what do you guys use to tune your bass and electric guitars?

[JASIII]

I use an old school Peterson strobe, not the stomp but the one that looks like a little tv.

[joelmoore]

+1 on training yourself to hear the difference between in-tune and out of tune.

Tuners to me are like Tablature. I have yet use them without thinking there is just something not right about how the result comes out sounding. If I play the Tab along with the recording it hardly ever sounds even close to right. If I tune with a tuner my guitar will sound out of tune.

It seems similar to the idea of mixing with one's eyes instead of one's ears.

my $.02

[directaction]

I'm partial to the old-school Conn Strobotuners. Those huge ones with the handles. I haven't used the Strobo Stomp that everyone is talking about, but I can't imagine that it would be possible to improve on the original.

[cgarges]

My old guitar tech turned me on to Korg tuners, and also turned me on to the compromises of a tempered scale.

The Peterson has several settings to compensate for this as well.

I haven't used the Strobo Stomp that everyone is talking about, but I can't imagine that it would be possible to improve on the original.

Well, it could be currently-manufactured, repairable, and available for purchase as new with a warranty. The StroboStomp definitely has THAT over the older Conns.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[RefD]

i've been using a Korg DT-3 i bought back in the 90s, but i've been eyeing the StroboStomp or StroboFlip for awhile now.

i forget what i was using before the DT-3, but i know i was tuning to SOMEthing that used electricity from '80 til '97.

maybe it was a drill motor with a small fan blade and a timing light?

my head hurts, imma go pass out now.

[0-it-hz]

Whatever tuner that goes down to Q. The heaviest note of all...

[kayagum]

I've used the same Korg tuner for 20 years (the only music equipment I owned longer is my acoustic guitar, and my first guitar cord, which I still use). But I only use it if my "concert pitch" is messed up.

However, electronically tuning every string won't get you there. Richard Lloyd (of Television and Matthew Sweet fame) posted what I think is the definitive guitar tuning article on his website: http://www.richardlloyd.com/lessons/studqa.htm


Excerpt below- his 2 methods:



First tune the bottom E. string to a tuning fork or tuning machine. Next, fret the E. string at the tenth fret. This will give you a D. Tune the D. string to this note by ear. Next, fret the D. string at the fifth fret. Tune the G. string to the D. string at the fifth fret. Now fret the G. string at the second fret. This gives you an A. Tune the A. string from this note. Now fret the A. string at the second fret. Tune the B. string from this note. It will be an octave up. Next, fret the D. string at the second fret. This gives you E. Tune your high E from this. Again this will be an octave.

Voila! Strum the guitar. It should sound considerably more pleasing. If you are playing an acoustic or electric guitar by yourself this should work delightfully. If you are playing with other instruments it can take some real effort to find a harmoniousness between all the separate instruments, but I think that if you try this approach you will begin to get a taste of the difference between tuning to a machine and tuning to natural acoustic principles.

But then, what if you are in a loud rock band or a large group where everybody uses the same tuning machine and everyone is in a hurry and no one has the time or inclination to listen to you rant about acoustic principles and esoteric philosophy? Then I will offer you this approach:

Tune the guitar as usual to the machine. Tune the G. string slightly flat by about 2 cents. Make sure that the B. string is not flat. The B. string can be raised ever so slightly. Perhaps one cent or even 1/2. Experiment with it. If you have been using the other approach to tuning you should start to develop an ear for yourself. In any case, this approach can help significantly. Neither method can recover the full acoustic balance because all the frets are placed according to equal temperament. As long as we insist on being able to play in every key at the same time we will suffer this tradeoff. Enjoy.

[RefD]

the second half of that excerpt is what i usually do.

if i have no handy tuning reference, i can get it close to concert and in good relative (strings in relation to each other) tune using the first half minus the pitch pipe.

i haven't owned a pitch pipe since i was a violinist in a previous chunk of my life, but i never used it cos i owned a good tuning fork.

[wedge]

First tune the bottom E. string to a tuning fork or tuning machine. Next, fret the E. string at the tenth fret. This will give you a D. Tune the D. string to this note by ear. Next, fret the D. string at the fifth fret. Tune the G. string to the D. string at the fifth fret. Now fret the G. string at the second fret. This gives you an A. Tune the A. string from this note. Now fret the A. string at the second fret. Tune the B. string from this note. It will be an octave up. Next, fret the D. string at the second fret. This gives you E. Tune your high E from this. Again this will be an octave.

Voila!

Awesome...

[Joe P.]

I've been tolerating Sabine tuners for close to twenty years now. They have no footswitch, sometimes won't read certain strings, and the input's on the wrong side for chrissake. They DO have an automatic shutoff after a half hour though, which I 'use' all the time. I should, but cannot bring myself to buy another tuner. Don't know why. I've been tempted by those new Ibanez tuners though, supposedly true bypass.

[sears]

The slightly flat open G string is an alt-country trope that either sounds perfect or terrible.

I heard about this from some country player: how to tune by ear without using open strings.

tune A string to an A.
third fret A to fifth fret D is a fifth, C to G
third fret A to fifth fret G is an octage, C [3d1t: octave.. some serious octage, man]
third fret A to first fret B is an octave, C
third fret A to third fret E is a twelfth (fifth + octave) C to G
third fret LOW E to fifth fret A is a fifth, G to C

Tuning the G flat and the low E a little sharp are options.

By bending either string you're fretting, you can tell which string is flat. The goal is to be able to tell which string is out of tune and adjust it in the middle of a song, like bass players do. Tuning this way trains you to do that.

[Kindly Killer]

most guitars are not very precisely in tune on very many notes. IMO this is the whole workflow for getting a guitar in tune for a track:

• set up the guitar so that it plays the way the player wants. if the string height or nut relief or neck relief is going to change, there is no point in messing with intonation at this point
• set intonation using capo at any fret. the entire fretboard is now in tune
• the open strings will be off the amount of compensation at the bridge. make a compensated nut so that the open strings are in tune as well
• at the session, each instrument should tune acoustically to whatever untunable instrument is recording (e.g. keyboard).
• tune between every take - playing knocks guitars out of tune

short of that level of detail, i can't see getting any closer than +- 3 cents on every note. which isn't horrible, but it's not really in tune, either

[allbaldo]

I have a Peterson VS-1, which works great. I've always felt that 5th fret harmonics give the clearest signal to most tuners, and that given regular intonation, I have better luck with that than using open strings... though sometimes the B and high E strings work better with open or 12th fret harmonics.

I used a "real" Peterson strobe for many years, which worked well too. I often track guitars before bass, so I sometimes adjust the "cents" function down a bit, for bassists who play really hard... mostly finger players, who pull sharp.

[Esmo]

i used to use the dial tone on a phone. Its an F.

d

[rwc]

logic tuner plugin, under helper.