Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
This was in the days before the vast majority of musicians tuned to A-440 so I was out of tune on quite a few songs. Maybe it was me because all I used to tune was a pitch pipe. Not the best or most accurate way to tune.


That was before (affordable) strobe and these almost throwaway contact tuners we all have now, I assume? My kid year bands had no piano, organ or keyboard player of an kind, and none of us with strings had a tuner, so one guy tuned and the rest just matched him. I had perfect or very close to perfect pitch so we were likely always within 25 cents of correct, but man, to think of the times now when stores often toss give you a $20 Snark when you buy a guitar.

Right now my local "son" store (mom died 2 years ago and dad last month, so the mom and pop part of it is over) has my Rokit 5 near field monitors on consignment and I wish he would sell them so I could put that money toward the Mini Martin he has in his store right now. Very nice guitar and I can probably get it for close to an even swap if I play him right.


Yes. I'd tune to the pitch pipe or to the piano in the living room. Neither was particularly accurate. I played in a lot of bands back in the early years where that was how the band tuned.... one guy would kinda tune close and everyone else would try to get as close as possible.... while the drummer and the bass player were banging around. On one particular trip to a music store to buy some bigger PA cabinets and a power amp, I decided to spend a couple hundred on a Conn Strobe-tuner. Our band never sounded the same from that day on. It was a noticeable huge improvement because not only was the guitar in tune perfectly with itself, but so was the bass and they were in perfect tune with each other. This is notable in that the bass player in that band was self-admittedly "tone deaf" and he was pretty accurate in saying that. I still have that Conn and use it occasionally. My goto tuner is a cheap Arion HU-8300 that someone left behind in the dressing room after a Wrangler Country Showdown that our house band and club was hosting. We held it for several weeks and I ended up taking it home. It's actually pretty accurate and has inputs and a mic.

My favorite "I don't need a tuner" story....was several years back, at a church. The music minister was leading a small, volunteer orchestra composed of everyone from rank beginners to very accomplished musicians. The piano was tuned to A-440 and the MM would spend a few minutes having everyone tune audibly to the piano. Needless to say, it sounded like a elementary school orchestra. Several of us had suggested that he purchase a tuner and keep it in the rehearsal room and everyone could use it to tune before going to the big room. He kicked back on this since he believed that he had perfect pitch and didn't even need to use the piano as a reference let alone admit that a tiny box was better than his ears. Well, on a whim.... I asked him to "help me tune" at rehearsal. I had my tuner in line.... maybe I shouldn't have done that but it did prove my point. What he called "good" was simply not. Anyway, at a music store visit, sanctioned by him.... we spent a couple of dollars on a chromatic electronic tuner and brought it to the sunday rehearsal and showed him how it worked and he was reluctantly convinced that we needed to use it. So it was placed on the rehearsal room shelf and everyone was told to tune up before rehearsal. Most of the folks used it. It did make a nice difference.

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