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This is really cool. If your main focus is to teach people how to tune a guitar, you should consider mentioning that you always want to tune a sharp guitar str

• mathisonian 8y ago
  Thanks! That is a great tip about tuning a string slightly flat first.
• cpursley 8y ago
  I agree, and it's such a cheap upgrade that I'm surprised they're not standard on all guitars. For a really decent set of el-chepo locking tuners, I highly recommend these: https://www.guitarfetish.com/Gotoh-Style-Chrome-Locking-Tuners-Six-In-Line-True-Mechanical-Lock_p_392.html https://www.guitarfetish.com/Gotoh-Style-Chrome-Locking-Tune...
  • wilsonnb 8y ago
    I wish they would, it's the first thing I do to new guitars along with installing strap locks and a slightly thicker set of strings. I usually use the Fender branded ones because I'm usually putting them in Fender guitars. I've heard good things about Gotoh, Schaller, Planet Waves, Hipshot, and Grover. I'm pretty sure the Fenders are actually just rebrands of one of those manufacturers. edit: For anyone curious, it seems that Fender American Deluxe's used to come with them and the new American Elite series that replaced the Deluxe's still come with them. I guess they want to keep it as a differentiating feature for their most expensive "modern" guitars. None of their reissue vintage styled guitars come with them, I suppose for authenticity. You can even buy a $12,000 private stock PRS and it won't come with locking tuners. edit 2: I've now noticed that the tuners you link to are "Gotoh style" tuners and not actually made by Gotoh. I don't think I would use any tuners made by a name brand I'm not familiar with, locking or not, because they tend to be noticeably lower quality than the bigger brands. There are exceptions, of course.
  • SwellJoe 8y ago
    Cheap locking tuners are inferior to quality non-locking tuners. I would pick a good set of non-locking over cheap locking tuners any day, unless I absolutely needed to do dive bomb tremolo swings. Also, you can usually solve tuning problems by replacing the bridge and nut with something hard and smooth like Graphtech TUSQ (they call them "self-lubricating", whatever that means). That's not to say locking tuners are bad, it's just that I don't have problems with tuning on any of my guitars that have decent nuts and decent tuners. I even used to play my Schecter (old 1990 California model Super Strat) without the Floyd Rose nut locks in place because I wanted to be able to switch back and forth between alternate tunings without the hex wrench. No problems with tuning, at all.
    • wilsonnb 8y ago
      A self lubricating nut has a lower friction than other nut materials (usually plastic or bone). It'd be more accurate to call it a no-lubrication-needed nut but I guess that doesn't roll off the tongue as easily. It's my experience that locking tuners do help with tuning stability but I've also seen plenty of guitars stable enough without them. Even if they don't help a guitar with tuning stability, they definitely speed up the string changing process which is worth it for me. edit: I've just noticed that the link in the parent comment is for "gotoh style" tuners, not tuners made by Gotoh, and I have to say I agree with you about the low quality of cheap tuners. That said, a good set of locking tuners should only cost you $50-$70. Not a bad price.
      • SwellJoe 8y ago
        Yeah, the way Gotoh locking tuners work on string changes is great. And, Gotoh parts are top notch. Their high end bridges are beautiful chunky things (I have a G&L bass and guitar because I love a big ol' chunky bridge). So, sure, it's nice to have more convenient string changes. But, I don't want cheap tuners, no matter what. It's one of the big things that tells me immediately whether the guitar I'm playing is cheap or expensive. I used to think Klusons looked cheap and old, when I was a kid, but I have grown fond of them after so long playing. It's what's on both of my really expensive guitars (came from the factory that way), and I've never felt the need to change them because they've worked great for decades. That said, if you've got a cheap-ish guitar and want to improve it, tuners, nut, and bridge are where I'd start (after getting a proper setup, and getting the frets in shape, of course). Also, while I'm ranting about the onion on my belt...bone is a poor choice for nut/bridge material. It has wildly inconsistent density and hardness, and just plain isn't as good as modern materials (and we can note that many of the very best and most expensive guitars today, like PRS, do not use bone).
• magicbuzz 8y ago
  If the string is sharp, sometimes you can just pull on it and the strings tuning will become flatter, sometimes exactly what you want.
  • wilsonnb 8y ago
    This is true. I usually stretch my strings after putting new ones on to try to minimize the effect of stretching, though. Helps stay in tune when you bend a lot. Remove old strings, put new strings on, tune new strings up to pitch, stretch them by pulling them a few inches off the fretboard and moving them side to side like you're doing a bend, marvel at how flat your just-tuned strings now are, and then retune to pitch. For maximum tuning stability, I also put locking tuners on my guitars and lubricate all of the parts where the string touches. This includes the nut, the saddle, and any string trees. I use a humorous product called Big Bends Nut Sauce but I've heard graphite from a pencil works as well. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Bends-Nutsauce-Guitar-Lubricant/dp/B0002GZV9M https://www.amazon.com/Big-Bends-Nutsauce-Guitar-Lubricant/d...
    • wyclif 8y ago
      Vaseline applied to the nut grooves in very, very small amounts with a toothpick also works well.
