Sweetened tuning

[Wildwind]

This may be of interest to some of you. A friend of mine bought a Peterson stomp tuner (almost $200 new) and was showing me the ‘sweetened’ tuning. We tried it on my Melancon with great results. The Melancon already has a compensated scale (sort of like a Buzz Feiten but without the need for a special tuner) and sounds REALLY in tune all the time, but the Peterson still managed to improve on that.

What we did was carefully tune with the Peterson, then plug into my POD X3 (the PODs XT and X3 have excellent tuners). Examination of each string showed that the Peterson tuned the entire guitar slightly sharp uniformly except for the G string, which was sharper yet.

With a POD, tune each string just a bit sharp – the diamond will be just right of the dead center mark. Then tune the G string until the diamond is hitting or slightly passing the right side of the “window frame”. (You'll have to adapt this for your own tuner obviously.) Play a few chords and see what you think.

I had read some years ago that an orchestra guitarist (like from TSO or something) recommended that the guitar always be tuned a bit sharp. He said it improved the tone (something I did notice, though it’s subtle) and made it mix better with the other instruments, but I had never tried it until now.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Greg

[Stevie Nature]

I have a Peterson Strobo Stomp. The "sweetened" tuning is....well.... sweet. Let me put in a big plug for this pedal. If you've ever tuned your guitar with a regular tuner, strummed, and it sounded just a little off, you know the frustration. I think they say that the Strobo Stomp is like 10x more accurate than a regular tuner. I wasn't aware of the whole "slightly sharp" part of it. Good info. The only negative I can say about it is that since it's a true bypass there's no way you'd ever use it plugged in through the system without giving your sound guy a heart attack from the pop. I'm getting ready to a buy volume pedal with a separate tuner out to bypass the bypass issue. Anyway, otherwise a great tuner. Definitely worth the extra cash if you can afford it.

[sicstrings]

Cool tip on the "sweetened" tuning. I'm going to try that right now.

Oh, by the way... TSO ROCKS!!! I'm going to the show on DEC. 2nd!!!

[Stevie Nature]

Just an update on the Strobo Stomp pedal. I was messing with it today through my Fender PD 150. (Day off from work well spent. :D) I tried 1/4" in and out into my Para D.I., then through the system, and much to my delight no popping noise. The popping only happened when going xlr out from the Stobo Stomp directly into the system. IMO it's kind of silly to have an xlr out on the thing if it's going to pop, but anyway I found a way around it. Now I don't have to bother getting any other equipment except a patch cable. It's sweet because all of my gear fits in my case.

[lytesource]

OMGsh, I've been tuning sharp for years! I knew it just sounded 'sweeter' that way. Thanx for putting some clarity on it for me.

[dan_tone]

Count me in. I'm a very happy owner of a Peterson Strobostomp, my wife got it for me. It's works great and is built like a tank.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/190/502625169_e0d0223418.jpg

[Stevie Nature]

The plastic on the screen is coming off on mine. My fault, though. Left it in a hot car. I think some super glue will fix it.

[Tim.Crook]

If I get one of these or just sweeten my own tuning, will it make the other guitars playing sound off? I've considered getting one of these before so I'm just wonderin.

[Stevie Nature]

It hasn't affected anything negatively on my worship team.

[Wildwind]

Excellent question, Tim. And Stevie is right – it won’t hurt anything.

But there were rumors back in the early days of the Buzz Feiten system that if you had a guitar set up with that, other instruments would sound bad or dull or flat. Systems like that on my Melancon, a different take on the compensated scale/fret placement supposedly answered this objection.

I will concede a single point – compensated tuning does work and it does make a guitar sound better. Hence other instruments may pale in comparison, but it won’t make them sound bad or make the band sound out of tune. On the contrary, I think it improves the sound of the band, since guitars are usually out of tune anyway to an extent.

The sweetened tuning is essentially similar to the compensated scale systems (though even those guitars can benefit by the sweetening, making them sound even better), so I believe this is relevant.

So sweeten away without fear. I don’t do it with the actual tuner – I borrowed a friend’s, tuned very carefully, then plugged into my POD and checked out where each string tuned (the POD’s tuner in the XT and X3 are actually quite excellent) – then I went forth and did likewise and got the same results.

