I'm having trouble tuning my acoustic

WhiteMaleRat

I'm new on guitar (2 months) and have real trouble. I don't have a piano, tuning fork, or any of those tuning amps or whatever you call it. I have a little handbook that says how to do the 5th fret rule.

Are there any tricks, or do I just have to keep playing around with it. It just seems like there's an infinite number of levels of tuning you could do, and no matter what I do it always sounds like something's off. I took it to the music shop originally to get it restrung. Took it back a month later and had it tuned. Recently I made the mistake of horsing around with it and screwed it up. It's a cheapo acoustic with nylon strings, but I know how well it can sound.

nailz100

You could buy a little handheld electronic tuner. I'm sure most guitar players use them...they take (1) 9 volt battery. I'm not sure about how easily nylon strings hold a tune.....but I can't see them being that different from any set of strings. The fifth fret rule will work if you want to tune by ear. What you have to do is listen for the variations (or waves) in the sound. For example (making sure your Low E is tuned to E...you can do this by matching the first note on "Enter Sandman" or 'Nothing Else matters" if you want) Press down the 5th fret on the Low E and play the A string open....then turn the "A" string tuning peg to match. What you are listening for is the two notes to sound the same. You will hear the "waves" of the two notes getting closer and closer as you approach the same note. make sure you are always tuning up toward the same note...if you go too far and find that the A string sounds is too sharp (too high), then you need to tune back down PAST the tuning that matched the low E and back up to match the Low E again. You can also tune by using Harmonics...which is what I use. I hope this helps....

Gossard_Is_God

You can download a tuner online if you search for one.

SweetHarmonics

I use this site's tuner constantly

http://www.wholenote.com

Scoot82

The 5th fret technique only works if you have at least one string already in tune. This is generally the low E. So, you have to tune this string to some mechanism (online tuner, little cheap tuner, piano, fork, etc.). From there you can tune every string to that one string that you know is in tune....Technically, you could use the 5th string technique without the low E being in tune; the result being the guitar will be in tune relative to itself, but it will sound off when you play it with something that is in correct standard tuning. My advice would be just get a cheap tuner for $10 or download one for free off the internet.

WhiteMaleRat

Originally posted by Scoot82
The 5th fret technique only works if you have at least one string already in tune. This is generally the low E. So, you have to tune this string to some mechanism (online tuner, little cheap tuner, piano, fork, etc.). From there you can tune every string to that one string that you know is in tune....Technically, you could use the 5th string technique without the low E being in tune; the result being the guitar will be in tune relative to itself, but it will sound off when you play it with something that is in correct standard tuning. My advice would be just get a cheap tuner for $10 or download one for free off the internet.

yeah that's exactly the problem, you start from the 6th string down to the 1st, and if you start wrong and are slightly off on each string - by the time your done you got something real strange. Anyways, I'm sure over time you can tell by playing things your familiar with and adjusting from there. But I definetely will have to buy something to help.