James Taylor does the exact same thing. He also has a TH-cam video out showing how he does it. I wish I knew this back in the day when I was playing guitar. The regular tuning never sounded exactly right.
very cool! thanks for pointing this out, I didn't know exactlly who all uses this method but knew a lot of big boys did. and thanks for checking out my videos!
Ive been playing for about 15 years and ive always thought something never sounded quite right. Ive tried different strings, different gauges, ive screwed up a few necks thinking the truss rod needed tweaking. Thought it was cheap guitars even if they werent that cheap. I just finally sprung for a martin instantly sounds better but when i tune it like this its the sound ive always tried to get but never quiet could. Thank you sir.
I would suggest starting from the low e as the lower strings put more tension on the neck than the higher strings, if you adjust them last they are more likely to put the higher strings out of tune.
Hey Randy, got a guitar around half way through Covid and have watched numerous of your vids trying to learn this sweet science, thanks for being you buddy! Cheers from Canada! 🇨🇦🥸
For yrs I've thought my ears were out of whack but you just taught me that I was hearing correct.. 🤓 After I'd tune I'd strum a chord and adjust by ear because I could literally hear it out of tune even though it was tuned perfectly to the tuner.. Strange that tuner makers don't adjust for this... Thank for this video 👊💥🙂
So glad I stumbled across your channel Randy......you show and teach things that people totally disregard that are important and overlooked.....awesome job dude!
Thank you man! I'm glad you found me too! I try to keep it on subject and explain it clear while keeping a little comedy in it too. Thanks for watching!
The exact cents will always depend on the neck of your guitar. Most of the error is from the bridge. What gypsies do, because they play a lot in the middle of the neck, is to tune the A 440 on the 5th fret of the E, then use octaves and fifths to tune the other strings, always using fretted notes.
Thank you for that information! I have been having success with a similar approach - basically tuning fretted notes to a pitch generator. I have been trying to find info on anyone else using this approach. This gives me a great lead!
Hey Randy. I have tuned pianos in the past, and I am aware of adjusting the cents as one tunes up and down the scale. I never quite thought of this for the guitar until I saw this posting. Wow, thanks. This really does make a difference in the quality of the sound.
It really helps, no guitar in existence can be built or set up to intonate 100% on every string and every fret, that's where this tuning comes in, it helps compensate for that. Thanks for checking it out!
I love the guitar because it is imperfect like me,but this is a great way to be 'more' in tune over all. BTW James Taylor said he wants his tuning back,.. ...(lol!)
I've known this concept for many years but never figured out exactly how many cents flat the tuning should be. I got close on most of it but you have it all figured out. Thank you very much!!! You will make my last years of guitar playing so much more enjoyable. P. S. the compensated nut theory is B.S. The thumbs down people are idiots and deserve to play out of tune.
yep, we know that when a string is in tune and when it's pressed down to make a note we are stretching that string slightly, so by using this tuning correct it just enough to make chords in tune better. lots of the big boys use this tuning but none hardly ever talk about it. thanks for watching!
thanks a lot! i had noticed this problem particularly on the B string not ringing very well with the G so i would drop the B and E a few cents but my friends thought i was just being silly. glad to know my ears aren't wrong.
I have to tune one of my guitars just as you said in order to make it intonate right. Weird how much difference there is in different guitars, like people lol thanks for viewing.
Quick tip for a more practical approach: Tune every string exactly on an E! -- ((first) E 0th fret / B 5th fret / G 9th / D 2nd (or 14th), A 7th, (last) E 12th fret). Kind of similar to your approach (-3/-6/-4/-8/-10/-12), but here the cent variations come from the notes you fret. Can't say for sure where I got this from (Paul Davids?), but so far it worked great for most guitars and even (somewhat) evens out intonation issues (e.g. when 12th fret is sharp compared to open string due to wrong neck tension / bridge calibration)
So by doing that, you get the guitar closer to the sweet spot? Doesn't the tuner pick up the pitch of the string better when you tune with open strings? The intonation would have to be perfect for this to work.
found this again, as the slip w the numbers disappered from my rack. An absolut worthwhile excercise and the sound is again creamy and full of timbre, thanx
Hey man! That really seemed to help the overall sound of my guitar! I'm using a lowered tunning but it zeros back to dead center and the overall effect seems to be very good thanks dude man
just watched bonus tuning. great video! like watching your videos and hearing the music. Don't sell your self short, great picking under any circumstances. Thanks Randy. CHEERS!!
Hi randy, I'm writing to you from Ireland, you have been a very good help to me in the past, whit your information about the guitar, I want to ask you a question, I have a vintage suzuk guitar, and I was interested in fitting a string butler on it, but I would have to fit it with screws, to the headstok because it's a vintage model,, I did here you say in your video, when you were fitting one, that you would not recommend, to fit a string butler, to the headstok, if it had to be fitted with screws,, could you please explain why, for I would be very interested, in your reasoning, yours respectfully my best regards Brian please keep up the great work, God bless you and yours
I remember saying that, the String Butler works well whether it's screwed onto the head stock or mounted normally to the pegs, the only reason I'm not for screwing them on is because drilling holes into your guitar could lower the overall value of the instrument. thanks for your support here on TH-cam!
Randy Schartiger thank you randy, for your reply, I do appreciate it, and if that is the only reason for not using it, I'm quite contented to put one on, thanks again for your reply, always look forward to your videos, best wishes now and always, Brian :)
I must say a Big thank you for sharing this I,ve been playing since the late 50,s. I must try this on my banjo and mandoline,I dont think I,ll bother with the 12 string.Ha,ha. Thanks a million.
I've been aware of the tuning intonation problem for a long time now and always compensate by tweaking it, once I'm tuned to A 440, but wasn't aware of how to drop the cents for each string. Much appreciated Randy !
Yes Randy... This little secret is used in most top recording studios. There is an alternative way of doing this however as most people don't have "cents" tuners First the science behind it.. When the string is first struck ... (The Attack) a note will be at its sharpest. From then on the movement of the string will decrease (The Decay) When 99 percent of people tune they will tune to the Decay. But... We don't say to the audience "Wait a second, that note I just just played will settle (For example to 440) to the right note. Thanks for hanging with me on this.... now hears the answer. Pluck your strings as you tune at the same velocity you would when playing... And keep plucking .... say 2 times a second..... this will tune to the Attack of the note, which is what you want the audience to hear. Try this.... and when you reference this, to the "Bonus" way you will see -3,-6,-4,-8,-10,-12.... (on a set of 12's) .... slightly different for 11's..... and when switching to electric guitar, because of thinner gauge strings being used and the sustain of notes the difference is tiny. Hope this helps!
You are a rock star. This is the first time I've tuned my guitar and been happy with it the first time all the way up the neck. I owe you a beer sir. Thank you.
Ok. First off, I have always tuned straight to A440. After watching your previous vid talking about the bonus tuning, I could really begin to HEAR what you were talking about as I played my guitar & especially up the neck. Normally I just use a clip on tuner, which doesn't read in cents. I download the da tuner app for android, but was struggling a bit cuz the cent meter was just all over the place for me and I couldn't really tell exactly where I was. After watching this video I understand much better, also having better luck with pro guitar tuner app and tuning the actual guitar! You can really hear the difference with the tuning and can't believe I've never heard of this before! Thank you very much Sir Randy!! Very much appreciated (and so useful, as always).
