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mndog75
New member
Can anyone tell me the difference in the 440 441 442 443 calibration. I dont understand the reason behind changing the tuning from standerd 440.
Armistice
Son of Yoda
440 is the frequency in hertz of an A note - from memory it's not the A string but an octave above - 441 is 1 Hz higher, etc. "Concert" pitch is regarded as 440, so most people tune their guitars to an A at 440, rather than 441, 442 etc. which are slightly higher.
No difference in the way you tune your guitar, if you set your tuner (if you can) 1Hz higher, it'll move all the other notes up 1 Hz as well. If you have to do it manually, then the exact Hz should be graded on the tuner itself, if you have one with a needle, that is. You just tune to the same mark on all strings.
The only reason you'd change is if everyone else is playing at a higher pitch. Never happened to me.
No difference in the way you tune your guitar, if you set your tuner (if you can) 1Hz higher, it'll move all the other notes up 1 Hz as well. If you have to do it manually, then the exact Hz should be graded on the tuner itself, if you have one with a needle, that is. You just tune to the same mark on all strings.
The only reason you'd change is if everyone else is playing at a higher pitch. Never happened to me.
Light
New member
A 440 is two octaves above the A string on the guitar. Am I the only person here who still tunes to a tuning fork, for crying out loud?
Some People claim to be able to hear the difference between A 440 and A 441, etc. Personally, I think they are full of shit. Kind of like the people who think they can hear the difference between wood bridge pins and fossilized ivory bridge pins. Full of shit.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Some People claim to be able to hear the difference between A 440 and A 441, etc. Personally, I think they are full of shit. Kind of like the people who think they can hear the difference between wood bridge pins and fossilized ivory bridge pins. Full of shit.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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faderbug
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Light said:
people who don't use tuning forks are soooooooo full of shit.
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faderbug
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Light said:
it's called absolute hearing and it's the reason people like jimi hendrix spent hours tuning their guitar by ear. because they DO hear the difference.
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Randomsk
New member
Its known that Mozart could detect the difference of an eighth of a tone! But i wouldn't know what that is in hurtz.. 
Light
New member
Randomsk said:Its known that Mozart could detect the difference of an eighth of a tone! But i wouldn't know what that is in hurtz..
So could you. That is pretty normal. There are 100 cents to the octave, so an eighth tone would be about 2.08 cents. But hearing them side by side is easy. Telling the difference without a reference is quite another. Hertz is a measurement of absolute frequency, so it would of course depend on the pitches involved.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Light
New member
faderbug said:
I was being a little bit facetious, but really, if you want your guitar to sound in tune, the only way is to tune it to a tuning fork, by ear. Even at its best, the intonation on a guitar is pretty sketchy. You have to compensate for the natural inaccuracies, and electronic tuners do not let you do so. I really think that all guitar players should know how to tune by ear. It is an extremely useful and educational skill to have. It helps to improve your ear, and that can never be a bad thing.
Now, my father has been known to say that a guitar builder who doesn't spray his own finishes is not really a guitar builder. He doesn't really believe it, and neither do I, but it makes a point. It is a skill that a guitar builder should have. I also would not go so far as to say that you are not a guitar player if you can't tune by ear, but you are certainly limiting your growth as a player. It is a skill you should have. Tuning with a pitch pipe is not much help, by the way, as the pitch changes depending on how hard you blow.
The real point to my comment being, if you use a tuning fork, you would know what A 440 sounded like, at least if you used an A tuning fork (as I do). I use it so much, in fact, that I can usually get the A string on my guitars to within a cent or two of being in tune without the tuning fork. I just know that note.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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faderbug
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i always tune my guitar to the instrument i'm playing together with flute, keyboard, piano, electronics. the occasional bagpipes.
Light
New member
faderbug said:
I pretty much always play solo or with other guitars, so for me it is a tuning fork. If I had to play with keys I would tune to that. Good God!!!!! A bagpipe!!! Which note do you tune to, the one that is in tune with a third of the notes, or the one that is out of tune with them all more or less equally?
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
c7sus
Disenfranchised Member
faderbug said:
Jimi Hendrix is a pretty poor example of someone that tuned their axe by ear. Most of his live recordings have some real tuning problems due to his use of the whammy bar.
