Tuning

Ninhydrin · May 29, 2014

Can I use a guitar tuner to tune my banjolele? I have had new nylon strings and a bridge put on and was told it will need tuned regularly until the strings bed in.

I was looking at the eno tuner which seems popular for guitar users.

The Big Kahuna · May 29, 2014

If it's chromatic, you can tune anything with it. Just so long as it's clip-on or it has a decent microphone. Alternatively, there are plenty of really good Android and iPhone (spit) tuners.

I bought (yes...BOUGHT!) DaTuner Pro for my Samsung S3 and it's excellent.

stevepetergal · May 29, 2014

Eno tuners are great for ukulele tuning.

Ninhydrin · May 29, 2014

Quick fix on the phone app and gonna get an eno, cheers.
Should my banjolele be GCEA ?
Sorry for stupid question I'm very new to this

LloydAZ · May 30, 2014

It depends upon what you want. I have my banjolele tuned gCEA (high G reentrant tuning) but you may want a low G linear tuning.

What size and brand of banjolele do you have?

As for me, neither of the tuners that I have pick up the "A" string very well on my banjolele. I have to pluck the string pretty hard for them to pick it up. It could be because of the thick neck on my instrument (Eddy Finn EF-BU1) that is preventing the thinner string from vibrating enough on the headstock. So I either tune the "C" string with the tuner then tune the rest of the instrument to itself, or I use the tuner in PitchLab on my Android phone or iPad to tune the whole instrument. Either way works fine for me.

Ninhydrin · May 30, 2014

It's a 1930s mass produced george formby banjolele, no idea what size but I do have pics in another of my posts

RichM · May 30, 2014

Ninhydrin said:
It's a 1930s mass produced george formby banjolele, no idea what size but I do have pics in another of my posts

It's almost certainly soprano scale, then, and gCEA is the common tuning.

FinnWest · May 31, 2014

Ninhydrin said:
It's a 1930s mass produced george formby banjolele, no idea what size but I do have pics in another of my posts

George Formby used a D F# B tuning (one tone up from standard C-tuning). But c-tuning (gCEA) might be better for you if you are a beginner. Most tutorials, tabs and chord sheets use gCEA tuning.

Rllink · May 31, 2014

I have an eno that came with my uke. It works very well, and it has settings for chromatic, guitar, violin, banjo, and ukulele. As I said, it came with my uke when I bought it. I don't have a high dollar uke, and I'm pretty sure that the tuner is the cheapest money can buy. But it works great. I leave it on chromatic when I'm picking notes, just to help me find the right ones. It is a great help with that.

dickadcock · May 31, 2014

Rllink said:
I have an eno that came with my uke. It works very well, and it has settings for chromatic, guitar, violin, banjo, and ukulele. As I said, it came with my uke when I bought it. I don't have a high dollar uke, and I'm pretty sure that the tuner is the cheapest money can buy. But it works great. I leave it on chromatic when I'm picking notes, just to help me find the right ones. It is a great help with that.

Holy gcea, Rllink! I never even thought about using it that way. I've used the soprano recorder to "pick out" melodies I don't know, but I'm not very good with it, & reading treble clef.
Thanks!

Tuning

Ninhydrin

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The Big Kahuna

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stevepetergal

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Ninhydrin

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LloydAZ

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Ninhydrin

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RichM

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FinnWest

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Rllink

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dickadcock

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