+Ronnie Williams You're welcome Ronnie! I don't know why this tuning is such a big secret or why so many big players use it yet hardly ever speak of it. But it does indeed make a huge difference, especially up the neck chords! Thanks for watching and commenting I'm glad it works for you! :)
+Randy Schartiger It is very helpful! It would neat if you could somehow adjust the settings of the app to customize it to the cent. So when you tune and get that meter right in the middle/green, you are essentially under the correct amount of cents (if that makes any sense). I wish I knew a thing or two about programming lol. Thanks again!
***** That's a very interesting thought! It sure would make tuning much easier. hmm I'm going to look into this, an app pr tuner you could calibrate each individual string, that would be awesome!
Totally blown away! Sir you are pure genius. I am going to see if this applies to 432 as well using the same cent intervals. Perhaps you have experimented with this as well? I am posting tbis comment without checking because I just had to thank you for this brilliant advice.
I`ve tuned my guitar for years thinking something isn`t right. With this new (Bonus) tuning it sounds right to me. I play along with a lot of hit songs from the last 60yrs and the guitars always sound a little different then I do with my 440 tuning , but not now. I found this Bonus Tuning by accident , I wasn`t even looking for it! I just played along with Peter and Gordon`s "A World Without Love! in E! I`ve played that song in 440 for years and today I played it with the Bonus Tuning! So today I thought it was me playing on the recording! Just Say `in! Thanks
great to hear Keith! this tuning works on about every guitar I've tried it on and makes a huge difference! lots of pro players use it but you never hear it talked about much. thanks for checking it out and thanks for checking out my videos!
Hey Randy. Have you ever played a Yamaha 365 F? I played a $20 cheese grater which I bought from money saved working with my mother at a flea market. My parents told me they weren't shelling out hundreds of dollars for a guitar if I was only gonna play it for a week and stick it in the corner! They were also paying for Samurai karate, and Taekwondo plus ice hockey so I was really pushing their last button asking for an acoustic. So I played that cheese grater for over a year when my father relented and my brother in law, who's 17 years older than I am, and who had got me interested in guitar and singing as he was great at both, took me to a famous guitar shop close to downtown Toronto called "The Trading Post" and we went through a bunch of acoustics there, but I couldn't find one that spoke to me. Then my brother in law told me "hey kid, guitars can't talk" boy I felt the fool! In the end he advised me to buy a used acoustic because I could get one in mint condition for at least half the price of a lesser quality new acoustic, and that made great sense to me. So my BIL pick out a Yamaha FG365 F and I loved it! We bought that one. It came with a really solid flight case which I painted the Supertramp Crime Of The Century album cover on it! Stars in deep space and a set of bars with hands wrapped around them. It looked awesome! I always got compliments whenever I had that case out. I got that guitar when I was about 12 or 13 years old. When I was 15 I had my own apartment and a job, and was mashing with a couple of great players from Montreal. I wanted an electric, and so I STUPIDLY traded that sweet Yamaha and case for an electric Ibanez...that salesman saw me coming, I got skinned! Of course I had no idea back then, but as the years went by I realized the goof saw a punk kid with a sweet Yamaha and case and he cheated me! LOL! I filed that under "L.A.L.! Live and Learn! I don't even remember what became of that electric, but one more quick sad ass guitar story. So, I mentioned working with my mom at the flea market. I got a percentage of the sales and I got $25 one time and saved it till the next week where I was going to add it to whatever I made and buy something cool. So I had just finished setting mom's tables up and she taught me to walk around early as venders were unpacking because you can get some great stuff before anyone gets to even look at it. I walked around and headed straight for the military surplus guy who also often had legit WWII items battle worn. I bought a WWI officer's sword, British/Canadian helmet and a defused WWII pineapple grenade for $20 a couple of weeks prior. That sword alone is worth thousands today! So I see something white in his pile of items ready to be set out, and I took a closer look and saw a really cool white electric guitar. He sold it to me for $25! This was before I got the cheese grater so I was around 10 or 11 years old. I had no idea what that guitar was and thought it needed repairs because the bridge wasn't secured. So it sat in a corner of my room. I moved out when I was 15 got a job and my own apartment with my girlfriend who was 19. I had been playing guitar for a couple of years and started learning about them. One day I was reading a magazine and I saw this awesome white Gibson Les Paul Electric!! WHAT!!?? I called my mother to ask her to look at that guitar and tell me what the label on the head stock said, silence...MOm...NOOOOOOOOO!!! But Yeeeeesssss! She sold it!! Years later I was going through old family photo albums and was sickened to see the Gibson name on the head stock. So that guitar was bought in either 1972 or 73. It was used, so I'd say it was a 1960's or early 1970s Gibson Les Paul!! I still wanna barf every time I think about that guitar. Oh and she sold the sword, helmet and grenade also! LOL!! She was heart broke when I quit school and moved out at 15 and I don't blame her one bit for selling that stuff. But even so...sniff...sniff..sniff...sniff..BWAAAHHH HAA HAA HAAAA!! I'm going to buy another Yamaha FG365 F if it takes me ten years to find a mint one I tells yus!! Hey great channel brother, I dig it! Jack ~'()'~ Canada
The way I see it the guitar intonations very well tuned that way. The only problem is that now the open strings are all flat. Now you need to compensate the nut to make the open strings right. Then your good all around. What do you think?
I think that you should try a tuning that allows close to perfect fourths and fifths and maybe some major thirds. It's all about harmonies. A temperament tuning, like in Well Tempered pianos, should be tried. Equal temperament is stupid because all harmonies but octaves are missing. Maybe trying Vallotti Temperament on open strings would work best. Set A4, fifth fret on the first string for 440Hz. Now tune the rest 5 strings for Vallotti temperament cents. I'm sure you're gonna love it
Thanks for tip on the PGT app ..I compared it's readings to my Tu3 and it has excellent accuracy.YOUR ROOM IS THE COOLNESS LEADER OF ALL GUITAR CHANNELS.
Hey guy, thanks for further explaining the cent values. In your other video I wasn't grasping what you were talking about. This video explained it all and makes perfect sense. I am not very experienced as i took up Guitar a year ago. I play a Fender DG60 Acoustic and really love the sound it produces but the upper registers were not at the proper intonation. This tuning advice has it sounding much better. Thank you.
Thanks Hammer! I'm happy to hear my videos are of help. This tuning does help even on a guitar with bad intonation its a big improvement. Thanks again for viewing!
preciate the vid man i do alot of tuning by ear by matching the 6th string to the 5 string noting the 6 string on the 5th frfet and you do that all the way to the b string then go to 4th fret to match the g string etc. etc. aint tellin you shit you dont know already i know but by doing that AFTER i tuned to 440 i knew 440 wasnt exactly right i just didnt understand it im glad you straightened that out for me hell i was startin to think my ears had superpowers my papaw used to tell me that they was so big i could hear the sun come up in the mornin! ha ha i like yer videos btother i do im from east tennessee near holston mountain and its nice to get my guitar tech needs from a local and you gotta be not far from here lol
yep the ears can play tricks on us for sure! lol and you're right I'm not far from you in central wv. I get a lot of guitars from your state. thanks for checking out my videos.
