Tuning Your Guitar Can Be Tricky!
ByPrior to the start of a worship service I was playing at, I was listening to the Worship Leader tune his acoustic guitar. When he gave the guitar a good strum, I noticed that some of his strings sounded out of tune.
Why on earth did his guitar sound out of tune since he was using an electronic tuner? Being that I was once his guitar teacher, I kindly asked him to take another shot at tuning. When he started re-tuning, I noticed the problem that led to his guitar being slightly out of tune.
Anytime you strike a guitar string, its initial sound is always slightly sharp. When you use a pick (or your fingers) to strike the guitar strings, the initial “pulling” from your strike briefly makes the string go higher in pitch. The string will then settle into its actual pitch after the initial strike. Now, here is where the problem occurs.
All guitar tuners “hear” slowly. When using an electronic guitar tuner, notice a slight delay from the time you strike the string till the time you receive the pitch readout. The tuner’s pitch reading delay combined with the string’s initial sharpness will cause you to tune incorrectly.
The sound of your strings will sound flat (lower in pitch) because you were trying to tune the guitar to your initial strike – which is always sharp (higher in pitch).
When using an electronic tuner, strike the string you want to tune and wait 3 seconds until you begin tuning that string. By waiting 3 seconds, you are allowing the string to settle into its actual pitch.
Watch what happens to the needle & lights when I play a “tuned” guitar through a electronic tuner.
