# James Taylor Tuning lesson.



## stringer (Jun 17, 2009)

I thought I knew how to tune a guitar! This is kinda neat, enjoy.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Very interesting. I wonder how this would apply to an electric guitar. I have a pedal tuner which I always thought was a bit off. The most pleasing sound to my ears was always a tiny bit flat on the tuner.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Its a tv screen. At first I thought I was looking at the biggest tuner I have ever seen


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

GuitarsCanada said:


> Its a tv screen. At first I thought I was looking at the biggest tuner I have ever seen


me too

interesting tip, going to try it


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I tried it. Didn't like it. I would imagine that it depends largely on the set-up and intonation of one's particular instrument. My guitar certainly sounded out of tune - especially with the lower strings - slightly better with a capo on, but still not good. 

I would have been curious to hear him tune his guitar to "standard" pitch for comparison.


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## stringer (Jun 17, 2009)

Not too sure about it myself. I thought maybe the JT enthusiast would find it just the ticket to perfecting his cover tunes. Also not quite sure if I'm reading my snark correctly.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

It makes a bit of sense. I agree with bw66 that each instrument will need varying adjustments.

I tune in some very weird ways. 

examples:

- tuning a G chord and then tweak the 1st three strings to a D
- tuning to a power chord
- tuning with open strings (adjacent strings)


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

I watched the video and found it interesting...
I also think that you need to start with a tuner that is accurate enough so that you dont eyeball the readings.
If I did have a tuner that was cent worthy ( and I don't) I would also try taking 50% off all the recommended readings for each string and see how that worked out.

JUst to recap. TAylor recommends the following :
High E = -3 cent
B = -6
G= -4
D= -8
A= -10
Low E = -12

Im going to have to resolve this cause I find it very interesting.
I also know that for some of my guitars, open string tuning on my tuner does not have the desired effect.

G.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

GTmaker said:


> I also know that for some of my guitars, open string tuning on my tuner does not have the desired effect.


I think this is key - if you're happy with your guitar's tuning, why muck with it? If not, then try different things.

I also find it interesting that the green light comes on at +/- 3 cents on my tuner.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Well, I do have CENT's on my tuner so I gave it a try knowing full well that it was a stupid idea. Surprisingly, it sounds pretty good when I picked the song "Creep" after re-tuning. The jury is still out on this one but I wish I had the hours back that I spent over the years making sure my strings were tuned to "0" cents (440 hz)


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