Continuing this logic for 12 string. String 2: -3, string 4: -6, string 6: -1, string 8: -3, string 10: -4, string 12: -6 I'm using a Taylor 315ce with 52-11 strings. My 2nd A (string 10) is a wound 22 and 2nd E (string 12) is a wound 26. It's getting close but still needs tweaking. (Any thoughts, Randy?) Generally, the sympathetic resonances are stronger than I've ever heard on this guitar. And I'm not compensating by increasing tension with my left hand.. Thanks so much!
I tried this tuning on a Ventura 12 string and that guitar sounded better than ever before! My friend who owned the guitar was afraid he couldn't remember the cents to tune each string to so I wrote it all down for him. It sounds like you're right on key! Pun intended =D I'll admit it took me forever to get it in tune but once there we couldn't believe out ears!
1st fret barres sound off with new Martin flexcore strings. I think the base strings (esp low E) should be a bit higher than recommended in the video because of the thinner core. The mid and trebles sound amazing. Now I really want to nail this (offset tuning) for this particular 12 string..
Randy, you do a great job... Love watching and learning . Keep it up. Oh and quit smoking. It's killing you. Oh, and I enjoyed your playing too. Thanks.
Is that an HD-28? I like the golden yellow top on it! I don't know if that tuner you use works on Apple platforms, but for what it is worth, I use an app called ClearTune for Apple and it is phenomenal. You can tune by cents on it as well. I have a petersen strobe and checked it against it, and that app is dead-on. Appreciate the videos as always, Randy.
+Adam Wallen An HD-28 it is! :) It's a Dan Tyminski model from Martin's custom shop built in 2012.The top has really darkened from blonde in the last 2 years. Yeah some of those apps are shockingly good! The two I use both were spot on with my Peterson strobe too. Thanks for checking out my videos Adam it is greatly appreciated.
It's going to depend on your guitar and your strings. Ideally a guitar should be able to stay in tune up the neck if you're using the string widths that they had in mind when positioning the frets. If you have to tune down, your guitar may have been designed for thicker strings. Of course, there's no way to stay in tune up the neck when using a capo, because you're depressing the string in two different places, which will make it a lot sharper. So in that case I fret the most important notes in the song, and I tune those specifically for the song.
I'm really excited to see this. I'm interested in getting one of those "pro tuners". Right now I use a Peterson clip on tuner. I only use it as a safety net. I play jazz in many keys, so I'm interested in the pitch of every note, up the neck. I only tune the d string open- no other open strings. This is very exciting stuff- Thanks.
Nice show. A very smooth, relaxing voice for us Brits! I was wondering.... Is this "cent flat" tuning used by mainly Acoustic Country and Acoustic Delta Blues (for example) artists rather than say.... Rock and electric blues artists? I suppose so (the key is the tuning and intonation)...... but I haven't heard of electric rock guitarists using this tuning...
Good one mate. I am not being nasty but cents is French and pronounced sonts! Weird= I know. As long as people realize that 60 cents + * a shrp or flat, 100 + a note. I can generally tune to within 3 cents per string by ear. Anyway keep the growth of your TH-cam channel going. TJ from Oz.
Please post the theory behind this type of tuning compensation...or a link to such information...I really would like to know how those cent numbers were derived...
My grandfather was a organist and choir master, I inherited two of his tuning forks,a C and A When playing in a band in the 60,s we used the C to tune our instruments.Much to my shock when electronic tuners came out I found the C fork was B it had gone flat with all the hitting
No, it's unlikely to have gone flat. If your grandfather played before ww2 than concert pitch hadn't been standardized. A 'C' note would have been a half step down (100cents lower.) Everything was a semitone lower in pitch.
+Cesar Blues Guitar Thanks so very much Cesar! Yep sure did, my hands wasn't working too well at that time when I made that second series but yep that lick is in one of them. I might include it in the next series and another one very much like it. Thanks again brother!
+guitarstruggles That's one if not THE most accurate tuning apps I've ever used and probably my very favorite if I had to choose just one, it's better than most tuners in fact. Thanks for tuning in brother cheers! :)
WOW RANDY set I set my 12 string up like this and it really does sound colourful and also playing with a harmonica on it makes the harmonica sound bright and with my brass plate under my Bridge I'm having another wow moment great job👌.. do you have any advice for string height playing a 12 string I have move my strings close to the fret so I don't hurt my fingers but I sacrifice a little bit of my height on the bridge so I don't get the full volume in the box.
Is this a function of the string or the note? In other words, if I were tuning for DADGAD or OPEN G etc, would I follow the rules accordingly, or is there a different guideline for other tunings?
If you fret or don't fret a note, all strings must be tuned "out of tune". Look at a piano, it is so amazingly flat on the low strings and very sharp on the high strings and no frets. The TUNING of a piano changes LARGELY depending on how hard you play each string. The same is true for any instrument.
I'm sure this is entirely correct. But, if you play harp from a holder, you must tune to the harmonica for the key(s) you are using it in. If you move from the key of E to the key of G (and then use a G or C harp) you may have to retune slightly. I have always done this (since the 1950's), and have found no problem being in tune with a band. (Close enough for government work).
Really like that piece you did at the end of your video. I'm sure I'll watch it a hundred times trying it finger it, newbie to your channel I've learn About intonation from your videos witch made PS sounding guitar sound pretty Good!
This tuning works fine for a solo guitar or if more than one guitar (with the same tuning) are played together. However in band work where keyboards are also used the guitar will be way out of tune with the keyboard. Also this tuning is not appropriate for playing in all keys. A better method if perfect pitch is required especially when open strings are involved is to tune to the A440 ref. Then use open string tuning to bring each string into perfect harmony. However this only works really well if the guitar is correctly intonated.
Randy,I absolutely love the little tune you play just before you say" That'll never work in a song."Any chance of the music or tab? Thanks so much for your videos,someday all videos will be this good.....Jerry
+jezzatakla Thanks so much Jerry! I taught that riff in one of my "Quick Clip" videos, I can't remember which video it's in but pretty sure it's early in the second series. If you can't find it let me know and I'll make another video teaching it better. Thanks for checking it out and commenting! :)
+Randy Schartiger Good grief Randy! You answered so quickly.Thanks ever so much.Stewart Copeland used to take the piss out of me for saying "ever so" He was my best friend for a while when I lived in Lebanon a million years ago.His brother Ian,was also my best buddy for a while,but sadly he's passed away,succumbing to melanoma. Boy, sorry if I've brought you down.Ian was such a nice guy,and he brought some amazing acts to England.I really miss him Thanks again for your vids....Jerry
Hi Mr. Randy, that's a nice version of Simple Man. Thanks for the tutorial, will go back and try this again on my guitars. Have a great Sunday! Hooold Ooon!
+Suzanna Crawford My old hands were not wanting to co-operate so I had to quickly move onto something else lol Thanks you Suzanna for commenting and watching, try this tuning and let us know what you think! Hold on! =D
+Spreadswings A lot of folks wanted a demo of how to tune to this tuning and turns out it was a good idea I should have thought of in the first lace lol Thanks Spreadswings for stopping in, I'm glad this helped. :)
yes it helps even more with a compensated saddle, the laws of physics dictate a guitar cannot be intonated perfectly, all we can do is set them up as closely as we can get them but it'll never be perfectm you want to get as close as you can and this tuning method helps. thanks for watching!
