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Buy a friggen tuner!

need4mospd

need4mospd

Dec 22, 2005
1,534
9
44
Houston
#1
A band we've been playing with refuses to get a tuner. First off, they spend the first few minutes figuring out who to tune off of, strumming loud notes over and over again until it sounds right. Then they "tune" their own instruments by themselves. After they started playing, we had to tell them they were out of tune. It took them 3 songs on Saturday to finally get "in tune". And even then, it was still off by enough to make my ears hurt.

It's not too big of a deal where we are playing, because people usually just laugh it off. But they are gonna go nowhere in a hurry if at least one of them doesn't get a tuner. I'm afraid if I handed them a tuner before a show they would sound terrible because all the songs would sound like they were in a different key. So should I just tell them?

If the bass player of the band I'm referring to happens to read this, I hope you take what I say as honest feedback. Just a simple $20 tuner would make you guys sound 100X better.
 
#2
isn't technology wonderfull...

20 years ago tuners were new fangled technology - now anyone who tunes up by ear is a jerk! I guess that makes any musician who played before the mid 80's a jerk... (I don't mean that meed4mospd is actually saying this, but is a sentiment that i've read on these boards)

I only started using a tuner recently, as there's one on my rack effects unit, so it's no hassle to use it. I don't take it to rehersals - I don't even take it to all my gigs. Never had a problem playing in tune...

There's nothing wrong with tuning by USING YOUR EARS! Tuning isn't hard - we've been tuning by ear for 100's of years. If you can't tune by ear you're probably going to sound awefull anyway.

Perhaps they'd be better of learning to listen? Throwing technology at it doesn't help. Tuners are a handy gaget, but unless they can tune quickly by ear they're gonna take hours (and snap a lot of strings!) using the tuner.

Ian
 
#4
IanStephenson said:
There's nothing wrong with tuning by USING YOUR EARS! Tuning isn't hard - we've been tuning by ear for 100's of years. If you can't tune by ear you're probably going to sound awefull anyway.

Perhaps they'd be better of learning to listen? Throwing technology at it doesn't help. Tuners are a handy gaget, but unless they can tune quickly by ear they're gonna take hours (and snap a lot of strings!) using the tuner.

Ian
Click to expand...
I can tune by ear. I've been doing that since 1969. But I use a tuner on gigs. Long ago I gave up trying to tune while the PA was being tested and the drummer is playing something, and the guitar player is doing something else. To much noise and distraction. I plug it in and 10 seconds later I'm ready to go.

Technology isn't all that bad. 60 years ago bass players didn't use an amp.
 
#10
IanStephenson said:
isn't technology wonderfull...

20 years ago tuners were new fangled technology - now anyone who tunes up by ear is a jerk! I guess that makes any musician who played before the mid 80's a jerk... (I don't mean that meed4mospd is actually saying this, but is a sentiment that i've read on these boards)

I only started using a tuner recently, as there's one on my rack effects unit, so it's no hassle to use it. I don't take it to rehersals - I don't even take it to all my gigs. Never had a problem playing in tune...

There's nothing wrong with tuning by USING YOUR EARS! Tuning isn't hard - we've been tuning by ear for 100's of years. If you can't tune by ear you're probably going to sound awefull anyway.

Perhaps they'd be better of learning to listen? Throwing technology at it doesn't help. Tuners are a handy gaget, but unless they can tune quickly by ear they're gonna take hours (and snap a lot of strings!) using the tuner.

Ian
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Why use something that is simple, accurate, and effective, when you can do a horrible job instead? After all, you did it by ear! Won't mommy and daddy be proud that you played a whole step away from the right note the entire song, because you did it by ear?

By the way, I hope you only play double bass. I hear those new fangled "electric" basses are technology, too.

Maybe you left your sense in the 80's, too? He said they sounded awful. It doesn't matter how they do it.

A tuner is so cheap and easy to use that there is no excuse for ever being out of tune.

Developing your ear takes time. I can tell when I'm out of tune, but trying to get it perfect isn't a possibility for me at the moment. And I'm not going to settle for playing out of tune.

And if you've ever snapped a string by using a tuner, you just need to go hide under a rock. I'm sorry.
 
#11
Spencer! said:
Even if you can tune all the strings relative to each other, you still need a reference pitch to tune from.
Click to expand...


Ya beat me to it!!

Even if they did have a tuner. Someone needs to teach them about being in tune with each other.

I use a tuner- A LOT!
I'm almost manic about it (ODC maybe?!?Invalid Link Removed )
In between songs, if I have a chance, I hit the pedal and plunk through the stings.
But, I know how to tune with a tunning fork. And then tune from there. The pedal tuner is just for silent tuning on the gig, at rehersal and the like.
Nothing like pissing off the band leader/MD on a gig by tuning loudly!!
 
#15
Maybe you should just loan them a cheap tuner for one show, and tell them "Look, just use this one time. If you don't think you sound better, I'll never bug you about it again." I'm sure that will make them come around. They should instantly realize how much better they sound as a band after tuning properly. If they don't, then they're basically hopeless, and why would you want to play with them anyway?

I mean, you can get a basic electronic tuner with an input jack for even less than 20 bucks at some stores around here. I think the last tuner I bought was $15 on sale, a nice Korg tuner with mic input and instrument jack input.
 
#16
invader3k said:
Maybe you should just loan them a cheap tuner for one show, and tell them "Look, just use this one time. If you don't think you sound better, I'll never bug you about it again." I'm sure that will make them come around. They should instantly realize how much better they sound as a band after tuning properly. If they don't, then they're basically hopeless, and why would you want to play with them anyway?
Click to expand...

Actually I was think about this.
DO NOT buy them a tuner. Don't loan them a tuner. Don't even bring up tuning-either about guitars or cars. Leave it alone from now on.

That way, when you play with them again, they'll be all bad sounding and stuff, and you guys will sound that much better!!!!
 
#17
Munjibunga said:
If you play a stringed instrument, you can't be in my band without an electronic tuner. Audiences hate listening to tuning, and nothing says "WE SUCK" louder than playing out of tune. Email a link to this thread to your buddies. Once they see I have almost 12,000 posts, they'll come around.
Click to expand...

I will add to that by saying that nothing says WE SUCK louder than tuning out loud on stage... during the show. I hate that.
 
#18
In addition to the tuner, tuning, etc....

Get you instruments properly intonated!
Even if the open srings are in tune, stuff on the upper frets can be out of tune if the intonation isn't properly set.
Drives me crazy to hear stuff out of tune. Listening to an octave pattern, barre chord, etc on the upper frets that's out of tune just sounds rancid.

Since I'm on a tuning rant, I also find certain distortion tones that create additional harmonic overtones to be annoying as well. A guy tries to play a major chord saturated with distortion and you can hear a bunch of other out of tune overtones.

See, there's many ways to be out of tune.
 

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