# The Great Ongoing Guitar Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 31, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172 "2010-01-31T23:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 314
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6266 "2023-12-30T16:28:04Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > > > To set the string height, I have one of those cheap tools that’s a combination fret rocker and measuring tool. Like this… > > Well done! I’m falling by a local music shop tomorrow to grab a replacement string, so if they have something like that, even better. > > Yo, you really think I can get just about any gauge string on the bottom, without too much tension that it will snap? I think so: just a matter of getting the wraps right and making sure no sharp edges are at the nut or bridge. One thing I will say about the measuring tool I posted, the suggested action height printed on it are low. Very low. Fender and G&L both suggest 5/64” on the bass side and 4/64” on the treble side. I think the biggest problem with a big string gauge on the bottom will be it fitting into the nut slot. Otherwise unless you use the bottom string from a bass I don’t see a problem. Maybe, MAYBE if you use an unbalanced set for a long time you might introduce a twist into the neck. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6267 "2023-12-30T16:37:07Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > I’ve followed the Johnny Smith (he’s a jazz guitarist!) method for a few years. Pretty much every string, every harmonic, but done in a methodical way. > > This method makes it easy to do quick spot-checks (very end of the “lesson”), and has the advantage of tuning to fretted notes, where possible, which is where I live on the guitar, such that I do. > > [The Johnny Smith Stringing & Tuning Method | MarkWeinGuitarLessons.com](https://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/threads/the-johnny-smith-stringing-tuning-method.90100/) Personally? That looks like a lot of fuckin’ work. I have split post tuners, I cut the length so that I get a couple wraps on the low E to several wraps on the high E and don’t think much about it. I tune using a tuner, doing some stretching work to take the initial instability out of the new strings. One the stings are stable, I do a tuning pass with the tuner, play a few chords then maybe tweak by ear. Then I get after it. Any subsequent session starts with 10 seconds of tuning either with a tuner or against who I’m playing with and it’s go time. ---
**Author:** ![ColdBrew50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@ColdBrew50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdBrew50)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6268 "2023-12-31T07:25:49Z")
Well, turns out I didn’t need any ruler, nor even the feeler gauges (except out of curiosity). Just grabbed a screwdriver and went at the screws on each of the three barrels to raise the action, tightened back up the strings, gave it a quick tuning. You nay-sayers about the three barrel saddles…wait for it…wait…intonation after randomly raising the action? Dead on balls accurate at the twelfth fret. And, of course, no more fret buzz. Probably will repeat the process to raise the action a bit further, when I get around to it, but for now, it’s fine. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6269 "2023-12-31T15:50:54Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > intonation after randomly raising the action? Dead on balls accurate at the twelfth fret. That’s physically impossible unless you have a tilt compensated set of barrels. The D and G string for example cannot both be the same length and both be completely intonated. ---
**Author:** ![ColdBrew50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@ColdBrew50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdBrew50)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6270 "2023-12-31T20:35:37Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > unless you have a tilt compensated set of barrels Ah, but they _are_ tilt compensated, out of the box. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6271 "2023-12-31T20:42:38Z")
gotcha. that’s what I missed. The straight barrels drive me crazy; the tilted barrels are the way of the gods. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6272 "2024-01-01T17:15:35Z")
Received Peterson strobe stomp pedal for my Christmas. They keep improving it. The current version has a high def display and can send power down the chain for other pedals. You can save custom tunings in colors. Green could be standard. Red for Open G. Makes it easy on stage. The better display is easier to see on stage. Although you probably would still have trouble in direct sunlight at outdoor gigs. > **[StroboStomp HD | Peterson Strobe Tuners](https://www.petersontuners.com/products/stroboStompHD/)** > > Featuring the largest tuning display Peterson Tuners has ever incorporated into one of their pedal tuners, the StroboStomp HD boasts a high-definition, LCD screen that incorporates a variable color LED backlight. The user-selectable colors can be... ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6273 "2024-01-01T17:17:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > You can save custom tunings in colors. Green could be standard. Red for Open G. Makes it easy on stage OK, that’s a clever feature. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6274 "2024-01-01T17:23:18Z")
