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Ruphus -> RE: Tuning methods (Feb. 26 2011 7:25:03)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Pawo
Thanks everyone for your input...some useful stuff here....it seems everyone has their preferred way of tuning and there's not one best way....
Don´t worry, the trend of allegedly "everything being subjective" or many ways to Rome, doesn´t really apply to most of wordly matters.
With things like tuning there definitly exist optimized procedures.
As those are only little known, the majority of players supposedly never heard what their guitar can actually sound like at its best.
According to my personal empirics, anyway.
What you want is a tuning that takes into consideration the individual intonation properties of the guitar in question and vertically and horizontally spread its deviation as evenly as possible accross the fretboard. ( Tempered tuning.)
In addition to that you want a method that reduces reference tones to as little in number as possible, and thus reduce deviance over the course of tuning from string to string.
Optimized correspondence to these requirements is provided by a method suggested by luthier Kevin Ryan; quoted below.
quote:
Tuning Notes:
A) When you tune the following fretted notes to the harmonics, tune them "beatless"-- i.e., without any hint of "rolling" or pulsating as the two notes synchronize. When two notes get closer, their "beating" slows down until it disappears altogether when they are perfectly in tune. This is very important! This is the skill to be gained!
B) In each step below, pluck the harmonic first. Then fret and pluck the designated string. This allows you to hear both notes simultaneously. Then tune the appropriate string.
1.
Tune the D string to a known source
2.
Pluck the 12th fret harmonic of the D then tune the G (fretted at the 7th fret) to this harmonic.
3.
Pluck the same 12th fret harmonic of the D then tune the B (fretted at the 3rd fret) to this harmonic
4.
Pluck the 12th fret harmonic of the G and tune the High E fretted at the 3rd fret to this harmonic
5.
Tune the 12th fret harmonic of the A to the G fretted at the 2nd fret (pluck the harmonic first!)
6.
Tune the 5th fret harmonic of the Low E to the High E open (pluck the harmonic first!)
Note: To apply the tuning method to alternate tunings, all you have to do is find the proper fretted note on the string you are tuning and tune it beatless to a 12th fret harmonic on a string below it. Easy as pie.
Final advice: take note that old strings are more difficult to tune than new strings. This is because of uneven stretching of the string and the subsequent erratic vibration patterns. In some instances, old strings are impossible to tune correctly. If you have difficulty achieving good intonation, change strings.
Following these steps you will find inspiring improvement with your instrument in all regards. Vibrancy, harmony, lushness, separation and sustain.
It pays to get accustomed to fine tuning, developing routine and demand ( which usually occures pretty fast ).
Should you feel lazy however, you could engage a strobe tuner for verifying precise accordance during the tuning and finally program the tuner with the resulting tempered precision tuning.
Provided you stay with the same kind of strings, the perfect individual tuning will then be stored and available at the touch of a button.
Should you switch to another model of strings, still using the same setting in your tuner, the result will outperform any open-string tuning still.
Yet, once used to the sound of optimized tuning, you´ll probably align your tuner whenever switching string model.
Ruphus
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