What counts as being "In tune"?

thedonutman · #1 04-04-2007, 12:35 PM

I set up my RG yesterday(it was going horribly out of tune) So I lubed the knife edges. And since yesterday morning, I've been doing some serious whammy bar stuff. And a few of the strings a between 2-8 cents out. I can't really notice the difference(I used a tuner to check)

Is this good enough for most people? My musical ear isn't that great you see, so I can't really judge.

Josh_P · #2 04-04-2007, 01:09 PM

It's either in tune or out, no middle ground with me. If you can't hear an 8 cent difference with your ear I would suggest running an inline tuner at all times.

thedonutman · #3 04-04-2007, 01:23 PM

I can tell if 2 notes a different if I play them on their own. But In the context of a riff I can't really tell.

Josh_P · #4 04-04-2007, 02:39 PM

Chords always helped me fine tune my ear at first. Now it's almost a curse
: v (

shogun · #5 04-04-2007, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh_P

Chords always helped me fine tune my ear at first. Now it's almost a curse
: v (

i am pretty close to having perfect pitch.. and i must say the bad thing about having good ears is u demand perfection when setting up a guitar.

Dee · #6 04-05-2007, 01:04 AM

Same here. I finally realized when an ex-girlfriend's door creaked and I said "that's a G#", then went over to the piano and it was dead on!

Anyways, I agree with Donutman -- when you're playing, the chances are you nor anyone else will hear a note that's out by a few cents.

Rocker1 · #7 04-05-2007, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shogun

i am pretty close to having perfect pitch.. and i must say the bad thing about having good ears is u demand perfection when setting up a guitar.

Ha Ha you find it aswell when u set up a guitar

newbieguitarmaker · #8 04-05-2007, 07:54 PM

My ears are sensitive to tunings so the smallest difference annoys me, being perfectly on 440 is in tune for me and shogun you are right having perfect pitch and a good musical ear does make me demand perfection, i can thank my dad for passing on this skill

S-man · #9 04-05-2007, 08:01 PM

Guitars are inherently out of tune to a degree.

There is NO way your guitar will be completely in tune all the way up and down the fretboard on every string. It's all a compromise...

I try to find the middle ground.

S-man · #10 04-05-2007, 08:05 PM

G and B are the worse offenders....it can be maddening.

That's why I just try to find the middle ground, stop being so critical and jam.

Andelusion · #11 04-05-2007, 09:22 PM

I only ever rush over to my tuner if I really notice that I'm going out of tune.

That is of course as well as tuning up my guitar as soon as I pick it up each day, imo you shouldn't play your guitar if it's out of tune, as it's undoing the accuracy of your finger-ear coordination

Overtime your ear will probably become more sensitive to suble discrepencies in intonation, I know that 4-5 years ago I would have noticed when I was out of tune, but if someone had played a chord, I wouldn't be able to tell you which string/degree was out of tune, now my ear seems to pick it out straight away.

thedonutman · #12 04-06-2007, 06:59 AM

What I find worrying since I've got my tuner is that I can get about 10-20 cents of tuning variation just by resting my hand on the bridge or turning my guitar so it faces the ground or ceiling.

And what is even more worrying is that I never really noticed it until I checked with a tuner.

buddroyce · #13 04-06-2007, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedonutman

I set up my RG yesterday(it was going horribly out of tune) So I lubed the knife edges. And since yesterday morning, I've been doing some serious whammy bar stuff. And a few of the strings a between 2-8 cents out. I can't really notice the difference(I used a tuner to check)

Is this good enough for most people? My musical ear isn't that great you see, so I can't really judge.

When you play out with a band and sound off, then you're out of tune. Otherwise.. I wouldn't stress about it.. Otherwise that's why you hire goons like me to work as guitar techs.

CrossingStar · #14 04-12-2007, 10:33 AM

A tuner might tell you a string is ON PITCH but it depends on what you like to hear. Tuning open strings to a tuner, and I have a Peterson mind you, can get you there for a base reference but I lower the G string a bit by ear and the B string I lower a bit, too. When I recheck the G string especially is horribly flat according to the VS-1 but sounds better to me - in relation to the other strings - than when it was telling me it was in tune. If I needed to open G string to be in tune on it's own then I would go by what the Peterson reads. But tuning a guitar is never perfect so you have to decide what sounds best and what amount of dissonance you can live with.