Tuners And Tuning

[toeshy]

ok i am playing around with different tunings but my tuner only does standard tuning for 6 and 7 string guitars which is fine as long as all of the strings fall under the one of the following keys: E A D G B E but if i want to do something like drop B i would need to change it to B F# B E G# C# and with my tuner i wouldn't be able to get the C# or the F#.

My question: is there any tuners that could help me tune to anything other than standard or are there tricks i can learn that would save me the cost of a tuner?

[Nick]

ok i am playing around with different tunings but my tuner only does standard tuning for 6 and 7 string guitars which is fine as long as all of the strings fall under the one of the following keys: E A D G B E but if i want to do something like drop B i would need to change it to B F# B E G# C# and with my tuner i wouldn't be able to get the C# or the F#.

My question: is there any tuners that could help me tune to anything other than standard or are there tricks i can learn that would save me the cost of a tuner?

My (cheap) tuner has a chromatic tuner so will tune to whatever you want.

Easier is to tune the guitar relatively though a drop B on a guitar without VERY heavy strings is going to be like playing an elastic band and will be really difficult to play in tune as you will constantly bend the strings out of tune.

But if you have to then tune your 2nd string to B as normal and top E as normal.

Next tune your 4th (D) string down so that it is an octave under (hopefully you can do this by ear if not the 12th fret on the 4th string needs to be the same as the open 2nd. Next detune the 6th string so that it is an octave under - or do the 12th fret = open 4th string.

Now you have two strings right.

Tune the 3rd string down from G to E which is an octave under your 1st string (or 12th fret 3rd = open 1st).

Now detune 5th string so that it is the same as the 7th fret on the 6th string.

Now 2nd string down so that it is the same as the 4th fret of the 3rd string.

Lastly top string so that it is the same as the 5th fret of the 2nd string.

By now most of it will have gone horribly out of tune and you'll probably be wondering why you did it...

But that would work.

Why do you want to do it by the way?

My son plays a 7 string and tunes down to a low B but has a much heavier string and tends to tune to B E A D G B E

On my 6 string I tune to CGCGCE or CGCGCD quite a lot as I like Dougie Macleans songs but even with medium weight strings (13 - 56) the C is still quite low and I usually use a capo.

Edited February 2, 2010 by Nick

[djrue211]

An easy way to tune without a tuner, to any tuning really, is to tune to a piano if you have one around and if you know the notes on the piano (it's not that difficult to learn anyway).

-Dan

[Jim622]

Korg GA-30 - around $15. I use it for Open G, D, and E.