Saturday, 4 December 2010

DIY: Guitar Tuning

By Eric Paul


Did you know that appropriately stringing or re-stringing your guitar depends on selecting the correct strings for your playing style? Choosing the proper strings will make a big difference in the sound you produce as every sort of string will have a specific sound trait. There are several types and brands to select from. You should adhere to the following process to stringing your guitar to obtain optimum performance.

The "Classic" acoustic guitar is in a class all by itself. It's called the Traditional and will always use nylon strings. Avoid putting steel strings on a Classic acoustic guitar because the high tension of steel strings will severely damage the bridge and soundboard. The Classic guitar's nylon strings generate a round, mellow sound which could be the preferred sound for classical, Latin, and most pop/folk styles. The Classic is often played with the fingers as opposed to a pick for a softer, smoother sound and for this purpose has a wider fingerboard of 50mm, at the nut, vs. the 40mm fingerboard of the steel-string acoustic guitars.

The nylon strings of a Basic acoustic guitar are much easier to fret with only 75-90 pounds of tension compared to steel-string models with tension at 150-200 pounds. Steel-string acoustic guitars produce that bright, metallic sound heard for most Country and Western music songs. The five styles for steel-string acoustic guitar are the Jumbo, Dreadnought, NEX, Artist, and Folk. The Traditional body style is the smallest and also the easiest to hold. The Artist and Folk are the smallest steel-string designs and are about the same size as the Basic. The cut-away fashion permits effortless upper fret access but reduces volume by 15-20%.

When it comes to tuning your guitar, a small battery-powered hand-held tuner is the most accurate and convenient way to tune your guitar. Having said that, it's also a good idea to train your ear to hear suitable pitch in case a tuner isn't obtainable. When you need to learn the best way to play by ear, this strategy will be a necessity. Another benefit to training your ear to hear suitable pitch is to be able to recognize when your guitar may go out of tune whilst you are playing. Quite generally, strings will stretch, specifically new strings, as you're playing and even more so if you ever play for extended periods of time.

One other way to tune a guitar is with a piano provided that the piano you use is in tune. No matter what kind of guitar you play - Bass guitar, Traditional acoustic, Steel-String acoustic, or Electric guitar - making use of the correct procedure of stringing your guitar using the appropriate strings for your playing fashion and properly tuning your new strings along with regular maintenance will aid in keeping you sounding great.




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