I'm an idiot (Guitar Tuner)
SatansFuton
Posts: 5,399
About a week ago I started to notice that two of my guitars sounded really flat. I didn't know what was wrong. According to my tuner I was in perfect tune, but they didn't sound right, and when I would play along to a CD or something I sounded way out of tune. It had been a while since I had them adjusted, so I dropped them off. Of course the luthier was like "Oh yeah, they're all messed up" because that's what they all say. You could bring the same guitar back 2 days after an adjustment and most would tell you it's out of whack. Or at least the ones around here do. They are like the oil change places of the musical world, no matter what you take it in for they will try to get you to pay for an adjustment.
After a day or so the remaining guitar (the one I hadn't taken in) sounded flat also, and I was starting to get suspicious. Maybe it was the amp. So I busted out a little old cheap Marshall G10 Mk.II that I got with my first guitar, and it still sounded the same. I didn't think it could be the tuner, because it is fairly new. I thought maybe this guitar needed an adjustment too, but before I took it up there I decided to wait until I got the other two back.
I picked them up today and brought them home. I tuned them and started to play, still flat. So now I'm sure it isn't the guitar, it isn't the amp, the only thing it could be was the tuner. Since I had just paid for some work on two guitars that was probably unnecessary I decided I would fool around with the tuner before I just went out and bought a new one. And sure enough it was just set wrong.
Even though I never mess with the Pitch/Hertz, the setting had somehow been changed from the normal 440Hz to 435Hz. I never mess with that, so I really had no clue. I always play in standard, sometimes I'll go into Drop-D, or tune down a half or whole step (but the tuner has presets for that so I don't mess with anything) or change the tuning using standard as a reference, but have never changed the Hertz, or even really know what to do with it if I had. Here I was using my tuner set to the wrong Hz thinking that my guitars were out of whack. Please tell me somebody else has done this so I don't feel like such a moron.
After a day or so the remaining guitar (the one I hadn't taken in) sounded flat also, and I was starting to get suspicious. Maybe it was the amp. So I busted out a little old cheap Marshall G10 Mk.II that I got with my first guitar, and it still sounded the same. I didn't think it could be the tuner, because it is fairly new. I thought maybe this guitar needed an adjustment too, but before I took it up there I decided to wait until I got the other two back.
I picked them up today and brought them home. I tuned them and started to play, still flat. So now I'm sure it isn't the guitar, it isn't the amp, the only thing it could be was the tuner. Since I had just paid for some work on two guitars that was probably unnecessary I decided I would fool around with the tuner before I just went out and bought a new one. And sure enough it was just set wrong.
Even though I never mess with the Pitch/Hertz, the setting had somehow been changed from the normal 440Hz to 435Hz. I never mess with that, so I really had no clue. I always play in standard, sometimes I'll go into Drop-D, or tune down a half or whole step (but the tuner has presets for that so I don't mess with anything) or change the tuning using standard as a reference, but have never changed the Hertz, or even really know what to do with it if I had. Here I was using my tuner set to the wrong Hz thinking that my guitars were out of whack. Please tell me somebody else has done this so I don't feel like such a moron.
"See a broad to get dat booty yak 'em, leg 'er down, a smack 'em yak 'em!"
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I didn't even know that switching hertz's was possible. what tuner?
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What I was using wasn't an online tuner, it's a tuner I own. A Seiko something or other. You can change the Hertz to anything between 435-446.
That feature doesn't really make any sense whatsoever. You can't change what makes an a note.
Well from what I've read after having this happen, what used to be an A note has changed over time. In olden times it was A=380 Hz, and the standard has changed. I don't really know, it was something I had never messed with until this happened, but from what I understood over the years it has been different. Also I read something about changing the pitch to give a guitar "lute tuning" or some shit.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
It's also true that some folks will play tuned to a different reference, especially in classical music, so it's not entirely nuts. But the long and short of it is, most of us use standard A=440 Hz tuning.
My last $0.02... for playing live, a tuner pedal is just short of necessary. At home or in the studio, you can use your ear or tuning forks or divine direction, but live, you need something fast, accurate, and reliable. It helps to have everyone in the band on the same tuner, too. I personally use, and can vouch for, the Korg Pitchblack, although I'm impressed by what I've read about the newer Boss TU-3 (replaced the TU-2, which I didn't like).
I dunno, have you ever tried to tune drums? That's WAAAAY harder.
this is great advice. esp because you can't hear the guitar when tuning for a show.
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