Ways to keep your guitar in tune while playing on stage....

R

Red Dog Studios

Member
hey guys,

i've got to where i noticed that after every 1 or 2 songs, my guitar will need to be tuned again, like it's not really really bad, but enouf to where it anoys me. I do tune up many times before show and i have a pedal tuner on stage that will mute the channel and let me tune quickly if i need to, but i was just wondering what is the cause of this? I have hurd that playin your guitar hard or jumpin around will tend to do it too, but i do really do alot of jumpin or whatever, but i do tend to move around alot. what do some of you guys do for this problem? thanks alot
 
what kind of guitar are you playing?? is it more lead or more rhythm?? does it have a whammy bar, what guage of strings are you using

I stretch my strings in by hand so all of the slack (potential out of tuneness) is gone up to a point
 
playing hard, bending strings, bending the neck on a set neck (from flailing or making feedback change frequency, etc), humidity, and temperature can all be a factor. when you put new strings on do you take the time to stretch the strings out? i used to always have tuning problems but i put new strings on the other day and stretched them for about 5 minutes and played a show that night and i stayed in tune the entire time.
 
humidity & temperature are a fact of gigging life. The stretching has a lot to do with the tuning & also the presence of a whammy bar could be causing all sorts of problems if not properly set up
 
It could also be the way you put your strings around the string post. Conventional wisdom is generally to put it through and then bring the excess bit round the opposite way to it's turning direction and pull it up so that the next wind locks it in and then just one turn approximately should be enough. If you have a lot of winds there is more on the post to give under tension.
I'm sure there will be info with pictures on the web somewhere.
 
Clive Hugh said:
It could also be the way you put your strings around the string post. Conventional wisdom is generally to put it through and then bring the excess bit round the opposite way to it's turning direction and pull it up so that the next wind locks it in and then just one turn approximately should be enough. If you have a lot of winds there is more on the post to give under tension.
I'm sure there will be info with pictures on the web somewhere.
Click to expand...
Spot on. But it really comes down to the guitar itself. Some guitars just refuse to stay in tune. I have a 72 Tele that I can tune before a gig, play to nights in a row and use it to swing my way out of a bar fight with and it's still in tune. But my 63 Gibson Meldy Maker won't stay tuned for more than two tunes.
 
Hmmm

I know this may sound unhelpful but it is not meant that way

You should always check your tuning between songs anyway. A digital tuner is a part of my setup and it is normal to check all the time.

Different players need to tune at different intervals because of how we all play differently but a quick check between songs is to my mind essential.
 
I think the problem is a cheap guitar or a guitar that is not setup properly. Get usa gibson guitar and you will not have problems if it is setup correctly. It is worth 80 bucks to have someone setup a guitar when you first get one. There are people out there that know that stuff in and out, just find them. I see lot of folks use grover tuners rather than the stock tuners on even high end guitars. I personally don' t see the need for them unless it was a low buget guitar.
 
We try to (consciously or not) alternate who is tuning when, so that, for instance, I'm tuning during the intro to a song that I don't play. For my band, that works out well, because we tend to have sorta long intros involving only one or 2 intruments.

I think the temperature is a huge factor. I always try to get my guitar out of the case and on or near the stage as soon as possible before playing, to let it acclimate. For me, anyway, I typically have my guitar (I almost called it an "axe" *shudder*) in my car for too long before a show, and depending on the season, it could mean a 70 or 80 Degree difference compared to being under the hot stage lights.

Alos, I think tuning is somewhat of a nervous habit, and a lot of people will check their tuning even when the axe - heh heh - sounds fine. gotta learn to trust your ears.
 
Well i know this my make me sound like a idiot but can someone explain to me what stretching strings is and how to do it? im sure i already know, but im just not used to it being called that. and yeah i do try to check my tuning after each song or in intros, but right now we are a 3 player band so there isn't to many times when i'm not playing. And theres no wammy bar on it, and sometimes i think it is in tune, i'm just hearing things because im scared that it is out ya know?
 
You know that footage of Jimi Hendrix playing Hey Joe on the Lou Lou Show (I think that was the name of the show). His low e string goes way out of tune...way flat. Jimi goes "Whoooaaa" just before he tunes it on the fly, in time with the song, then slides up and into another superb throwaway lick that leads him back into the words.

Fuck he could play...and keep things pretty well tuned while playing on stage when he really tried!
 
Good to know. I never really paid much attention to string winding techniques...but it makes good sense to have some kind of method to prevent slippage.
 
I find that I play more aggressively when live/on stage. I'm also aware that my grip gets to be quite a bit more firm. I find this very much affect intonation.
 
Red Dog Studios said:
Well i know this my make me sound like a idiot but can someone explain to me what stretching strings is and how to do it? im sure i already know, but im just not used to it being called that. and yeah i do try to check my tuning after each song or in intros, but right now we are a 3 player band so there isn't to many times when i'm not playing. And theres no wammy bar on it, and sometimes i think it is in tune, i'm just hearing things because im scared that it is out ya know?
Click to expand...


After putting on a new set of strings and having them right around tuning tension....I like to fret the 1st or 2nd fret, then grab hold and stretch left right and up down a good amount. Then go to about the 7th or 9th fret and do the same....followed by the somewhere up past 12 in the 15-17 area for one last yank. Then repeat on the other strings. I normmaly change strings in a whole set rather than as they break, and then do them one at a time so I do it when I put the individual string on rather than wait until they are all on.
 
That's pretty much what I do...I try to get an even stretch not just at one spot. I'll hook my pointer and pinky (fingers spread wide) under the string and lift away from the fret board...a slight bouncing action. I'll do this over the pups and then again up the neck at about the 9th fret. Retune and repeat usually twice or three times will do it. Then spank it hard and loud :D that's my favorite part.
 
HUMIDITY!!!!!! well and temp... down in the stinking depts of the mucky florida sun, I've gone in to a crappy dive bar with a perfectly tuned guitar and not been able to keep it in tune through and entire song. I'm fully convinced it has to be kept between 69 and 76 degrees... Sort of like a good bottle of wine. Anything over or above will cause the neck to start to bend as well as the rod.

Matter of fact when I used to live in Yankee land, I had a guitar totally get smoked because the neck bent and was basically warped.... I kept it in the basement of the Wisconsin tundra. Down in the swamps it seems to keep everything loose, I'm always flat.....


I've gotten in the habit if it's a bit cold to hold the thing and take it out and love on it for a bit before I get to tunning...... If it's hot and humid I take it out and tune it once, leave it alone out and about, tune it again, leave it, tune it again, leave it, tune it once more, and usually by then all strings stay stagnant......

thats a Gibson SG by the way, standard....
 
My biggest tuning issues occur when I am on stage. I've found that I play more aggresively and with a heavier hand. We play one club regularly, that has a huge exhaust fan behind me. The fan is on during breaks to draw smoke out and the temperature plummets into the 60's. Then we go up to play, the fan turns off, the lights come up, the amps start working and the temp skyrockets into the 90's. End result?...Guitars that won't stay in tune until about 35 minutes into the set. about 20 minutes before the lights go down, the fan turns on and....Ahhh the woes of playing live! :D
 
yeah i know what u mean now. i've had that happen a few times. i guess i'll just tune the basterd as many times as i can and hope for the best. tomorow is the big day by the way. wish me luck guys
 
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