Oh sorry about that... American Idol, Hannah Montana, Britney, MTV, record label death, Trent Reznor. OK, quota filled!

HuckNPluck

Who knew that Idolator had so many music geeks in its readership? Sounds like we need more articles like this.

Richaod

    First, I use the adjustable bridge saddles to tune the first partial harmonic at the 12th fret, to the fretted note at the 12th. Make sure the strings are broken in, and aren't still stretching out. Rough-tune till then! When the guitar is settled, I try to get the open D string in tune with the D on a digital keyboard (known correct, hopefully).

    Then, I tune the G-string to the D. The open two-note 4th should have NO oscillation. Then check the 5th, fretting an A on the 2nd fret with the open D. There should be about 1 oscillation per second. Most of the time, it will not be. Fretboards aren't perfect equal-temperament material, that's for sure! It's a judgment call, at that point. You might want to play a note or two on the fretboard, that you're planning to use later, and compare it to the note on the keyboard. If it sounds out of tune, you might want to cheat it a bit with the fine-tuners. On the other hand, I hate it when an open G-chord sounds warbley, so I rarely mess with the perfect open 4th D-G chord, even on badly-made fretboards. Hopefully, it tends flat (most fretboards do), and you can pull notes a little sharp with your fingers. (Most of us do that anyway, especially with vibrato...)

    I then tune the A-string to the D the same way, only I usually end up dropping the A to nearly match an A on the keyboard. (Tune low, and go back up, of course...) Then the low E to the A. I don't even bother with the perfect 4th. I tune it so that the basic thrashing 3-note E-chord sounds right. (E-B-E) Check the low E out against the keyboard, too, but it's not going to be exactly right. You might want to cheat a little, if there's blazing dissonance..

    For the B-string, I tune it to the G-string, playing an open G and fretting the B string at the 3rd fret. Again, I first tune it to no oscillation, but then, I definitely cheat sharp on this one. If you tune the entire guitar on perfect fourths, the low E and the high E will be badly out of tune, so you've GOT to fudge things somewhere, and I do it here, and on the next string. High E tuned to the B-string, but pulled ever so slightly sharp. If I cheat any further, it might be to make certain thirds sound better on jangly, non-distorted things, like "Stairway."

    Even on a fixed bridge, you've then got to go back and check the open D against the keyboard. Chances are the entire guitar has gone flat while you were tightening strings. You might have to repeat the whole process two or three times. With a floating bridge, over and over again. Don't tighten those string locks...

    I've never had lessons on this, or playing. I don't own a tuner, either. I don't like how machine-tuned guitars sound, usually! Professionals tend to cringe at everything from my hand positions, to pick technique, to tuning. I don't know if my tuning method has any validity, but it's just an effort to make the guitar sound good on a variety of tunes, and it's definitely not scientific.

AcidReign

OingoBobo

However, replicating the movement of notes as the movements of balls around a circle doesn't do much for me but confirm that different types of chords involve different spacing between the notes. Which...you know, you could get from looking at a staff of music or...listening to it.

92BuickLeSabre

Mike Barthel

I know that's not really being suggested anyway.

and when Donald sports a safari suit, I don't care..

NotPop

doctaj

Gumboots