Sounds like this guy comes from the, it's better to look good than sound good school. More form over function. He'd be great in the fashion industry. Or politics.
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Seek a real guitar man.
When you can setup a Strato you hate it, a strato with the right setup is sweet and stay tuned all the show.
When you can setup a Strato you hate it, a strato with the right setup is sweet and stay tuned all the show.
I played in a promising band where the singer/guitarist had some tuning issues. I asked him to play his other guitar during rehearsal and found that it was also frequently out of tune. Long story short is that he couldn't PLAY in tune and couldn't HEAR that he was out of tune. Didn't think it was fixable so I left the band.
He gets almost all of his guitars from Ebay. Don't get me wrong I've bought plenty of basses from Ebay but I'll try to buy a quality instrument. He rehearses with a $100 guitar which is never in tune.
Guitar players are a dime a dozen : If he won't listen, find another band.
For better results, join a band without guitars.
For better results, join a band without guitars.
Not an absolute. My brother has an old Silvertone guitar I'm pretty sure is mostly particle board. We discovered this when we drilled it out to install an old set of tuners from some other brand with larger sting posts. It's cheesy to say the least, but it is one of the best sounding slide guitars I've ever heard. I've heard three different really good slide players take a whack at it and it makes it's own dirt.
In my years of playing, about half the guitarist ive played with have been like this. I dont get it. And I dont think there is a cure.
And I completely forgot to mention, the reason we drilled it out to replace the machine heads? It wouldn't stay in tune.
Sorry about the brain fart. Silly me.
It sounds like the guy doesn't know how to set up a guitar properly. Is he using a knock off Floyd Rose, not have it set up right and doesn't know how to play on it and is getting sour notes? Honestly even if he is a good friend, there is only so much a club is going to put up with if the crowd isn't digging it and I would hate to hear that you couldn't get gigs because of someone's screw ups. That would be unfair to the rest of your band mates. Especially when you practice to put on a good show and a member just craps on the music. Tell him to spend some money and get it properly set up or learn how to do it and buy the tools. I couldn't drop my guitars off to a Luthier and leave them for weeks since most great Luthier's have lots of work in their shops. So instead of not having the guitar for weeks and being good with my hands since I am a gunsmith and have built everything from custom take-down recurve bows to knives and fishing rods, I decided to learn how to properly set up and work on my own instruments. It really paid off because I can level the frets, do all kinds of fret work, install electronics and play even thrash metal on my guitars and they stay in tune pretty good. To me it's just like how I learned at a young age how to set up compound bows and work on them Incase anything got loose or broke during a 3D archery tournament. Most people end up quitting and having to take it to a shop and pay out the nose to have something fixed and then go back out to their club range the following weekend to range their sights back in. It just made sense to learn these things to keep you going. Just like your average performer, he should have a back up guitar all set up and ready to go Incase he does have a wire let go, a string breaks or he has a neck dive and snaps the headstock. If he can't do that then he should keep a tamborene handy and not get surprised when he gets stuck permanently playing it on stage while he is replaced by someone more reliable. If the guy wants to play guitars that have tweaked necks and not set up to par then he should do that in the comfort of his own home and not on the bands time. It's not like he is famous and made a name for himself where people would just get over it. Friends or no friend, if he wants to pull that crap during gigs then tell him to form his own band and see how that goes for him or do an opening act so he gets the drift from the crowd lol. Not to go on a rant here but it's pure laziness and crappy to keep doing that to the band. Hell, he could even buy a $299 special at GC and get a guitar that would stay in tune and be somewhat set up well enough to gig with.
Is the enter/return key on your internet device of choice broken?
Another possibility is the intonation is pooched. When tuned to play open chords it will be off on a bar chord fingered in the middle of the neck.
Yeah my bad about the run on lol. But someone was able to read it so that's good hahahahaha! I basically turned a simple text reply in to a long run on mini novel lmao. Just stinks what this guitarist is putting his band members through. Some people need that extra little bit of cash from playing gigs and it isn't fair to the rest of the band who practices to get it right, only to have it crapped on by someone who doesn't pull their own weight. The guy should stop buying cheap guitars with his money and spend the dough on getting one set up correctly.
I keep wondering about these posts complaining about band mates.
If you got an issue with something someone is doing the most obvious, sensible, grown up and mature thing to do would be to go talk with the person in question about it, you know the one the issue concerns, not everyone else.
Posting your problems on a public forum won't solve them!
Also you might not know this, but guitars are more prone to go out of tune than basses, no matter quality.
When that is said it could probably be minimized with some adjustments, and tuning out loud during a show is definitely a no go.
If you got an issue with something someone is doing the most obvious, sensible, grown up and mature thing to do would be to go talk with the person in question about it, you know the one the issue concerns, not everyone else.
Posting your problems on a public forum won't solve them!
Also you might not know this, but guitars are more prone to go out of tune than basses, no matter quality.
When that is said it could probably be minimized with some adjustments, and tuning out loud during a show is definitely a no go.
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A BL of mine has/has had like 6-7 acoustic and electric guitars, all in the 150-250$ range, all with tuning problems (it's obvious HE has tuning problems, too, because I have to call him about that every other song. I begged him many times to stop buying crap, save and get a decent axe whose connection jack doesn't end up dangling from the guitar front hole, to no avail. When he finally got a Martin... he doesn't bring it to rehearsals because "he still isn't used to it".
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ok the solution is locking tuners rounding the frets and fret board. if this does not work a better bridge. the evertune bridge will fix the problem. intonation is the key. but these things I mentioned are the answer to most of the problems. if you show us the guitars we can site the problems. does he get caught on the pickups?
Talk Bass is a public forum.
Who are you telling not to post here?
Why are you try to curtail others right to free speech?
Best thing for NN is not to read threads that bother him. Change the channel and move on.
Jack white plays crappy guitars but he know how to intonate them. your buddy can use beaters. but not beat hardwear. babicz bridges and sperzel tuners would be a great investment. plus sperzels come in many colors. so it's appeal to his visual sense of playing guitar. to get him to comply. I'd cut strings on each cheap guitar. after about 5 times he'll be open to a new Idea.