Great video Randy. This is a subject that I'd kind of abandoned or forgotten about for years but recently my interest has been rekindled and I've been researching a bit. I know you're playing acoustic guitar here; I play electric. These concepts should work without issue on my regular old "strat style" tremolo bridges. I'm curious though if it would negatively impact my Floyd Rose bridges? Those are so darn sensitive and mine are all set up for "perfect" tuning on your average run-of-the-mill chromatic tuners. Some of the things I'm working on would require tweaking these settings kind of frequently. Any thoughts on that? Thanks man!
yep it'll work, tho you may have to tweak your Floyd and fine tune everything for the change, but once you get everything you might be surprised how well it turns out. good luck! and thank for watching!
they are great strings but were designed and intented for santa cruz guitars, tho they'd still work on other brands but best on cruz guitars. thanks for watching!
Nuts, I had the description typed in but my kindle decided to crap out on me and go back to your video. Anyway I called Sue at Peterson and she said to use the James Taylor sweetener for the acoustic guitar..Ain't that nice you can vary it in your guitar case too.
Yes, Peterson has a clip on tuner ( the HD clip on tuner ) that has a sweetener setting that does just this. On the Peterson the setting will be auc which is the James Taylor tuning that Randy is demonstrating so well. Also, there is an app called airyware that does a very good job as well.
This 'sweet' tuning is also called the James Taylor Sweet Tuning Method. Taylor has a video on it. BUT! It's built-in as a present on Android's Playstore: Airyware Tuner. Also, Hi Randy!! Whoooooooo a.
so i got the app my two guitars which i have been standard tuning to the 0 taking you advide it made both my guitars sound amazing at least i think it is it resonates waaaay better so thanks man.
Drop D is about the only other tuning I play in from standard tuning, I've been thinking about doing a video on how non-standard tunings effect guitars especially if left in the non-standard tuning too long because most guitars are not designed to handle the much different stress non-standard tuning puts them in. Thanks for viewing my friend! Cheers!
Really only makes sense. When you press on a string it will make it sharp from 440. I never thought of that before. Another good tutorial. And be a Simple...kind of man...Rock on Randy!
+Archie Bunker Exactly!!! Anytime you force a string from it's perfectly straight position it's got to go sharp, this works! :) Thanks for dialing in bro!
Yes, when you press a string down to a fret you stretch it as well as shortening its sounding length, which raises its pitch further. But this is compensated by the frets, which are placed to not shorten the strings by quite the mathematical interval required. The problem is a different one: with straight frets you can compensate perfectly for any given string, but not for different strings at the same time. Some compensation can be built into the nut and bridge as well, but the only way to get perfect intonation (for whatever scale you are tuned to) on every fret on every string, is by having irregular frets.
Hi from the U.K. Randy ! Any thoughts about how this might apply to a 12-stringer ? I know a few players who break octave-G's at an alarming rate , maybe keeping that one as flat as you dare might help ? I know from experience that putting the 1st and 2nd pairs ( theoretically perfectly in unison) a tiny bit OUT of tune with their "brothers" can increase the "jangling" effect we want with a 12 . Cheers all , Nige .
+Leftienige Blank Thanks my friend for tuning in and commenting! Yes it's effective on a 12 string too, according to the laws of physics, when any string is in tune it should be in a perfectly straight line from one end to the other, any force such as plucking the string, or pushing it down until it comes into contact with the fret will cause it's frequency to go up, we usually don't hear that tiny bit but theoretically by moving it from it's perfectly straight line in any way increases the pitch, so it "should" effect all guitars in some way. Those few cents lower could indeed save that high G string, I have broken a bunch of them myself. Hope that helps, thanks again! :)
A common thing to do with 12 strings is to tune it one whole step lower and use a capo on the second fret if you need to play in key with someone or something. This also makes it easier on your fingers if you're a wusy newbie.
Hi Randy, I like the voice of experience in yr videos, and this tuning trick has got my D28 (which has iffy intonation ' 1975) sounding in tune finally, but why does the series go -3, -6, -4 cents, should it not be 3 4 6 8 10 12, not 3 6 4? Also, there are 100 cents in a whole step, 50 in a half... :)
I think the numbers jump out of a continuous pattern because the first two strings are solid and the next four are wound. It probably comes from the physics of the diameter of the strings and the cross sectional density. I have noticed for years that making my 6th string flat sounded better. This technique refines what I have been doing. What an improvement! Thanks.
James Taylor does the exact same thing. He also has a TH-cam video out showing how he does it. I wish I knew this back in the day when I was playing guitar. The regular tuning never sounded exactly right.
very cool! thanks for pointing this out, I didn't know exactlly who all uses this method but knew a lot of big boys did. and thanks for checking out my videos!
Ive been playing for about 15 years and ive always thought something never sounded quite right. Ive tried different strings, different gauges, ive screwed up a few necks thinking the truss rod needed tweaking. Thought it was cheap guitars even if they werent that cheap. I just finally sprung for a martin instantly sounds better but when i tune it like this its the sound ive always tried to get but never quiet could. Thank you sir.
I would suggest starting from the low e as the lower strings put more tension on the neck than the higher strings, if you adjust them last they are more likely to put the higher strings out of tune.
Hey Randy, got a guitar around half way through Covid and have watched numerous of your vids trying to learn this sweet science, thanks for being you buddy! Cheers from Canada! 🇨🇦🥸
For yrs I've thought my ears were out of whack but you just taught me that I was hearing correct.. 🤓
After I'd tune I'd strum a chord and adjust by ear because I could literally hear it out of tune even though it was tuned perfectly to the tuner..
Strange that tuner makers don't adjust for this...
Thank for this video 👊💥🙂
So glad I stumbled across your channel Randy......you show and teach things that people totally disregard that are important and overlooked.....awesome job dude!
Thank you man! I'm glad you found me too! I try to keep it on subject and explain it clear while keeping a little comedy in it too. Thanks for watching!
Thanks. These six values exactly match the advice James Taylor gave in 2012, so I’d say they’re probably reliable.
The exact cents will always depend on the neck of your guitar. Most of the error is from the bridge. What gypsies do, because they play a lot in the middle of the neck, is to tune the A 440 on the 5th fret of the E, then use octaves and fifths to tune the other strings, always using fretted notes.
Thank you for that information! I have been having success with a similar approach - basically tuning fretted notes to a pitch generator. I have been trying to find info on anyone else using this approach. This gives me a great lead!
That is one way to tune, but your 1st e string will always be too sharp.
@@TheIgnoramus That depends on your guitar. Some will be too flat on open chords. The goal is to have the best tuning possible on barred chords.
Hey Randy. I have tuned pianos in the past, and I am aware of adjusting the cents as one tunes up and down the scale.
I never quite thought of this for the guitar until I saw this posting. Wow, thanks. This really does make a difference in the quality of the sound.
It really helps, no guitar in existence can be built or set up to intonate 100% on every string and every fret, that's where this tuning comes in, it helps compensate for that. Thanks for checking it out!
I love the guitar because it is imperfect like me,but this is a great way to be 'more' in tune over all.
BTW James Taylor said he wants his tuning back,.. ...(lol!)
