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Post subject: Tuning question
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:10 am
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I sometimes tune my guitar down a 1/2 or full step or use alternate tunings. I'm finding when tuning back to standard tuning that by the time I get to tuning the high E string the other strings are out of tune (flat). It will take me two, sometimes, three tries before all the strings stay in tune. I'm using a chromatic tuner and have a Standard MIM strat. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?


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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:38 am
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It's normal. When you tune down, the string tension gets gradually lower, which effects the neck (and the trem if you have one).
You might get to stable tuning a bit quicker if you tune in a different order; like go from both edges towards the center strings. Or just change the tuning, have a cup of java, retune - this takes the third time off the list, usually.

But in general, this is the main reason why the stars prefer to have different guitars for different tunings on stage :wink:

Oh, one thing to check on the guitar's setup: if your truss rod is really loose, the neck acts even more in the bow-and-arrow way.


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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:45 am
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godfather_77, welcome to the Forum. Tuning guitars can be sensitive to the guitar's physical adaption to the changes in string tension. A fast or slow issue more than right or wrong. It can take me a couple of tries too, I try not to do that too often in front of an audience though lol :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:50 am
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As others have said, it is a normal thing. If I know I'm going to be playing in an alternate tuning I will do a complete setup on the guitar with that tuning and leave it to that dedicated tuning.

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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:30 am
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Thank you! Very helpful replies!


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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:55 pm
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godfather_77 wrote:
It will take me two, sometimes, three tries before all the strings stay in tune. I'm using a chromatic tuner and have a Standard MIM strat. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

That sounds typical for me, also with a MIM Standard Strat.
Each time you make one string tighter, it's pulling on the tail piece and the trem springs are stretching minutely (plus bending the neck), causing all other strings to slacken. I've got (I think) 4 trem springs installed and it still takes me 3 passes or so. If it was a hardtail, I suspect it would go much quicker, because then you only have to worry about the neck bending.

About lower alternate tunings: You may find that the intonation goes out of whack, because, as near as I can make out (and paradoxically), looser strings are more susceptible to going higher with the additional tension of fretting. I learned this when a friend asked for help tuning a Yamaha Guitalele. It has a 17" scale neck, and some nylon strings.
Each open string would be perfectly tuned, but any chord sounded awful, no fretted notes were anywhere close to proper pitch, but there was no option for moving the bridge and fixing the intonation. It turned out (RTFM, dude!) that it was supposed to be tuned up to A-D-G-C-E-a and not E-A-D-G-B-e. That fixed it right up, and it sounds fine.

It's a perfectly legit reason to buy another guitar, and set up the intonation for the alternate tuning.
Yeah, sure. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:40 am
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Yep, as others have already said, 'tis the nature of the beast. Strats are spring loaded...change the tension on 1 string and you change the tension on ALL of them. Consider how that goes when you change strings...if you start with the low E and bring each string up to tune 1 by 1, by the time you get to the high E, the low E and A are WAY out of tune again (and you should notice all except the high E are fairly incremental in how far they're out) ....that's why you usually have to do 5 or 6 passes (at least) when changing your strings. With that, here's a couple of suggestions...

For the Eb tuning vs standard tuning, I'd suggest to just pick one and stick with it. Some folks think Strats sound better in Eb, which is fine, however if you're always going back and forth, you're likely going to drive yourself nuts and the guitar will NEVER be setup correctly to boot. At this point in my life, I just stay in standard tuning...and if it's a matter of learning a new tune (say some Stevie Ray Vaughn riffs), I just re-tune the song itself (via wave or mp3) in Wavelab so that I can practice with it. For practice I find it MUCH easier to just re-tune the song to the key I practice or am playing in rather than constantly having to re-tune the guitar.

Now if you do a lot of alternate tuning, for the most part I'd simply suggest that you get yourself a second instrument that can be properly setup and dedicated to this. In -some- cases you can actually re-learn how to play a given tune in standard tuning (and/or use a capo in some cases), but depending on how picky you are or how often you have to re-tune, having a second (or even a third) guitar, even if it's a low end, inexpensive instrument, may simply be easier.

Hope this helps....good luck!


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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:58 pm
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I don't know if this is still available, but I've seen it working first hand, and it works extremely well.
Want E flat? Use standard tuning but barre across the first fret.
D? As above but across the second fret.


The alternative is to have other guitars set up for different tunings.
I have one Strat in standard E tuning, and one in E flat tuning.


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Post subject: Re: Tuning question
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:06 pm
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lomitus wrote:
Strats are spring loaded...change the tension on 1 string and you change the tension on ALL of them.
I wouldn't be surprised if the mathematical algorithm for the tuning process involves some sort of infinite series, such that each time you tune up one string, all the others detune by ever smaller increments, approaching but never quite reaching 0 Hz error.

We just tune to the resolution of the electronic tuner (or tuning fork, or ears) and call it good.

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