The Craft Of Tuning, why tuning is difficult Options

[methodseeker]

On my first REC submission Emir pointed out that my guitar was out of tune. This shouldn't have been a surprise: I mentioned it to my wife (a dormant violin player) and she said, "Oh yeah, you're usually out of tune. Didn't you know?"

At first I thought I should buy a better electronic tuner, but after some research and reflection I decided the real problem is that I need to better develop my pitch sensitivity. So I'm putting more time and effort into tuning now, striving to really listen. But I also learned some things I didn't already know (at least not well enough) about why tuning is difficult, that I'd like to share, and hear how others deal with these problems.

The tuning methods I've used in the past are:
A. Tune open strings to an electronic tuner. Wait until the pitch settles and center the needle for each string separately.
B. Tune one string to a reference (fork or electronic tuner) then tune across the strings using 5th(4th) fret correspondences.
C. Tune one string to reference, then cross strings using harmonics at 5,7,12.
D. Tune an open chord (e.g. E) so it sounds good.

There are problems with all of these methods that I didn't fully appreciate.
Here are some issues that make tuning hard:
1. Equal temperament tuning varies from the intervals implied by natural harmonics.
2. Fretting pressure causes pitch variance.
3. High action causes pitch variance at the higher frets.
4. String pitch is initially sharp, when plucked, then flattens with decay.
5. Higher harmonics tend to be sharp.
6. Electronic tuners are usually only accurate to within 3 or 5 cents.
7. Your ear may be more or less accurate.

If you don't already understand issue 1, you should read up on it. It's the main reason why method D doesn't work very well, because an equally tempered major 3rd is 14 cents sharp of what your ear probably says a major 3rd should sound like. (An equally tempered octave consists of 12 half steps, each of which is 100 cents apart, so 1200 cents in the octave.)
This also implies problems with tuning method C because the natural 5th (7th fret harmonic) is 2 cents sharp of an equally tempered 5th. If you tune low E to A to D to G via these harmonics, the G-E interval ends up 6 cents wider than it should be.

Issues 2 and 3 are related to technique and intonation. I know I'm supposed to fret as lightly as possible, just past the buzz point, but in practice I often fret a lot harder. Seems like compensating for fretting pressure is part of the intonation problem discussed in other threads. So let's assume the intonation is set correctly (i.e. a good compromise).

Issues 4 and 5 follow from string mechanics, which has a lot to do with the tonal color of the guitar sound. In a simple idealization, a string is perfectly flexible and its resonant frequencies are a simple function of length and tension. In the real world a string has some stiffness and its tension varies as it moves. In particular, when first plucked its vibrational amplitude is at a maximum, and so is the proportion of vibration in higher harmonics. Both of these effects tend to increase the tension in the string, and hence raise its resonant frequencies. If this is not intuitive, think about how a squiggly line between two points needs to be longer than a straight line. A vibrating string needs to stretch to fill out those squiggles, which raises its tension. Higher harmonics require more squiggles, which pushes them sharper. Experimenting with my electronic tuner (KORG CA-30), it seems that pitch decay can be as large as 5 to 10 cents, mostly in the first 0.5 second, depending on the string and how hard you pluck it. This is large enough that even my ear notices it. Making things more complicated, all 6 strings act differently due to their differing thickness and composition.

So, when tuning, do you tune to the the initial pitch, or the decayed pitch (say, after 1 second)? My guess is that common practice is to tune to the decayed pitch, but that seems to imply that fast runs are going to be sharp relative to sustained tones...unless you vibrato them sharp too. So everything's cool if its a guitar only band, but what if you have keyboards?
A possible alternative is to tune to a light and rapid tremolo picking. Does anyone advocate that?

Issue 6 points out a problem with tuning method A: even when you get a green light on every string individually, there can still be audible deviation between strings. It also suggests that buying an expensive tuner might help but pitch decay is one reason why designing and using a super-accurate tuner is not a simple matter. Here's a web page of a tuner manufacturer explaining some electronic tuner issues and offering a pitch discrimination test:

http://www.aqdi.com/tuner.htm

They argue that most people can't notice a 5 cents difference. I haven't confirmed their pitches are as advertised, but I can't hear the difference. Supposedly some people can hear a 2 cent difference.

So how should one tune?
My best understanding at the moment is that any of methods A-D, done properly, are not bad. (As described in Ivan Milenkovic's tutorial here https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/misc-less...uning-tutorial/ ) But it's very important to cross-check more than just adjacent pairs of strings, and be aware of the deviation between natural harmonics and the tempered scale.

Here are a couple of discussions by luthiers that I found helpful:

The first suggests a method for tuning all strings to the high E by learning to hear some intervals other than unison. http://www.athensmusician.net/archive/2001...tuningguide.php
It's roughly similar to the technique Daniel Robinson suggests in this thread: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=355806

This one suggests tuning two different 5th chords to be equally almost right.
http://www.doolinguitars.com/intonation/intonation5.html

Does anyone have another favorite technique? I'd love to just let the guitar tech deal with it but....looks like that's me.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!