I've known this concept for many years but never figured out exactly how many cents flat the tuning should be. I got close on most of it but you have it all figured out. Thank you very much!!! You will make my last years of guitar playing so much more enjoyable. P. S. the compensated nut theory is B.S. The thumbs down people are idiots and deserve to play out of tune.
yep, we know that when a string is in tune and when it's pressed down to make a note we are stretching that string slightly, so by using this tuning correct it just enough to make chords in tune better. lots of the big boys use this tuning but none hardly ever talk about it. thanks for watching!
Holy Crap! I took the time to test this, and it is REAL! Thanks Brother, a few years late, but you right!
thanks brother! I'm glad to hear it! and thanks for checking out my videos!
Just wanted to say thanks. I got the app on my iPhone and my acoustic has never been in better tune; amazingly helpful video!!
thanks a lot! i had noticed this problem particularly on the B string not ringing very well with the G so i would drop the B and E a few cents but my friends thought i was just being silly. glad to know my ears aren't wrong.
I have to tune one of my guitars just as you said in order to make it intonate right. Weird how much difference there is in different guitars, like people lol thanks for viewing.
Quick tip for a more practical approach: Tune every string exactly on an E! --
((first) E 0th fret / B 5th fret / G 9th / D 2nd (or 14th), A 7th, (last) E 12th fret). Kind of similar to your approach (-3/-6/-4/-8/-10/-12), but here the cent variations come from the notes you fret.
Can't say for sure where I got this from (Paul Davids?), but so far it worked great for most guitars and even (somewhat) evens out intonation issues (e.g. when 12th fret is sharp compared to open string due to wrong neck tension / bridge calibration)
So by doing that, you get the guitar closer to the sweet spot? Doesn't the tuner pick up the pitch of the string better when you tune with open strings?
The intonation would have to be perfect for this to work.
Yes dude ! It seems to have given it some clarity and sparkle WOW!
found this again, as the slip w the numbers disappered from my rack. An absolut worthwhile excercise and the sound is again creamy and full of timbre, thanx
Hey Randy. Since watching your channel my house never sleeps but my guitar is in tune. Thank you.
Great vid thanks - I don't guitarists talk enough about sweetened tunings and the massive improvements they can make
Recently subscribed to your channel Randy. You are one of the most friendly and informative TH-camr's On line. Thanks for all you do!
Hey man! That really seemed to help the overall sound of my guitar! I'm using a lowered tunning but it zeros back to dead center and the overall effect seems to be very good thanks dude man
just watched bonus tuning. great video! like watching your videos and hearing the music. Don't sell your self short, great picking under any circumstances. Thanks Randy. CHEERS!!
+soapbox geezer Thanks so much mate! I appreciate you tuning in and commenting! Cheers! :)
Hi randy, I'm writing to you from Ireland, you have been a very good help to me in the past, whit your information about the guitar, I want to ask you a question, I have a vintage suzuk guitar, and I was interested in fitting a string butler on it, but I would have to fit it with screws, to the headstok because it's a vintage model,, I did here you say in your video, when you were fitting one, that you would not recommend, to fit a string butler, to the headstok, if it had to be fitted with screws,, could you please explain why, for I would be very interested, in your reasoning, yours respectfully my best regards Brian please keep up the great work, God bless you and yours
I remember saying that, the String Butler works well whether it's screwed onto the head stock or mounted normally to the pegs, the only reason I'm not for screwing them on is because drilling holes into your guitar could lower the overall value of the instrument. thanks for your support here on TH-cam!
Randy Schartiger thank you randy, for your reply, I do appreciate it, and if that is the only reason for not using it, I'm quite contented to put one on, thanks again for your reply, always look forward to your videos, best wishes now and always, Brian :)
I must say a Big thank you for sharing this I,ve been playing since the late 50,s. I must try this on my banjo and mandoline,I dont think I,ll bother with the 12 string.Ha,ha. Thanks a million.
I've been aware of the tuning intonation problem for a long time now and always compensate by tweaking it, once I'm tuned to A 440, but wasn't aware of how to drop the cents for each string. Much appreciated Randy !
a lot of the big players do it, few of them ever talk about it tho. good luck man and thanks for watching!
This video changed my life. Brilliant!
A formula that works! Thank you!
Yes Randy... This little secret is used in most top recording studios.
There is an alternative way of doing this however as most people don't have "cents" tuners
First the science behind it..
When the string is first struck ... (The Attack) a note will be at its sharpest.
From then on the movement of the string will decrease (The Decay)
When 99 percent of people tune they will tune to the Decay.
But... We don't say to the audience "Wait a second, that note I just just played will settle (For example to 440) to the right note.
Thanks for hanging with me on this.... now hears the answer.
Pluck your strings as you tune at the same velocity you would when playing... And keep plucking .... say 2 times a second..... this will tune to the Attack of the note, which is what you want the audience to hear.
Try this.... and when you reference this, to the "Bonus" way you will see -3,-6,-4,-8,-10,-12.... (on a set of 12's) .... slightly different for 11's..... and when switching to electric guitar, because of thinner gauge strings being used and the sustain of notes the difference is tiny.
Hope this helps!
Brother Randy!! I was able to do the flat tuning with my old tuner.. Wow!! What a difference!! Thank you, Sir!!
You are a rock star. This is the first time I've tuned my guitar and been happy with it the first time all the way up the neck. I owe you a beer sir. Thank you.
Wow man, great vid. I never thought there would be so much to it. Very detailed. TYFP!
Ok. First off, I have always tuned straight to A440. After watching your previous vid talking about the bonus tuning, I could really begin to HEAR what you were talking about as I played my guitar & especially up the neck. Normally I just use a clip on tuner, which doesn't read in cents. I download the da tuner app for android, but was struggling a bit cuz the cent meter was just all over the place for me and I couldn't really tell exactly where I was. After watching this video I understand much better, also having better luck with pro guitar tuner app and tuning the actual guitar! You can really hear the difference with the tuning and can't believe I've never heard of this before! Thank you very much Sir Randy!! Very much appreciated (and so useful, as always).
+Ronnie Williams You're welcome Ronnie! I don't know why this tuning is such a big secret or why so many big players use it yet hardly ever speak of it. But it does indeed make a huge difference, especially up the neck chords! Thanks for watching and commenting I'm glad it works for you! :)
+Randy Schartiger It is very helpful! It would neat if you could somehow adjust the settings of the app to customize it to the cent. So when you tune and get that meter right in the middle/green, you are essentially under the correct amount of cents (if that makes any sense). I wish I knew a thing or two about programming lol. Thanks again!
*****
That's a very interesting thought! It sure would make tuning much easier. hmm I'm going to look into this, an app pr tuner you could calibrate each individual string, that would be awesome!
Totally blown away! Sir you are pure genius. I am going to see if this applies to 432 as well using the same cent intervals. Perhaps you have experimented with this as well? I am posting tbis comment without checking because I just had to thank you for this brilliant advice.
This will definitely help my heavier gauge strings ... And heavy-handedness ... Thanks
I`ve tuned my guitar for years thinking something isn`t right. With this new (Bonus) tuning it sounds right to me. I play along with a lot of hit songs from the last 60yrs and the guitars always sound a little different then I do with my 440 tuning , but not now. I found this Bonus Tuning by accident , I wasn`t even looking for it! I just played along with Peter and Gordon`s "A World Without Love! in E! I`ve played that song in 440 for years and today I played it with the Bonus Tuning! So today I thought it was me playing on the recording! Just Say `in! Thanks
great to hear Keith! this tuning works on about every guitar I've tried it on and makes a huge difference! lots of pro players use it but you never hear it talked about much. thanks for checking it out and thanks for checking out my videos!
