Good tuner for Intonation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sky Blue Lou
  • Start date Start date
Bubba po said:
You sound very much like me, there Lou. If I imagine a note in my head from a recording which I know to be A440 - for instance the bass intro to Psycho Killer - and tune to that, then I'm usually within a quarter tone of the correct pitch. If a guitar's in tune with itself, though, it could be over a semitone out and I wouldn't notice! But my son, who's twelve, can and does notice. Bizarre.
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There is a distinction between perfect pitch and absolute pitch. Perfect pitch is the ability to accurately and consistently identify or sing intervals given any start note. Absolute pitch is the ability to correctly identify a specific frequency, a 440hz for example. Very few people have absolute pitch, quite a few have perfect pitch.
 
Something I've been thinking about along the lines of this thread. Given the compromises in tuning I'm thinking that truly gifted guitarists probably make subtle adjustments with their fingers to bring the guitar into correct tune regardless of where they are on the fretboard as they play. I'll bet half of them don't even know they are doing it.

It reminds me of a story about racing driver Rick Mears and how far beyond his competitors he was at Indianapolis. Back before radial racing tires you would adjust a cars handling by using different tire pressure on the inside and outside wheels to make the outside wheels taller - larger diameter. This "stagger" was used to compensate for the further distance the outside wheels have to travel on an oval course. Mears would adjust the stagger mid-run by turning in sharper on a few corners to get the outside tires hotter, thereby raising the air pressure and increasing the diameter of the tires. Conversely he would ease into corners to reduce the stagger. We are talking tiny increments on rubber tires at 200+ mph. When he explained this technique in an interview and it was shown to other drivers their jaws hit the deck with an audible thump.

Some people are just beyond normal.


lou
 
Rick Mears!!!! :cool:

Absolutely my favorite Indy driver of all time!
Mears and Penske kicked ass in the 80s!!!

AFA adjusting while you play...I think a lot of players do that (not just gifted ones).
The infamous G-string :rolleyes: ...you almost HAVE TO do that with it, especially when transitioning from chords to leads.
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
Something I've been thinking about along the lines of this thread. Given the compromises in tuning I'm thinking that truly gifted guitarists probably make subtle adjustments with their fingers to bring the guitar into correct tune regardless of where they are on the fretboard as they play. I'll bet half of them don't even know they are doing it.



lou
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It's pretty much essential if you play on the wide Jumbo frets. Set up can help there as well.
 
Hey Muttley, I'm thinking about getting one of those Peterson Strobe tuners so I can do my own intonation. What's your feeling on them?
 
Hi Lou, I havent read the thread so someone may have mentioned this.

I simply either run a mic either on my cab for my electric, or to my acoustic and then into my daw and use a free plugin called C Tuner. It does the job.

I always tweak the intonation by ear once I have it close by the tuner.

I suppose any tuner would work, I just have never owned one, I only have a tuning fork.

Something I have purchased but not yet put on my electric is a Earvana compensated nut. This is supposed to correct [or help correct] some intonation problems with electrics.
 
xtp said:
Hi Lou...
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Hi yerself. Thanks for the input.

xtp said:
Something I have purchased but not yet put on my electric is a Earvana compensated nut. This is supposed to correct [or help correct] some intonation problems with electrics.
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Uh oh.


lou
 
xtp said:
Something I have purchased but not yet put on my electric is a Earvana compensated nut. This is supposed to correct [or help correct] some intonation problems with electrics.
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Can of worms/snake oil alert.
 
It's a "Don't mention Earvana again unless you want a ration of shit" uh oh. The experts in these parts consider those a snake oil scam.


lou
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
It's a "Don't mention Earvana again unless you want a ration of shit" uh oh. The experts in these parts consider those a snake oil scam.


lou
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Really. In what way. I have an new neck to go on my guitar which will happen when I find time to drive up and see my Luthier, but I had read about those nuts and purchased one at the same time I got the neck last year.

I did wonder how it would go with the flat wound electrics I use, but that was my only real concern. Is there something I should know about the nut because I dont want to waste my time having to put it on and then take it off again as my Luthier lives about 1.5 hrs drive away.
 
When we last talked about the Earvana (not too long ago)...while I didn't think it was anything special, it's not 100% snake-oil either...maybe 80%. ;)
The fault I found with the Earvana concept is that it mainly corrected the tuning in the first 5 frets (which the inventor confirmed when I spoke with him about it), and it's aimed at the open chord range...but it did NOTHING for the rest of the frets, and maybe even put them somewhat further out at the benefit of the first 5.
I mean...if you are an open-chord strummer who mainly plays in the first 5 frets...it may work for you...but if you play the whole neck, and primarily play fretted notes and chords up/down the entire neck...it's probably not going to help you at all, and may make it worse.
I rarely play open chords/strings....so Earvana for me was 100% snake-oil. :D
 
Just play the fucking thing. Jimi Hendrix never even heard of Earvana. it's the music you make that's important, not what gear you use.
 
miroslav said:
When we last talked about the Earvana (not too long ago)...while I didn't think it was anything special, it's not 100% snake-oil either...maybe 80%. ;)
The fault I found with the Earvana concept is that it mainly corrected the tuning in the first 5 frets (which the inventor confirmed when I spoke with him about it), and it's aimed at the open chord range...but it did NOTHING for the rest of the frets, and maybe even put them somewhat further out at the benefit of the first 5.
I mean...if you are an open-chord strummer who mainly plays in the first 5 frets...it may work for you...but if you play the whole neck, and primarily play fretted notes and chords up/down the entire neck...it's probably not going to help you at all, and may make it worse.
I rarely play open chords/strings....so Earvana for me was 100% snake-oil. :D
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Maybe I have misunderstood its application. I had assumed it would give a bigger intonation tweaking window. More so for played intervals up and down the neck. At the moment I have the 'b' string set marginally flat at the 12 fret which helps 0 -12 fret playing, and I lean on the string slightly when playing intervals above the 12.
 
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