My question about harmonic tuning is, is this a good way to tune your guitar..?? I've done this for years and I'm pretty good at tuning by ear, but do you get a better tune from a elec. tuner or is there realy no diffrence...?
I didn't get the second part but yeah this is a good way of tuning your guitar because when u play a string you can hear it, but when u do a harmonic you can hear the way the vibrations move, if that makes sense.
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You gotta set your sights high to get high!
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Its Kirby....
Tuning techniques (tempered vs. harmonic) seem to yield a lot of vigorous discussion on the internet. I gave up tuning by ear and bought a Peterson Strobostomp and have yet to regret it! :mrgreen:
I didn't get the second part but yeah this is a good way of tuning your guitar because when u play a string you can hear it, but when u do a harmonic you can hear the way the vibrations move, if that makes sense.
If by not getting the second part you mean when I wrote elec. tuner I'm sorry..Should have been more detaled in my question...
What I meant is a plug in tuner like the Perterson Strobostomp dubyatf said...
And yes that makes sense...
Tuning techniques (tempered vs. harmonic) seem to yield a lot of vigorous discussion on the internet. I gave up tuning by ear and bought a Peterson Strobostomp and have yet to regret it! :mrgreen:
Well I have a plug in tuner, cant remember the name of it due to the fact I only use it once and a great while...Just seems to me to be a little faster to just harmonic tune the guitar while playing so as to not unplug from the amp, plug into the tuner, tune and then plug back into the amp...
I'm able to tune dead on 98% of the time to the plug in tuner by ear...
But just wondering if I'm selling myself short on a perfect tune by harmonic tuning...
Also thanks for the replies...
Just seems to me to be a little faster to just harmonic tune the guitar while playing so as to not unplug from the amp, plug into the tuner, tune and then plug back into the amp...
That's why they make tuner pedals.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
A couple things about harmonic tuning...
You can tune fretted notes to harmonics at the octave (for example, 12th fret/6th string harmonic to 2nd fret/4th string fretted note) and get in perfect tune. But you can't compare one string's harmonic to another harmonic and get in perfect tune... the reasons are complicated, but you'll end up a little off.
Second, harmonic tuning - any tuning method, really - depends on new (or at least new-ish) strings. When strings get dirty the intonation goes off, and harmonics won't match fretted notes.
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I find harmonic tunig to be quick and roughly right. I think it takes me slightly longer time to use a tuner. However, I prefer always to have a reference pitch for the 5th string. Also I experiment occationally by using
5 fret 6th vs. open 5th
5th fret 5th vs. open 4th
10th fret 6th vs. open 3rd.
2nd fret 5th vs. open 2nd
open 6th vs. open 1st
but I'm not sure how much better it is ;)
...only thing I know how to do is to keep on keepin' on...
LARS kolberg http://www.facebook.com/sangerersomfolk
Oh i have an electric tuner but i really only use it when i'm not sure, one should be able to tune by ear in case of emergencies u can't always have your tuner w/ u.
I wanna be that guy that you wish you were ! ( i wish I were that guy)
You gotta set your sights high to get high!
Everyone is a teacher when you are looking to learn.
( wise stuff man! )
Its Kirby....
if you are playing out it's a heck of a lot easier to use a pedal tuner. doing by ear would be virtually impossible with all the noise going on and everything plus what do you doif you go out of tune mid-song? There's no way your going to be able to tune by ear so I agree you should be able to tune by ear but there are many times that's not practical or possible.
I love having the tuner pedal in my chain it's the best purchase I've made.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Sorry for hi-jacking -
@cnev: does the tuner affect the tone in any way? Or, I guess, you don't play everything through the tuner all the time, but there is a foot switch to include the tuner when you need it? Or what? Curious about this.
...only thing I know how to do is to keep on keepin' on...
LARS kolberg http://www.facebook.com/sangerersomfolk
lars yes there is a foot switch to turn it on and off when needed but yes it's the first pedal in my chain so the signal always goes through the pedal. It does not effect the tone at all but on the one I have a light blinks when it is not in the tuner mode and every time it blinks I get a pulsing noise through the amp. It's really only noticable between songs but I haven't figured out how to eliminate it. But that is not something that they all do so I wouldn't see that as a negative.
I love it, I hopefully will be playing out soon and I don't know what I would do without it.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
+1 on Tom's (Noteboat's) posting. I will use harmonic tuning (as lars describes) only for quick and dirty, then correct it by tweaking the fretted notes and chords (by ear).
while performing, I don't use an in-line tuner, but have an Ernie Ball volume pedal as the last in my EFX line-up. it has a second output that is fully active when the pedal is toe-up (main path volume at zero = muted). my tuner goes into that second output. no clicks when switching in/out, just a smooth volume change. however, I do need to make sure most of the other EFX are off when tuning, as some muck with the frequency (chorus, flange, certain delay settings ... ) or generate excessive harmonics that may confuse the tuner.
-=tension & release=-
Out of curiosity, how was tuning traditionally done? I ask because I assume that electronic tuners are a relatively new invention. Did everyone used to have a better-trained ear than they do now?
Out of curiosity, how was tuning traditionally done? I ask because I assume that electronic tuners are a relatively new invention. Did everyone used to have a better-trained ear than they do now?
Since the early 18th century, with a tuning fork. That's what I use. When I first started learning, I used pitch pipes but I hated them. The sound was so different to the guitar strings as well as being an octave higher. And if you blew too hard you'd get a slightly different pitch. So tuning for me was a bit hit and miss in the very early days, until my sense of pitch was developed enough to do it right. Not using an electronic tuner all the time does force you to develop your ear fast - I highly recommend it.
Orchestras traditionally tune to one of the fixed pitch instruments - I can't remember if it's the oboe or clarinet (NoteBoat will know)
