So, NAMM is upon us and the buzz word is “polyphonic tuning”. That’s great tech but just how much will this help us get our guitars in tune properly? It will certainly speed up tuning up floating bridges and I’m seriously interested for that alone! But there’s so much more going on with the guitar neck that in my opinion an electronic tuner is simply one step of the tuning process.

And it’s tuning that is one of the areas where I think a lot of guitar players fall flat. See what I did there?! Love it. smile

In many experiences tuning can be the difference between an amateur and professional. I’ve seen some amazing players play well, out of tune, and some good players play well but sound awful, even very slightly out of tune. So what’s the deal with that? Where’s it going wrong? Watch a great like an Eric Johnson, Joe Satch, anyone… they won’t play a note until the axe is smack on in tune! And there’s a good reason why… learning and developing is so much better when you’ve nailed your tuning.

With tuning I have OCD. I can’t help it. It really pains me that in some places on a guitar neck you can be anything up to a half tone out of tune depending on strings, setup, fret wear etc. And I’m not gonna go order one of those properly tempered fret jobs!

The first tuning lesson to learn is very simple but rather disappointing; with a standard neck and fret job you are not going to get a perfectly tuned guitar all over the neck. So it’s a situation where you are going to need to compromise. Learning how to compromise the tuning is a skill that pros seem to nail down very quickly whilst others ignore it and move on to alternate picking exercises, neglecting the fact that it sounds terrible.

Here’s my recommended way to a fully “tuned” guitar:

Step 1 – Electronic Tuner

i) Tune each open string electronically to pitch. We’re talking green lights and perfect for those 6 notes only. No fretting.

ii) Check and set intonation. I can write up more detail on this if enough peeps ask. In my opinion, doing your own intonation is something you really should be able to do yourself whilst tuning. String height and relief too. All of these things work together to affect your tuning so it’s really in your best interest to learn how to set these things yourself. It’s not a difficult thing, you just need to be shown what’s right and what’s wrong.

iii) Once the intonation is set to best position tune the open strings again but use 12th fret harmonics. You should be tuning all the way through the intonation setup as very slight adjustments affects the entire guitar tuning. Basically leave this stage with the open strings green lit again to move on to step 2.

Step 2 – Tuning 1 5th Fret Position

i) This is generally the first way we learn to tune; 5th fret 6th string, open 5th string… match them. 5th fret 5th string, open string 4th string etc. (The sequence should be 5th, 5th, 5th, 4th 5th). If you have both notes sounding simultaneously you’ll hear a cycling to the dissonance between the notes.

Hint:

For floating bridges, trem systems and so on, you’ll want to tune out to in, then in to out… rather than all the way up and down. You’ll drive yourself nuts going up and down in sequence as the tension across the bridge needs to be balanced to tune effectively.

So, tune up the middle two strings, then go top and bottom, back to the middle, back to the outers and work you’re way in. And so on. As you get to know a guitar better you’ll get a good feel for how the tension affects the tuning.

Step 3 – 12th Harmonic, 7th Fret

i) Check 12th harmonics with 7th fret notes. This changes for the G, 12th fret harmonic, 3rd string, to 8th fret 2nd string. This is in my opinion the most effective tuning method as it affects the biggest note span and the most commonly used fret areas.

Step 4 – 5th to 7th fret harmonics

i) Check the 5th fret harmonic with the 7th fret harmonic on the next string. This doesn’t work for the 3rd and 2nd string combination so revert to one of the other methods for that. I highly recommend step 3. Again, you’ll hear a dissonant cycling. This is a fine tuning method and it’s up to you to balance step 4 with step 3. Providing your intonation is pretty good, your frets are pretty good and you have a neck with a sensible string length (some guitars don’t) you should find that this is pretty accurate.

Step 5 – Balance

i) I always like to check through the different tuning methods shown here once more. It’s a balancing act, a compromise. If you are going to play a lot of chords around the 7th fret you know where you want your notes in tune right?!

Hint:

The area I find most troublesome is always that 2nd string. If you fret a lot of major intervals on the 3rd & 2nd strings you are really going to notice how sharp it is if you’ve set the 2nd string smack on with either the open string or 12th fret harmonic. A lot of peeps prefer to flatten this string slightly so that when it’s fretted it sounds in tune. This is the killer “you’re tuning wrecked a recording session” problem. Step 3 will resolve that but it’s important to note that step 3 only works optimally with effective use of the other steps.

This will mean that if you then solo up high on the neck you will likely be a little bit flat, maybe even up to a quarter tone, depending on how many frets you have, string length etc. However, it’s up to you to bend on the fly and adjust when necessary.

There we go, simple but painful. If peeps are interested I can run a few more of these, intonation, string height, relief etc. so you can all have amazing playing axes!

Tuning is such a simple but important first step, make it your first step at the beginning of every session!!

Have fun folks!
Paul.