[MUSIC]
All right, so here's
a 3rd installment on tuning the guitar.
And this time we're gonna just take a look
at kinda what the world is like when you
use a guitar tuner.
And I showed you a couple
ways to self reference tune.
Getting the guitar in tune with itself.
Referencing standard pitch
with a pitchfork and
we took a couple different
methods of that.
And in fact, I think I sort of started to
self check, kind of, I used them both.
I sort of blended the 2 techniques
a little bit by the end.
And a few things about using a tuner.
Again, as I've said,
the guitar is not perfectly in tune.
Even when it's in tune.
And when you use a tuner,
it's no different.
The tuner gets you in the ballpark,
and the advantage of a tuner
that I find is it can
speed up the process.
It can also Speed up the process when
I'm in a compromised hearing situation.
It's one thing for me to sit in a quiet
place and tune the guitar by ear.
And self reference tune it.
When there's really no interruptions,
there's no other people playing or
you know.
Playing any kind of notes or
warming up or tuning, it's like well,
that's 1 of the things that is incredibly
difficult to do is tune when someone else
is right by you tuning or even playing.
Or if you are in a situation
where you're performing,
you feel like, we need to keep the energy
moving and keep moving forward.
Here is a place where a tuner can help,
because it can speed up that process.
The tuner, though, is not the last word on
getting the guitar in tune with itself,
or with the outside world,
of standard pitch.
It can do a lot to get you there, but
it's an inexact science just as I said,
even with self-reference tuning and
even with an electronic tuner, so
just bear that in mind that the tuner is
just another tool to help you get there
and I still encourage, actually having
the skills of self reference and
employing them when you
use an electronic tuner.
So let's just get right into it,
and I'll show you how
I approach it.
And then we'll use some of our
self reference techniques.
To finish off the job.
Now this is a clip on tuner.
This is something that's fairly
new in the last several years.
When I first started
playing guitar they had
electric tuners that were just separate
little boxes and you know they had
a microphone pickup on them and it was
literally like a mic built into the thing.
These, they are similar, but they detect,
the way that they work is they grab the
vibrations from the guitar body itself,
I believe is how it works, and
one thing about clipping these puppies on
is making sure that you get,
they need to make good contact.
This clamp needs to contact well.
It just needs to seat well.
All right, this tuner was made
by a company called Peterson.
They make tuners that have,
they call it a strobe,
and you'll see,
it looks like the old Strobo tuners
that they use to have on your turntable,
and as vinyl records come back and
more and more turntables are resurfacing,
you'll start to see this type
of thing on your turntable.
All right.
You can see there's
a little read out here.
And you see.
it's looking like it's
a little bit flat and
how this works is that the strobe goes by.
And this is really just an approximation.
A digital approximation of
an actual Strobo-tuner.
And if the strobes
are ticking to the left,
you're flat, meaning you're low.
[MUSIC]
So now we're [SOUND] now we're getting
down to half step off [SOUND].
Now if they're ticking to the right,
[SOUND] we're sharp, so
we're above the reference note.
So [SOUND] again, like,
[SOUND] self reference method number 2.
I kind of tend to just go for
the D string.
Here's something to think about.
When you're tuning,
remember that everything is under tension.
These big strings are putting a lot of
tension on, like this side of the boat
is weighted pretty hard
with the thicker strings.
So I guess I like to start somewhere
in the middle, do these high strings,
and then I go back and
do these two lower ones.
The A string number 5 and
the E string number 6.
I'll do 4, 3, 2, 1, and
then I'll do 5 and 6.
I feel like, in my experience,
the tension will pull.
If I get everything in tune on the top
end, then the bottom end balances out.
If I do the bottom end, by the time
I get all the way up to the top,
the bottom has then been
pulled out a little bit.
So, it's just something that,
maybe it's a superstition of mine,
but I like to use,
[SOUND] I'll go the D string first.
Now, see you get it.
Now with a stroke tuner it's kinda
weird cuz it's still always sort of
hopping around a little bit.
It's moving.
But there, that's about it,
where you get it still.
See that?
Look, it's just Still, we can check it.
Let's see what happens when
we do the tuning fork.
We'll go.
[SOUND] There, that's it.
That works.
So, D string number 4, D, 4th string.
That's in tune.
[SOUND] All right, so
what if we put up at the G sharp,
a little sticky on the nut there.
[SOUND] Now I'm gonna go just underneath.
[SOUND] [SOUND] One
string at a time.
[SOUND] All right, that looks good.
We can see the strobes have predominately
stopped moving in either direction.
They're basically centered.
[SOUND] Now we'll do the B string.
[SOUND] Okay, that looks a little
[MUSIC]
There we go.
[MUSIC]
And the E-String.
So, we've done D, which is the 4th string,
G is the 3rd string, B is the 2nd string.
Now we do the 1st string, E.
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] Sometimes
you see where they're
a little jumpy.
There we go.
I just moved it a little bit.
It's all about how it seats.
And you'll find like,
their all different and
none of them are perfect, I'll tell ya.
Not in my experience.
Here's A.
5th string A, a little flat.
See that?
Now let's do E.
6th string E
[MUSIC]
all right, now that's interesting,
you see that?
[MUSIC]
It's hopping around,
it's hearing
[MUSIC]
It's hearing other notes, so
again I just work on seating it
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] that should be good, all right.
[MUSIC]
That came out pretty good.
[MUSIC]
All right,
so you can hear where
we moved to another key.
[MUSIC]
So if I was gonna,
I probably would
tweak this for
the key of C.
But let's not worry about that right now.
I think you got the idea from
the last thing I talked about.
[MUSIC].
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