tuning by ear

You get better at it over time, as your ear develops.

When I started playing, there weren't any electronic tuners. We tuned to each other, or used a pitch pipe. I wasn't nearly as accurate then... but neither were most of the folks I played with :)

What he said^ :D

i have found also over the years that because of various reasons being "in tune" didn't help me to play along with a record (yes phonograph) or later tapes and CDs because being off from the speed of the recording was enough to make it impossible to figure out chords and whatnot.
so i would listen to a recording and try to pick out an open chord or a note that i thought i could recognise and go from there.

i know that sounds like gibberish but it's an aquired skill that you pick up on over time.
for instance a song with a droning Am like "working class hero" it's easy to pick out the high E and off you go.

I could tune by ear from day one.
Not completely accuratly but close enough to make the instrument playable.
Everyone is different and everyone has different abilities so any question of "how long does it take?" for anything, can only give you a range that you may fall into but never an accurate time table.

I could tune by ear quick & pretty accurately by the 1 year point. It was really probably sooner than that, but that was when I noticed all of a sudden that I could tune.

That was the first thing my bud taught me. I own a $100.00 tu-2 chromatic strobe tuner and even though it say's it's dead on I can do a better job by ear. I basically tune the a or d string then everything else around it.

I never really paid attention to tring to tune by ear. I don't even try it.

But, I can always tell when my guitar is out of tune. It's a step in the right direction, right? :?

Absolutly.

Didn't came close initially, now I come close enough to afford being lazy enough not to constantly carry my tuner around.

Oh by the way, it will come both by practice and naturally. Don't expect to be able to tune by ear all of a sudden one day after never having tried before.

The easiest way for me is to crank the distortion, tune low E 5th harmonic to A 7th harmonic. You can do this because instead of holding down the note you can tune and just listen to the harmonics. Hear the wobbling vibrations? Try to get them in sync. Next tune 7th D to 5th A, 7th G to 5th D, open B to 7th E, open E to 7th A. You can do this without distortion as well, but with distortion you can really hear the wobblyness well.

Those harmonics, however, are out of tune with the equal tempered scales we play in.

After a year and half, I can hear when my guitar is out of tune. But I still can't tune by ear.

I bought a chromatic tuner to do this for me.

Maybe in another five or ten years, then maybe my ears will be able to listen better.