How often do you tune your uke?

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uke forever
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For me it has become routine to tune the uke once a day, using my chromatic tuner. Sometimes there is just one string a little bit out of tune, not really hearing it, sometimes a little bit more, concerning all strings. How about you?

By tuning once a day I figure it will never be awfully much out of tune.
 
I check the tuning every time I pick up a uke, usually by playing a G6 chord (fingered 0202), and once that chord is sounding nice and precise, all else tends to be well. And every couple of days, I'll clip on the Snark tuner and make sure I haven't had any "drift" one way or the other off of "universal". But honestly, I'm a compulsive tuning-checker, which probably isn't a bad thing, as it's not a good situation to be playing out-of-tune; actually there's really no excuse for it, kind of like missing a belt loop... :rolleyes:
 
Every time I pick one up, if it sounds off. Once the strings are settled in, mine don't drift out of tune much, unless humidity is fluctuating. Always goes sharp in summer, when humidity is high.

John, every time you pick your uke up, it sounds off?? Wow, that's quite an opinionated uke... :eek:
 
For me it goes something like this:

-new strings-
tune it every 5 minutes

-strings < 3 days old-
tune it every hour

-strings < 3 weeks old-
tune it every day

-strings > 3 weeks old-
tune it when it sounds off

My ukes tend to hold tune very well after a the first few weeks of strings settling in. After that I normally only tune up if it sounds bad to me or if I feel like checking up on it... perhaps every couple weeks.
 
I make sure my ukes are in tune every time I pick up one with either the built in tuner or the D'Addario/Planet Waves micro tuner I have on each of the others. Same with my bass ukes/mini electrics. I have about 15 tuners and need to order 6 more.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

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I check the tuning every time I play a uke. Sometimes if we have a long rehearsal or an exuberant meetup group, I will check the tuning every 20 minutes to half hour because the strings will respond to changes in the room’s temperature and humidity and there’s no pleasure in playing an out of tune instrument.
 
The first few days of new strings: several times each playing session.
In general in the begining of each playing session.
When the strings has been on for more than a month, I might get sloppy and play a short session without tuning it, since they are pretty much settled in. But then I tune it next time. The rule of thumb is to tune it every time.
 
I check tuning almost every time I pick my ukulele up. Seldom needs tuning of course ( over 6 month old strings).

At home I first play strumming the I V vim IV, I iiim iim(7) V7, I IV V7, vim iim III7, I vim IV V sequences in C/Am before checking the tuning.
I have found out that after good strumming the string pitches rise slightly (only maybe a 2..5 cents), so best way is to check the tuning when the uke (strings) are warmed up.

And that way my ukulele strings are always from day to day within a few cents range in same pitch.
 
I make sure my ukes are in tune every time I pick up one with either the built in tuner or the D'Addario/Planet Waves micro tuner I have on each of the others.
Are there built in tuners on some ukes?

Edit: of course, you mean using just the strings? Got surprised myself when finding out how scary good the electronic tuner was compared to that. At first it sounded so "clinical", and "unnatural". Now I feel it's just the basis of pleasant play.
 
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I check the tuning every time I pick up a uke, usually by playing a G6 chord (fingered 0202), and once that chord is sounding nice and precise, all else tends to be well. And every couple of days, I'll clip on the Snark tuner and make sure I haven't had any "drift" one way or the other off of "universal". But honestly, I'm a compulsive tuning-checker, which probably isn't a bad thing, as it's not a good situation to be playing out-of-tune; actually there's really no excuse for it, kind of like missing a belt loop... :rolleyes:

Likewise. I check every time I play one. I use a C5 chord - 0022 (G5 on a baritone). If it's in tune there should be no "beats". If I hear the slightest "wobble", I retune. If it starts to sound "off" during a playing session, I will check and tune again. If I'm playing In front of others, I always check before I start playing, even though I will have tuned up beforehand.
 
Every time I take it out of its case and at regular intervals when playing outdoors and the temperature changes during a gig.
 
Bill, I said IF it sounds off. If it does, it gets slapped down with a Snark

Snarky way to deal with an opinionated uke. :D

I never give my ukes a chance to sound off. I always tune before playing them.
 
I tune it every time I pick it up to play. If the strings are newish, I'll tune it every few minutes. Ordinarily, I prefer to leave the tuner off the uke, though, for both appearance and to prevent marks on the headstock. I'm I know a uke will be sitting unused for a while, I'll loosen the strings. I don't know if that's a good idea or not, but I don't like to be any more tense than I have to be, so I figure the uke feels the same. :)
 
I don't like to have anything attached to the uke either, so having the tuner in my lap...not a problem as there are no other significant tones around, so air transmitting is ok.
 
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Whenever it needs it. Seriously, I tune it whenever I'm going to sit down and play it. Like Jerry, I don't leave the tuner on my uke, so sometimes if I'm lazy I just go through the C scale and if a string sounds out of tune it off of the A string, but that isn't often, usually I clip on my tuner. I used to leave the tuner on my ukes and got kind of neurotic about tuning, but now my grand daughter takes them off while I'm playing and loses them so I've gotten into the habit of putting them up somewhere after I've tuned. Then I can lose them.
 
When I pick it up - if it sounds off. Surely the same as everyone?
 
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