than others though. I have a friend with perfect pitch who can tell you exactly what note is being played and whether it is in tune without need for any other reference.

[neil.b]

Gazboy said:

Vitesse39 said: No point in tuning any more accurately than by ear, if you can't hear if it's out, then nor can any one else. Other thing is that no guitar (even Pages Les Paul or Petrucci's Ibanez) will be perfectly in tune by the time you get 7 frets up. Probably the tuner you've got will get you started and on you go from there. I'd imagine a 2 grand guitar, if set up properly, will be in tune all the way. Which is why they cost 2k in the first place, and not £300.

Nope, I've got 3 and they all suffer the same "problem", just to a lesser degree.

I almost always tune (in standard tuning) over octaves on the 7th fret as it gives a good compromise between open and 12.

I play in a couple of "open" tunings too and these are a bit trickier, much more trial and error and better to tune around the material you're playing.

[Vitesse39]

neil.b said:

Gazboy said: Vitesse39 said: No point in tuning any more accurately than by ear, if you can't hear if it's out, then nor can any one else. Other thing is that no guitar (even Pages Les Paul or Petrucci's Ibanez) will be perfectly in tune by the time you get 7 frets up. Probably the tuner you've got will get you started and on you go from there. I'd imagine a 2 grand guitar, if set up properly, will be in tune all the way. Which is why they cost 2k in the first place, and not £300. Nope, I've got 3 and they all suffer the same "problem", just to a lesser degree. I almost always tune (in standard tuning) over octaves on the 7th fret as it gives a good compromise between open and 12. I play in a couple of "open" tunings too and these are a bit trickier, much more trial and error and better to tune around the material you're playing.

There is also the fact that if you apply more pressure to a string when playing than you did while tuning (or vice versa) it will have you up a certain creek with out a plectrum

.....and as the night wears on in the pub it gets hotter and the strings slacken and go flat, I have the same problem with snare drum and timpani heads....there's umpteen things to make you say 'it's near enough for jazz'