Hey Randy. Have you ever played a Yamaha 365 F? I played a $20 cheese grater which I bought from money saved working with my mother at a flea market. My parents told me they weren't shelling out hundreds of dollars for a guitar if I was only gonna play it for a week and stick it in the corner!
They were also paying for Samurai karate, and Taekwondo plus ice hockey so I was really pushing their last button asking for an acoustic.
So I played that cheese grater for over a year when my father relented and my brother in law, who's 17 years older than I am, and who had got me interested in guitar and singing as he was great at both, took me to a famous guitar shop close to downtown Toronto called "The Trading Post" and we went through a bunch of acoustics there, but I couldn't find one that spoke to me.
Then my brother in law told me "hey kid, guitars can't talk" boy I felt the fool!
In the end he advised me to buy a used acoustic because I could get one in mint condition for at least half the price of a lesser quality new acoustic, and that made great sense to me.
So my BIL pick out a Yamaha FG365 F and I loved it! We bought that one. It came with a really solid flight case which I painted the Supertramp Crime Of The Century album cover on it! Stars in deep space and a set of bars with hands wrapped around them. It looked awesome! I always got compliments whenever I had that case out.
I got that guitar when I was about 12 or 13 years old. When I was 15 I had my own apartment and a job, and was mashing with a couple of great players from Montreal. I wanted an electric, and so I STUPIDLY traded that sweet Yamaha and case for an electric Ibanez...that salesman saw me coming, I got skinned! Of course I had no idea back then, but as the years went by I realized the goof saw a punk kid with a sweet Yamaha and case and he cheated me! LOL!
I filed that under "L.A.L.! Live and Learn!
I don't even remember what became of that electric, but one more quick sad ass guitar story.
So, I mentioned working with my mom at the flea market. I got a percentage of the sales and I got $25 one time and saved it till the next week where I was going to add it to whatever I made and buy something cool.
So I had just finished setting mom's tables up and she taught me to walk around early as venders were unpacking because you can get some great stuff before anyone gets to even look at it.
I walked around and headed straight for the military surplus guy who also often had legit WWII items battle worn. I bought a WWI officer's sword, British/Canadian helmet and a defused WWII pineapple grenade for $20 a couple of weeks prior. That sword alone is worth thousands today!
So I see something white in his pile of items ready to be set out, and I took a closer look and saw a really cool white electric guitar. He sold it to me for $25!
This was before I got the cheese grater so I was around 10 or 11 years old. I had no idea what that guitar was and thought it needed repairs because the bridge wasn't secured. So it sat in a corner of my room.
I moved out when I was 15 got a job and my own apartment with my girlfriend who was 19.
I had been playing guitar for a couple of years and started learning about them. One day I was reading a magazine and I saw this awesome white Gibson Les Paul Electric!! WHAT!!??
I called my mother to ask her to look at that guitar and tell me what the label on the head stock said, silence...MOm...NOOOOOOOOO!!!
But Yeeeeesssss! She sold it!!
Years later I was going through old family photo albums and was sickened to see the Gibson name on the head stock.
So that guitar was bought in either 1972 or 73. It was used, so I'd say it was a 1960's or early 1970s Gibson Les Paul!!
I still wanna barf every time I think about that guitar. Oh and she sold the sword, helmet and grenade also! LOL!!
She was heart broke when I quit school and moved out at 15 and I don't blame her one bit for selling that stuff. But even so...sniff...sniff..sniff...sniff..BWAAAHHH HAA HAA HAAAA!!
I'm going to buy another Yamaha FG365 F if it takes me ten years to find a mint one I tells yus!!
Hey great channel brother, I dig it!
Jack ~'()'~
Canada
Your knowledge is amazing. Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you Faith! And thanks for checking out my videos!
The way I see it the guitar intonations very well tuned that way. The only problem is that now the open strings are all flat. Now you need to compensate the nut to make the open strings right. Then your good all around. What do you think?
Randy, I too am glad I came across your videos. I am now subscribed. Quality! Thank you!
You are an awesome player. Glad I discovered this channel!
Better late than never!
I think that you should try a tuning that allows close to perfect fourths and fifths and maybe some major thirds. It's all about harmonies. A temperament tuning, like in Well Tempered pianos, should be tried.
Equal temperament is stupid because all harmonies but octaves are missing.
Maybe trying Vallotti Temperament on open strings would work best.
Set A4, fifth fret on the first string for 440Hz. Now tune the rest 5 strings for Vallotti temperament cents. I'm sure you're gonna love it
Thanks for tip on the PGT app ..I compared it's readings to my Tu3 and it has excellent accuracy.YOUR ROOM IS THE COOLNESS LEADER OF ALL GUITAR CHANNELS.
Hey guy, thanks for further explaining the cent values. In your other video I wasn't grasping what you were talking about. This video explained it all and makes perfect sense. I am not very experienced as i took up Guitar a year ago. I play a Fender DG60 Acoustic and really love the sound it produces but the upper registers were not at the proper intonation. This tuning advice has it sounding much better. Thank you.
Thanks Hammer! I'm happy to hear my videos are of help. This tuning does help even on a guitar with bad intonation its a big improvement. Thanks again for viewing!
preciate the vid man i do alot of tuning by ear by matching the 6th string to the 5 string noting the 6 string on the 5th frfet and you do that all the way to the b string then go to 4th fret to match the g string etc. etc. aint tellin you shit you dont know already i know but by doing that AFTER i tuned to 440 i knew 440 wasnt exactly right i just didnt understand it im glad you straightened that out for me hell i was startin to think my ears had superpowers my papaw used to tell me that they was so big i could hear the sun come up in the mornin! ha ha i like yer videos btother i do im from east tennessee near holston mountain and its nice to get my guitar tech needs from a local and you gotta be not far from here lol
yep the ears can play tricks on us for sure! lol and you're right I'm not far from you in central wv. I get a lot of guitars from your state. thanks for checking out my videos.
Continuing this logic for 12 string. String 2: -3, string 4: -6, string 6: -1, string 8: -3, string 10: -4, string 12: -6
I'm using a Taylor 315ce with 52-11 strings. My 2nd A (string 10) is a wound 22 and 2nd E (string 12) is a wound 26. It's getting close but still needs tweaking. (Any thoughts, Randy?)
Generally, the sympathetic resonances are stronger than I've ever heard on this guitar. And I'm not compensating by increasing tension with my left hand.. Thanks so much!
I tried this tuning on a Ventura 12 string and that guitar sounded
better than ever before! My friend who owned the guitar was afraid he
couldn't remember the cents to tune each string to so I wrote it all
down for him. It sounds like you're right on key! Pun intended =D I'll
admit it took me forever to get it in tune but once there we couldn't
believe out ears!
1st fret barres sound off with new Martin flexcore strings. I think the base strings (esp low E) should be a bit higher than recommended in the video because of the thinner core. The mid and trebles sound amazing. Now I really want to nail this (offset tuning) for this particular 12 string..
Love that opening bit on the guitar.
Randy, you do a great job... Love watching and learning . Keep it up. Oh and quit smoking. It's killing you. Oh, and I enjoyed your playing too. Thanks.