My guess would be that any decent horn player has better pitch than any given guitar player.
Ellis Marsalis trained his kids about pitch by having them stand facing a corner of a room and blow a single note for hours at a time. The idea was to imprint that pitch into their minds.............
I don't know about differences between wood and fossilized ivory pins, but I know I can hear the difference between ivory nuts and saddles and micarta or plastic.
Hell, I can hear the difference between using a .95mm pick and a 1.14mm. Also between the material the pick is made from. Could I tell you which one was used on a given recording? Obviously not. But switching back and forth between picks I can hear the difference in tone. My bone picks sound different that the Tortex ones, which sound different that the graphite or Delrin picks. Maybe it's more a result of the finish on the edges of the picks than the material the pick is made from. But there's an audible difference nontheless.
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faderbug
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c7sus said:
read some of the interviews with billy cox.
btw most of his recordings having major tunings problems? what's wrong with ya???
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faderbug
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Light said:
LOL
well i usualy tune to the root of the guys pipes (he calls it somewhat misteriously a 'G' but it's close to a G#) and play progressions in D or do some slow e-bow work to complement the drone pipes.
c7sus
Disenfranchised Member
faderbug said:
Nothing wrong with me. I KNOW how to tune my instruments and do the stuff necessary to keep them in shape so they'll stay in tune.
And I gotta disagree about most of Jimi's recordings having tuning problems. Jimi did enough takes and overdubs to keep tuning problems to a minimum on his studio releases. His live stuff suffered due to his aggressive playing style and the fact that the original whammy design wasn't prone to staying in tune to begin with.
I use a 20-plus year-old Korg tuner for an A tone, and tune the guitar from there, referencing back to the A tone after bringing each string to pitch. Using Elixers I can get stable tuning pretty quickly with that method. Works fine on Guild Phosper 80/20's too.
Another trick is to not cut your string ends off until AFTER you get to pitch. It's never happened to me, but I've heard of cases where the inner core slipped a bit while being tensioned. if the core slips too far, and you've cut the string off at the top of the tuner, then the string can unravel and you're gonna need to replace it. Got that tip from Greg Mirken of ShadeTree Stringed Instruments in So CA.
I essentially use the method recommended by the Guild of American Luthiers, although I was using that method long before I ever read their take on it. It's the most reliable method I know of.
mixmkr
we don't need rest!!
c7sus said:
I won't even tell you I paid $30 for a set of Shelor finger picks... but I did. MAJOR difference. ...not to mention, they're pretty comfy too!
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New member
c7sus said:
Not an issue, at least not with any string I have ever used. I actually cut the strings to length before I tread them through the gear. I go one wrap above the end, and then one or two below. It locks the string in place, and seems to make the tuning a little more stable.
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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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New member
c7sus said:
Yup, and so can most people. But those are actually in contact with the active part of the string. And I hope you mean fossilized ivory or bone nuts and saddles, because using elephant ivory is very illegal (and they don't sound as good as bone). Micarta sucks, but it can actually help with undersaddle pickups. For that purpose, I prefer Corian, which seems just a little harder than micarta. All of my nuts and saddles are out of unbleached bone, with the unbleached part just being because it looks cool. Bleaching makes no difference in the sound. We will do fossilized ivory for people who want it, and we even have a small stash of (verifiably legal) elephant ivory, but we only use that on old guitars which would have had ivory when they were made, and we charge about $150 for a nut or saddle blank.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
c7sus
Disenfranchised Member
My ivory is legal. It was factory-installed on my D-45. I had the 35 done back in the early 80's, before they shut down the market.
Light
New member
c7sus said:
The import of Elephant ivory has been illegal since the early 1970s, but I would imagine Martin would have a legal supply (which means it was imported before the ban). I still think bone sounds better.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
c7sus
Disenfranchised Member
From what I understand, Martin's supply was confiscated and burned by the feds sometime in the late 80's. I don't think you can get elephant ivory from them anymore.
I guess that's why folks have switched over to fossil...........
I guess that's why folks have switched over to fossil...........