There is actually more involved in tuning a guitar, especially an electric, then one might think. Besides getting each string to register a “green light” on a tuner, there are some additional factors that influence tuning that I’d like to point out. (I could have called this write-up “Hidden Difficulties of Tuning your Guitar”.)
First off, each string needs to be in tune to the guitar itself. This is called “intonation”. (Intonation means the accuracy of a pitch.) You intonate a guitar by adjusting the bridge. On most electrics, this is accomplished by adjusting the little “saddles”. On an acoustic, the saddle (the little light-colored piece of material) needs to be filed in a certain way. This is usually done in a “set-up” by a good repair person. How and why this works is a topic of another article, but you should know that a guitar needs to be intonated in order to be in tune.
An often missed point about tuning, is that your right arm influences how difficult or easy it is to tune your instrument. If your right arm is putting any pressure on the instrument that pulls it in towards your body: (1) your body acts as a pivot point, (2) the pressure from your right arm “pulling back” combined with your left arm tuning the tuning keys and applying a little pressure at the head of the instrument causes the neck to slightly bend, resulting in (3) the pitch of the string changing. You can easily demonstrate this phenomena by strumming the open strings and letting them ring, placing your left hand on the head of the guitar, your right arm on the body of the guitar and gently pulling towards you with both limbs. You will hear the pitch’s go sharp. This is a cool effect to use when playing, but not when tuning. When you do this, you are trying to stabilize the pitch while it’s moving which is impossible! (And often a hidden source of frustration.)
This is an often hidden element that creates difficulty and frustration when tuning. You can let your right arm rest on TOP of the guitar body with a slight downward pressure, just don’t let that arm pull back. Acoustic guitars are not quite as sensitive, but this applies as well to a greater or lesser degree. (I’ve observed my guitar students tuning for about twenty-eight years and know of what I speak!)
In “unison tuning,” Another “hidden” action that creates difficulties is the left hand slightly bending the string when playing a note. When you bend a string, the pitch changes—even a tiny bit. When playing, this might not matter. When tuning, it makes things difficult because, again, you are constantly changing the pitch while trying to stabilize it! This doesn’t work. Make sure the direction of your fingers are going straight into the neck to play the note, not at an angle causing the string to slightly bend.
The last tuning element I’ll mention is about the size of the frets. Frets come in various thicknesses: small, medium and jumbo. (There are probably more “technical” names for this factor.) The fatter the fret, the further the string will be from the fingerboard. When playing an electric guitar with fat frets, pushing your fingers down too hard causes the string to slightly bend therefore changing the pitch. This might sound a little subtle, and it is. When tuning, make sure and only press hard enough to get a good sound from the note, if using fretted notes, without over-pressing causing the string to bend, changing its pitch.
Wow! Who would have guessed tuning a guitar can get so involved. But it is. It’s taken many of my beginning guitar students up to two months to get use to “correctly” tune their instruments. If you want to play in-tune, this is time well spent and a valuable skill to learn.
Intonation, right-arm pressure, left-hand string bending and too much finger pressure all make tuning more difficult then it need be.
If tuning is difficult for you, check out these points and see if it gets any easier!
Marty B.