.......said George Burns who smoked like a chimney and lived to be a hundred. Others die of lung cancer at 50. You just never know.
You can smoke 10 ciggarettes a day without it having any negative effects on your health. Lack of excersise and junk food is far worse.
@@E-BikingAdventures
Smoking is detrimental to the health of the majority of smokers. End of story
Let’s not get too personal.
This is the same tuning method James Taylor uses and he has a video about it too!
very cool! I know a lot of the big boys use it but not many of them ever mention it. thanks for checking out my videos!
Have you considered muting all the strings but the one your tuning at the time? So there's no trace sympathetic ringing interfering with the tuner?
I found it is also easy to try to tune at 5th fret for all strings getting the reasonable intonation like it.
I'm assuming this is about scale length and intoneation.. So you would do this when using open tuning too?
Hi and thanks for this. Just wondering… what is your recommended tuner (budget if possible) for electric guitars.
Is that an HD-28? I like the golden yellow top on it! I don't know if that tuner you use works on Apple platforms, but for what it is worth, I use an app called ClearTune for Apple and it is phenomenal. You can tune by cents on it as well. I have a petersen strobe and checked it against it, and that app is dead-on. Appreciate the videos as always, Randy.
+Adam Wallen An HD-28 it is! :) It's a Dan Tyminski model from Martin's custom shop built in 2012.The top has really darkened from blonde in the last 2 years. Yeah some of those apps are shockingly good! The two I use both were spot on with my Peterson strobe too. Thanks for checking out my videos Adam it is greatly appreciated.
It's going to depend on your guitar and your strings. Ideally a guitar should be able to stay in tune up the neck if you're using the string widths that they had in mind when positioning the frets. If you have to tune down, your guitar may have been designed for thicker strings. Of course, there's no way to stay in tune up the neck when using a capo, because you're depressing the string in two different places, which will make it a lot sharper. So in that case I fret the most important notes in the song, and I tune those specifically for the song.
Interesting info , Randy and beautiful playing!
Greetings from Italy,
Cristina
+Cristina S Thanks so much Cristina! I'm finally getting my hands back! Hopefully anyways. Thanks for watching! Hope you're having a great weekend! :)
You're welcome, Randy.
Happy week end, my friend :-)
I'm really excited to see this. I'm interested in getting one of those "pro tuners". Right now I use a Peterson clip on tuner. I only use it as a safety net. I play jazz in many keys, so I'm interested in the pitch of every note, up the neck. I only tune the d string open- no other open strings. This is very exciting stuff- Thanks.
You have mad skills for playing such a short time , Excellent.
Nice show. A very smooth, relaxing voice for us Brits! I was wondering.... Is this "cent flat" tuning used by mainly Acoustic Country and Acoustic Delta Blues (for example) artists rather than say.... Rock and electric blues artists? I suppose so (the key is the tuning and intonation)...... but I haven't heard of electric rock guitarists using this tuning...
Randy, your bonus tuning works for my Taylor.. thanks again for your knowledge
good to hear! thanks for checking it out!
Thank you Randy. Trying that tonight.
This way to tune the guitar is working for me! Awesome! My guitar sounds much nicer now! Thanks man! Keep it up! Cheers!
Good one mate. I am not being nasty but cents is French and pronounced sonts! Weird= I know. As long as people realize that 60 cents + * a shrp or flat, 100 + a note. I can generally tune to within 3 cents per string by ear.
Anyway keep the growth of your TH-cam channel going. TJ from Oz.
Please post the theory behind this type of tuning compensation...or a link to such information...I really would like to know how those cent numbers were derived...
What about if you tune your guitar to 432 hz. Do the same instructions for the 'cents' increments apply?
yes, the very same! thanks for watching!
Awesome job. You are an amazing musician.
+Rosa String Works That means a lot coming from you Jerry, very much appreciated!
This is the first time I've ever heard this thank you
My grandfather was a organist and choir master, I inherited two of his tuning forks,a C and A When playing in a band in the 60,s we used the C to tune our instruments.Much to my shock when electronic tuners came out I found the C fork was B it had gone flat with all the hitting
No, it's unlikely to have gone flat. If your grandfather played before ww2 than concert pitch hadn't been standardized. A 'C' note would have been a half step down (100cents lower.)
Everything was a semitone lower in pitch.
Need the golden ear, or ears
My 50 year old fork tunes exactly 440 Hz. Zero cents off, at room temperature.
Can't wait to try this. Got to get a better (newer) tuner. My Seiko from 1980 has been a champ, but it's "old school" technology.
Great video, Randy, as always! The lick at the beginning - did you play it in your earlier series of qucikcliplicks?
+Cesar Blues Guitar Thanks so very much Cesar! Yep sure did, my hands wasn't working too well at that time when I made that second series but yep that lick is in one of them. I might include it in the next series and another one very much like it. Thanks again brother!
This was one of those videos where i grabbed the note pad and wrote it all down thank you im sure this will be helpful .
Awesome work. This is how I’ve tuned by ear for years but never knew the cent values. Thank you! How close to this is Peterson’s “Sweetened” Tuning?
I believe it exactly matches the one James Taylor shows in his embedded video on the Peterson site.
From an obsessive tuning perfectionist (violin, bass and guitar) thank you.
What are the settings for a banjo??
Very cool, I'm definitely going to download that app. Digging that lick. Rock on brother!
+guitarstruggles That's one if not THE most accurate tuning apps I've ever used and probably my very favorite if I had to choose just one, it's better than most tuners in fact. Thanks for tuning in brother cheers! :)
WOW RANDY set I set my 12 string up like this and it really does sound colourful and also playing with a harmonica on it makes the harmonica sound bright and with my brass plate under my Bridge I'm having another wow moment great job👌.. do you have any advice for string height playing a 12 string I have move my strings close to the fret so I don't hurt my fingers but I sacrifice a little bit of my height on the bridge so I don't get the full volume in the box.
Is this a function of the string or the note? In other words, if I were tuning for DADGAD or OPEN G etc, would I follow the rules accordingly, or is there a different guideline for other tunings?
If you fret or don't fret a note, all strings must be tuned "out of tune". Look at a piano, it is so amazingly flat on the low strings and very sharp on the high strings and no frets. The TUNING of a piano changes LARGELY depending on how hard you play each string. The same is true for any instrument.
Could you recommend a pedal that shows cents ???
Downloaded the app on my iPhone! Will try this soon! Thanks for the tip!
I'm sure this is entirely correct. But, if you play harp from a holder, you must tune to the harmonica for the key(s) you are using it in. If you move from the key of E to the key of G (and then use a G or C harp) you may have to retune slightly. I have always done this (since the 1950's), and have found no problem being in tune with a band. (Close enough for government work).
Yep, no difference than what he is saying.
Man! I can't believe I never heard of this 😅
The Steve Vai warm up!
Another great piece of information i am curious to know can i set my intonation at this or should be intonation be set on the key itself
Use the big boys TC electronics polytune clip on, it is highly accurate in strobe mode to +/-0.02 cent.