• gaustin 8y ago
  I prefer safety post tuners. You can get accurate ones for cheap and string changes are super fast and easy. Usually enough winding to make for stable tuning. I’ve found slightly over-tightening most locking tuners will break the string. Not a frequent occurrence for me, but frequent enough to bug me. Usually happens when I’m in a rush.
  • wilsonnb 8y ago
    That's cool, I didnt know they made this style tuner for guitars. They're pretty standard on basses and I've always preferred them to standard guitar tuners.
• dbkaplun 8y ago
  > Any slack present in the string winding can cause the string to go out of tune easily if you loosen the string to the correct tension. You can get around that by using harmonics. Because you play harmonics without pushing all the way down, you can achieve a more precise tune. The strongest harmonic is achieved when you gently place your finger on the string directly over the metal fret. A harmonic can only be achieved when you do not press the string all the way down into the fret. The harmonic on the 7th fret of one string is the same note as the harmonic on the 5th fret on the next higher string. This is true for all consecutive string pairs other than (G, B). You can tune using these pairs of harmonics to tune more precisely than pressing all the way down. You will need to tune the (G, B) pair without harmonics.
  • mynameishere 8y ago
    Tune the B string with the harmonic over the 7th fret of the low E string.
  • ehnto 8y ago
    You're correct but I think you are addressing a different problem. He was mentioning the issue specifically about differences in tension from turning the peg clockwise versus counter clockwise. If you tune downard tonaly, so from an F# and you want an F, the string will more easily fall out of tune. I am not sure what causes this, some interplay between the friction of the peg and the final resting position of the string on the nut being different depending on the direction maybe. By tuning down perhaps you end up relying on some of the friction from the nut which goes away quickly as the string settles to an equal tension on either side of the nut. I have noticed it's not as much of an issue on carbon nuts or well made nylon/bone nuts.
  • kc3 8y ago
    While the 7th fret harmonic / 5th fret harmonic will get you close, they are off by a little bit. Good explanation here: http://www.schrof.net/guitar/articles/harmonics.html http://www.schrof.net/guitar/articles/harmonics.html
  • optimuspaul 8y ago
    I have never been able to consistently tune a guitar using harmonics. It was always a fun trick when I was first learning to play, but it was never quite right and now that I'm older it is far more difficult to hear subtle differences between harmonics.
• dizzystar 8y ago
  I believed this for the longest time, and honestly, I never ran into this problem once I had a guitar with decent tuners and started buying very good strings. Grover tuners for the win though. I never used locking tuners, so no opinion on them. I'm good enough changing strings that one turn of the tuning peg is all I need.
  • hoosieree 8y ago
    The "tune slightly flat" technique gets people 90% of the way there, which is usually enough. The remaining 10% is really subtle, like most subjects. This is like "the earth is a sphere", which is mostly right but if you want to be less wrong you have to dive deep. So... The instant after a string is plucked, it begins to lose energy. The loss of energy shows up in amplitude (obvious, because the note gradually gets quieter), but also frequency. This is less noticeable, but for heavy strings with low tension (think down-tuned sludge metal) it can be pronounced. The reason for this is that a vibrating string is constantly bending back and forth. Tension pulls it toward its lowest-energy position in the center. A familiar demonstration of tension is bending a fretted note to increase its pitch. But the same thing happens to a lesser degree whenever the string vibrates. Displace the string left or right and its tension increases. Strings you consider "better" might exhibit less of this effect. But that depends on both your playing style (how hard do you strike the strings?) and your idea of what a better string is. "It depends on technique, tension, and string mass" gets you to 95%. For conventional electric guitars with magnetic pickups, there's an additional force slowing down the string: the magnets in the pickup. These are weird. For one thing, unlike tension, it's not distributed throughout the length of the string, but focused at 1 or a few (for multiple pickups or humbuckers) points. If you imagine the vibrating string as a weight-on-a-string-pendulum, then the effect of the magnetic pickup is like a small mass attached partway up the string. It interferes with the pure sinusoidal motion and gives it a little wobble. On most guitars, the effect is not noticeable. But some pickups have very strong magnets, or some guitars put them very close to the strings. Then it can be noticed, and guitarists call the effect "wolf tones" and generally they don't like it. This gets you to 98%. My point is there's a lot going on. And while a certain brand of strings and/or tuners may work for you, someone else may have an entirely different experience. I get kind of frustrated with the whole guitar "gear" marketing being heavy on hype and light on data, so sorry if I come across as lecturing. My frustration isn't with you, but the context.
• elektronaut 8y ago
  Very good point. In my experience, it's still worth doing even with good locking tuners. Slack around the post is only part of the equation, the string can also bind at the nut. Especially on guitars without straight string pull. You can also achieve the same stability with regular tuners. You don't need more than a wrap or two around the post if you lock the string under itself.
• JoshMnem 8y ago
  An additional tip: tune all the strings to the A string, not to each other. If you tune the B to the high E and then the G to the B, and so on, then each small mistake throws the rest of the strings off by increasing amounts. It's good to be aware of this if tuning by harmonics: http://www.schrof.net/guitar/articles/harmonics.html http://www.schrof.net/guitar/articles/harmonics.html