Greg

[Tim.Crook]

I'm sold!!! As soon as I can come up with 200 bucks I'm buying one!!!

[Wildwind]

Good move. I'd like one too, will no doubt spring for one in the near future. My friend loves his.

[hefdaddy42]

I've never tried this "sweetened" tuning before, but I will give it a whirl at practice tonight.

[stephen_can_man]

Ok I read this post and was very skeptical, but, I tried it and it actually worked! I was sitting around in my office and thought I would try tuning my baby taylor a little sharp and the g string slightly sharper like was mentioned, and to my surprise it sparkled nice and even. Weird. Anyway I wasn't convinced completely so I played Hillsong's "Mighty to Save" and I could hear my acoustic sit right in the mix. I was very surprised. To get the accuracy in tuning I used the Intellitouch tuner which clamps on the headstock of the guitar and uses the vibrations to tune. It is the best tuner ever for non pickup equipped guitars. It also has 3 arrows on both sides of the reference pitch, so I was able to get the G string one arrow more than the rest. Wow, I just thought my guitars were never set up properly so they always would sound a little sour, but, I think I found a new system. Anybody try this with the Boss TU-2?

[bassgeek]

I had a little extra play money so I bought the "Flip" version. The first time I took it to worship team practice, our leader was all over it as soon as I pulled it out of my bag . . .

Worship Leader: "What ya got there? Oh cool tuner. What did you have to pay for that? What, $200 ?!? There is no way I could justify spending that on a tuner."

The next week, he was tuning up his guitar (I play bass) and I offered him my cord to the tuner. He tuned each string, strummed three chords, smiled, looked at me and said "I think I just justified getting myself one of these."

We haven't tried any of the sweetening settings yet, maybe we should do that.

[Stevie Nature]

Do it. Sweetened tuning is....well....sweet.

[chrisfromcanada]

Wow - I got a Strobo Stomp back in January and have been using it since then. I love it just because of how easy it is to use but I've never really listened to see if there's an actual change in the tuning.

I'll have to pay more attention at practice on Friday! :)

[Stevie Nature]

Chris,

I think there's setting in the tuner for sweetened tuning. I forgot how to do it. I just set it up when I first got it.

[vanillalatte777]

Hello. I've been lurking here for quite awhile now. I've gotten lots of great info from you guys.

I just ordered a Turbo Tuner from Sonic Research. It's a real strobe tuner as oppsosed to some of the the Petersons which are simulated strobes.

http://www.turbo-tuner.com/

It should be delivered today. I'll let y'all know how it works out.

I found this thread while Googling for sweetened tunings :) Thanks.

[chrismoncus]

Dude. Great tip.

Regarding acoustic versus electric, does the same rule apply for both. What about for styles? Do you modify it for different styles?

[Wildwind]

Very good question. I find the sweetened tuning works great for electric guitar, especially in the mix. And that it seems to work better on my Strat-style guitars than my Les Paul.

But on acoustic I don't hear it much. I should try it again though.

It's all in the ear of the beholder and tuning is a very personal thing. By all means give it a try and let us know.

Greg

[NLoomis]

Tuning sharp is a common practice. When I played in concert and jazz bands, we were often encouraged to be very slightly sharp. Certainly given the choice, you'd always rather be a little sharp than a little flat. A slight sharpness gives your tone a lift, whereas being slightly flat "depresses" the sound.

We applied much the same principle when I sang barbershop. The person singing the major third in any chord that contains one should sing it slightly sharp, as it causes the chord to ring out better. My understanding is that it has something to do with the mathematical ratios between the notes and that it just sounds sweeter to the ear.

Think about this one. Your backup singers tend to sound a little flat when they sing a major third, don't they? This is why. If you never noticed this, listen extra carefully at your next rehearsal.

Nathan

[ChadBrooks]

I know that for years when I was setting up Telecasters that I would do some work on the bridge to deal with the tuning issues that the g string traditionally has. I horsed around with this last night and it did seem to make a big difference. I just wonder I will adapt this to alternate tunings?