Really like that piece you did at the end of your video. I'm sure I'll watch it a hundred times trying it finger it, newbie to your channel I've learn About intonation from your videos witch made PS sounding guitar sound pretty Good!
thanks Dean! I made it up one time when I was just sitting around practicing. thanks for checking out my videos! :)
This tuning works fine for a solo guitar or if more than one guitar (with the same tuning) are played together. However in band work where keyboards are also used the guitar will be way out of tune with the keyboard. Also this tuning is not appropriate for playing in all keys. A better method if perfect pitch is required especially when open strings are involved is to tune to the A440 ref. Then use open string tuning to bring each string into perfect harmony. However this only works really well if the guitar is correctly intonated.
Randy,I absolutely love the little tune you play just before you say" That'll never work in a song."Any chance of the music or tab? Thanks so much for your videos,someday all videos will be this good.....Jerry
+jezzatakla Thanks so much Jerry! I taught that riff in one of my "Quick Clip" videos, I can't remember which video it's in but pretty sure it's early in the second series. If you can't find it let me know and I'll make another video teaching it better. Thanks for checking it out and commenting! :)
+Randy Schartiger Good grief Randy! You answered so quickly.Thanks ever so much.Stewart Copeland used to take the piss out of me for saying "ever so" He was my best friend for a while when I lived in Lebanon a million years ago.His brother Ian,was also my best buddy for a while,but sadly he's passed away,succumbing to melanoma.
Boy, sorry if I've brought you down.Ian was such a nice guy,and he brought some amazing acts to England.I really miss him Thanks again for your vids....Jerry
Hi Mr. Randy, that's a nice version of Simple Man. Thanks for the tutorial, will go back and try this again on my guitars. Have a great Sunday! Hooold Ooon!
+Suzanna Crawford My old hands were not wanting to co-operate so I had to quickly move onto something else lol Thanks you Suzanna for commenting and watching, try this tuning and let us know what you think! Hold on! =D
Thanks Randy ... this time yah learned me even more than you learned me the first time.
+Spreadswings A lot of folks wanted a demo of how to tune to this tuning and turns out it was a good idea I should have thought of in the first lace lol Thanks Spreadswings for stopping in, I'm glad this helped. :)
If your guitar has a compensated saddle in the bridge, is this tuning necessary?
I thought that was the reason for having a compensated saddle?!
yes it helps even more with a compensated saddle, the laws of physics dictate a guitar cannot be intonated perfectly, all we can do is set them up as closely as we can get them but it'll never be perfectm you want to get as close as you can and this tuning method helps. thanks for watching!
Great video Randy. This is a subject that I'd kind of abandoned or forgotten about for years but recently my interest has been rekindled and I've been researching a bit. I know you're playing acoustic guitar here; I play electric. These concepts should work without issue on my regular old "strat style" tremolo bridges. I'm curious though if it would negatively impact my Floyd Rose bridges? Those are so darn sensitive and mine are all set up for "perfect" tuning on your average run-of-the-mill chromatic tuners. Some of the things I'm working on would require tweaking these settings kind of frequently. Any thoughts on that? Thanks man!
yep it'll work, tho you may have to tweak your Floyd and fine tune everything for the change, but once you get everything you might be surprised how well it turns out. good luck! and thank for watching!
Hey Randy,what is your thoughts on santa cruz parabolic or straight up balanced strings?
they are great strings but were designed and intented for santa cruz guitars, tho they'd still work on other brands but best on cruz guitars. thanks for watching!
Nuts, I had the description typed in but my kindle decided to crap out on me and go back to your video. Anyway I called Sue at Peterson and she said to use the James Taylor sweetener for the acoustic guitar..Ain't that nice you can vary it in your guitar case too.
Once again I learn domineering from your channel. Thanks again
are there any headstock tuners that you know of that do this automatically, where you would just see E, B, G, D, A, E ?
Yes, Peterson has a clip on tuner ( the HD clip on tuner ) that has a sweetener setting that does just this. On the Peterson the setting will be auc which is the James Taylor tuning that Randy is demonstrating so well. Also, there is an app called airyware that does a very good job as well.
@@jamierobinson9184 ACU
This 'sweet' tuning is also called the James Taylor Sweet Tuning Method. Taylor has a video on it. BUT! It's built-in as a present on Android's Playstore: Airyware Tuner. Also, Hi Randy!! Whoooooooo a.
Hi! I can't find the airyware tuner? Is it still up? Can you link it?
so i got the app my two guitars which i have been standard tuning to the 0 taking you advide it made both my guitars sound amazing at least i think it is it resonates waaaay better so thanks man.
great video randy. thanks. do you play in any other tunings? a lesson on drop d would be cool. man i love doc watson!
Drop D is about the only other tuning I play in from standard tuning, I've been thinking about doing a video on how non-standard tunings effect guitars especially if left in the non-standard tuning too long because most guitars are not designed to handle the much different stress non-standard tuning puts them in. Thanks for viewing my friend! Cheers!
Really only makes sense. When you press on a string it will make it sharp from 440. I never thought of that before. Another good tutorial. And be a Simple...kind of man...Rock on Randy!
+Archie Bunker Exactly!!! Anytime you force a string from it's perfectly straight position it's got to go sharp, this works! :) Thanks for dialing in bro!
Depends which string and where you're pressing. That was very poorly worded Archie Bunker.
Yes, when you press a string down to a fret you stretch it as well as shortening its sounding length, which raises its pitch further. But this is compensated by the frets, which are placed to not shorten the strings by quite the mathematical interval required. The problem is a different one: with straight frets you can compensate perfectly for any given string, but not for different strings at the same time. Some compensation can be built into the nut and bridge as well, but the only way to get perfect intonation (for whatever scale you are tuned to) on every fret on every string, is by having irregular frets.
You have a center of wealth of knowledge.,,, knowing and learning is what we search for/I Bow~
Just tried it with this app..sounds great..my physical tuner doesn’t have this smaller cents..lol
Hi from the U.K. Randy ! Any thoughts about how this might apply to a 12-stringer ? I know a few players who break octave-G's at an alarming rate , maybe keeping that one as flat as you dare might help ? I know from experience that putting the 1st and 2nd pairs ( theoretically perfectly in unison) a tiny bit OUT of tune with their "brothers" can increase the "jangling" effect we want with a 12 . Cheers all , Nige .
+Leftienige Blank Thanks my friend for tuning in and commenting! Yes it's effective on a 12 string too, according to the laws of physics, when any string is in tune it should be in a perfectly straight line from one end to the other, any force such as plucking the string, or pushing it down until it comes into contact with the fret will cause it's frequency to go up, we usually don't hear that tiny bit but theoretically by moving it from it's perfectly straight line in any way increases the pitch, so it "should" effect all guitars in some way. Those few cents lower could indeed save that high G string, I have broken a bunch of them myself. Hope that helps, thanks again! :)
A common thing to do with 12 strings is to tune it one whole step lower and use a capo on the second fret if you need to play in key with someone or something. This also makes it easier on your fingers if you're a wusy newbie.
Hi Randy, I like the voice of experience in yr videos, and this tuning trick has got my D28 (which has iffy intonation ' 1975) sounding in tune finally, but why does the series go -3, -6, -4 cents, should it not be 3 4 6 8 10 12, not 3 6 4?
Also, there are 100 cents in a whole step, 50 in a half... :)
I think the numbers jump out of a continuous pattern because the first two strings are solid and the next four are wound. It probably comes from the physics of the diameter of the strings and the cross sectional density.
I have noticed for years that making my 6th string flat sounded better. This technique refines what I have been doing. What an improvement! Thanks.