Tuners

My Name IsJonas

so how do they work

and how much are they?

NeMiSiS

Em.. they work by magic.
You plug your guitar in and it tells you wether its flat.. sharp.. or bang on.. to whatever desired note you are planning on tuning said string too..
They range from about a tenner upwerds..

This for real ?

Tom

feylya

Some people are a bit simple about guitar related things. It works by comparing the frequency of the note to a not stored in memory. It takes the difference and compares them.

daram

I have a great tuner. No mic and no cables. Clips on to the guitar and "listens" to the natural vibrations made by the guitar. Works in noisy backrounds etc. And its small. Problem is it has strange batteries and they be expensive.

Doctor J

What Feylya said. Basically it analyses the frequency of the note you play and tell you what it is. Different manufacturers tuners are sometimes calibrated slightly differently, so if you're in a band you should all really have the same tuner.



The Boss TU-2 is probably the most common one at a decent level, very good for gigs, your audience doesn't have to listen to "The Tuning Song". It's a bit pricey but it'll last for years and years and a lot of other musicians you meet will have one too (so they're calibrated the same and you'll all be in tune)

fitz

Have to agree with the Doc on this one.
TU-2 is a great piece of kit, I've found it invaluable for gigging.

Zoton

I thought they were all based on the A at 440 Hz

Doctor J

Yep, but what is A440. How do you know? Calibration. Some manufacturers are less accurate than others.

Zoton

Its just the note pitch at a frequency of 440Hz. (We call it A but a lot of countries that don't have ABC etc. or flats or sharps as far as i know.)

Doctor J

I know, but how do you know when you're at 440Hz? The machine you're analysing the frequency with has to be calibrated, it's values have to be set. For example, a car speedomoeter analyses the frequency the wheels rotate at and returns it's findings as Xmph. But not all speedos are accurate, that's why you'll hear of Gardai sometimes giving 10% discrepancy to allow for inaccuarate speedometers. In the same way a tuner has to be calibrated so that it correctly calculates the frequency of a signal. I mean, not every watch will stay at the correct time over a period of time, even though they all say it's one second after another. It's exactly the same with tuners, some are calibrated better than others, especially at the botom end of the market, so if you're in a band you want to tune up from an identically calibrated piece of equipment to ensure you are all in tune with each other.

Zoton

I'd say that they'd be more accurately be able to determine the correct frequency better than the human ear. Even if the calibrations are slightly off, the margin of error wouldn't be detectible my 99.9% of people, imho.

Doctor J

You'd be surprised. I've found some quite jarring discrepancies in my time. They can determine the frequency better than a human ear, but if any of the values it uses to determine the frequency is off, it'll just give an incorrect reading, that's why, IMO, if you're playing in a group, you're better off using the same make/model of tuner.

Paladin

[As A matter of fact]

Cheap tuners can be quite a bit off. Also the human ear can be very accurate at comparing notes. You ever listened to the inteference caused by harmonics that are slightly off? The human ear can get within a fraction of a Hz. (me = electronic engineer & avid guitarist )

PersonalJesus

The dialling tone of ure average telephone is exact A.

Just a random fact there if ure reall stuck.

Yeah get a boss tuner, easily the best without breaking the bank.

But if u have a multi effects one should be built in. And it seems that you may be a beginner so getting an oul zoom 505 might not be a bad idea, you can play around with ure sonunds a wee bit too.

All else failing get everyone in your band (if ure in one) to tune to each other, then atleast youll be in tune with each other.

But then again there is no such thing as in tune look at sonic youth, ya dont need to be in tune to sound good.

RichyX

You can get a guitar tuner for the Nokia 60 series and the 7650 (the brick) phones.
Never used it myself but its a groovy idea.