OldePhart
Well-known member
Well...since I have to take a day off to take care of sick family members I guess I have a little time to kill...so it's time to be a chatty Kathy...
There was a discussion a while back about whether people trust their tuners...I thought about reviving that thread but decided it had run its course and this topic is a little different.
Anyway, when we were discussing that topic I thought about the performers, especially classical guitarists, who tune their instruments for each piece that they perform.
Any time you have a fretted instrument the intonation is never going to be perfect. Even when it's a custom or a well-set-up high end uke there are going to be some compromises. When we talk about "perfect" intonation we're really talking about "acceptable intonation" - i.e. intonation that is "good enough" that the performer and the audience are not going to be put off by the slight imperfections of certain notes. Obviously, we expect "acceptable intonation" from custom and high-end ukes and it can often be achieved with mid range ukes with careful setup and string selection.
Also, if one hasn't yet developed a discriminating ear one might consider the intonation on a given uke "perfect" while those around are cringing. (The only real way to develop a better ear seems to be to play and listen to instruments with good intonation almost exclusively.)
So, back to the teaser above, how about those top-notch performers who tune an instrument for each piece? What's going on there? I gave it some thought and experimented a little and it seems that certain intervals are much more noticeable than others when the tuning between two notes is not quite perfect.
For me, at least, the most critical interval seems to be the unison - i.e., two notes on different strings being at exactly the same pitch. Even the slightest deviation here is quite noticeable to me, while I'm far less likely to detect a minor pitch problem with the third, the perfect fifth, and even the octave. I suspect I'm not alone in this because mandolin players are infamous for insisting on ear-tuning the string pairs.
So, to put this in the practical realm, if I just tune with a Snark, for example, then even if the intonation of the first position on a uke is quite good the G major chord might sound wonky to me even if I tune the E string fretted at the 3rd fret to get a "perfect" G note. The problem is that even though the G string and the fretted E string are both showing a "perfect" G on the tuner there is a slight difference. On other intervals it's not such a big deal, but on unison notes is enough to drive me a little bit bonkers.
So, to tune for a key where the G major is used a lot, I would ear tune so the open G string and fretted E string are perfect. A similar situation is the G string fretted at the second fret and the open A string of an F major chord. In practice, I've found that if, after tuning with the tuner, if playing in the key of C doesn't sound quite right I can get "perfect" sound by ear tuning the open G to the fretted E, and then the open A to the fretted G. Now, the unison notes in my G and F (and Am) chords are spot on. The notes in other chords may still be a bit out - but as long as they aren't unison intervals it's not so noticeable, at least not to me.
So, do I do this every time? No, it's too much trouble. But, if after "Snarking" the uke something doesn't sound right I then touch up the tuning as described. Now I just need to get my hands on a uke that needs a setup at the nut and see how much of that poor intonation can actually be cleaned up by ear-tuning the unisons...
John
There was a discussion a while back about whether people trust their tuners...I thought about reviving that thread but decided it had run its course and this topic is a little different.
Anyway, when we were discussing that topic I thought about the performers, especially classical guitarists, who tune their instruments for each piece that they perform.
Any time you have a fretted instrument the intonation is never going to be perfect. Even when it's a custom or a well-set-up high end uke there are going to be some compromises. When we talk about "perfect" intonation we're really talking about "acceptable intonation" - i.e. intonation that is "good enough" that the performer and the audience are not going to be put off by the slight imperfections of certain notes. Obviously, we expect "acceptable intonation" from custom and high-end ukes and it can often be achieved with mid range ukes with careful setup and string selection.
Also, if one hasn't yet developed a discriminating ear one might consider the intonation on a given uke "perfect" while those around are cringing. (The only real way to develop a better ear seems to be to play and listen to instruments with good intonation almost exclusively.)
So, back to the teaser above, how about those top-notch performers who tune an instrument for each piece? What's going on there? I gave it some thought and experimented a little and it seems that certain intervals are much more noticeable than others when the tuning between two notes is not quite perfect.
For me, at least, the most critical interval seems to be the unison - i.e., two notes on different strings being at exactly the same pitch. Even the slightest deviation here is quite noticeable to me, while I'm far less likely to detect a minor pitch problem with the third, the perfect fifth, and even the octave. I suspect I'm not alone in this because mandolin players are infamous for insisting on ear-tuning the string pairs.
So, to put this in the practical realm, if I just tune with a Snark, for example, then even if the intonation of the first position on a uke is quite good the G major chord might sound wonky to me even if I tune the E string fretted at the 3rd fret to get a "perfect" G note. The problem is that even though the G string and the fretted E string are both showing a "perfect" G on the tuner there is a slight difference. On other intervals it's not such a big deal, but on unison notes is enough to drive me a little bit bonkers.
So, to tune for a key where the G major is used a lot, I would ear tune so the open G string and fretted E string are perfect. A similar situation is the G string fretted at the second fret and the open A string of an F major chord. In practice, I've found that if, after tuning with the tuner, if playing in the key of C doesn't sound quite right I can get "perfect" sound by ear tuning the open G to the fretted E, and then the open A to the fretted G. Now, the unison notes in my G and F (and Am) chords are spot on. The notes in other chords may still be a bit out - but as long as they aren't unison intervals it's not so noticeable, at least not to me.
So, do I do this every time? No, it's too much trouble. But, if after "Snarking" the uke something doesn't sound right I then touch up the tuning as described. Now I just need to get my hands on a uke that needs a setup at the nut and see how much of that poor intonation can actually be cleaned up by ear-tuning the unisons...
John