I’m still not sold on Sweetened tunings. The intonation on electric guitars is so good. I use Drop D and Open G. Covering Joni Mitchell requires some very odd tunings. _Both Sides Now_ is Open D. But someone has to convince me sweetened brings much to a song. Maybe I’d use the James Taylor sweetened to cover his stuff. But it sounds fine in standard. On any Peterson tuner James Taylor sweetened is **SBJ** select that and tune. He might come by with a box of chocolate. 😉 James Taylor (Standard with offsets) - E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6275 "2024-01-01T17:55:34Z")
I mean, I sweeten my tunings by ear. Play some big chords and mess every so slightly with GBE. I don’t have a Peterson tuner, just a Snark, so maybe you don’t need to do this, but it improves things for me. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6276 "2024-01-01T18:00:02Z")
I do that too. It bugs me when the the open G string and 2 fretted G notes in a G chord are off. Same with the open D string and fretted D note in a D chord. Open strings and the same fretted notes need to play nice together. 😉 Sweetened takes it even further. I don’t understand or particularly care about the math. But there is some tiny error built-in with a guitars fret layout. It used to be ignored unless a musician was cursed with perfect pitch. Today, tuners are so incredibly accurate that they can address any imperfections with compensated tuning. Btw, I’ve read perfect pitch can be a curse. It makes listening to music annoying because the listener notices the slightest error in pitch. A performance that 20,000 might applaud isn’t perfect enough for that one person. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6277 "2024-01-01T18:17:01Z")
[The master speaks](https://www.straightdope.com/21342015/what-is-perfect-pitch) > [@](#): > > People with perfect pitch are often called upon by choirmasters and such to be human pitch-pipes. But if you arrive late for practice and the rest of the chorus is singing a quarter tone flat, you may find the experience excruciating. What’s worse, as you age, your eardrums lose their elasticity and everything you hear goes a bit sharp. Most people don’t notice the change, but for those with perfect pitch nothing sounds right anymore. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6278 "2024-01-01T18:22:55Z")
I don’t like the sound of the open B string. It sounds harsh and shrill. It used to be worse when I was in my twenties. My high range hearing has diminished with age. I can no longer hear the high notes used in anti-loitering devices used to chase away teenagers from public areas. I usually play a fretted B note on the G string. It’s warmer to my ear. Sometimes the fingering forces me to use the open B string. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6279 "2024-01-01T18:23:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Btw, I’ve read perfect pitch can be a curse. This has always puzzled me a bit (I don’t have it, though I think I have good relative pitch). The question is, perfect pitch in which tuning standard? A=440? But that’s a fairly arbitrary standard, and has actually changed over time! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6280 "2024-01-01T18:28:28Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I can no longer hear the high notes used in anti loitering devices used to chase away teenagers from public areas When I was in my late thirties, there was a neighbor down the street that had some sort of motion sensor + noise maker to keep dogs off their lawn. My wife and I would take walks around the neighborhood, and I’d have to cross the street to avoid that house because of the extremely high pitched noisemaker. It was excruciating. My wife couldn’t hear it at all!! Now 61, I wonder if I can still hear that pitch. Probably not. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6281 "2024-01-01T18:33:11Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Now 61, I wonder if I can still hear that pitch. Probably not. It’s rather depressing. My hearing used to be surprisingly good, given that I’d played in a lot of quite loud bands. But now it cuts off around 11 Khz. Still, there are many worse off… ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6282 "2024-01-01T18:33:56Z")
I’ve noticed on _The Voice_ the coaches will concentrate intently during the difficult notes in a song. That’s when they decide if they’ll press the button. I usually don’t listen that carefully to the singer and the accompaniment. I prefer not to hear any dissonance in the pitches. I want to enjoy the performance. There is a point where the pitch problem can’t be ignored. _American Idol_ loves featuring that. I don’t have perfect pitch. It’s relative between two notes. They create a 3rd dissonant note. Humans can ignore it unless it’s more than 10 to 15 cents off. It’s the same as the open D string and fretted D note in a D chord. You’ll hear the wha-wha sound if it’s way off. Eventually the tuning gets close enough that you no longer hear the low frequency dissonance. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6283 "2024-01-01T18:41:55Z")
I’ve got pretty good pitch memory. If there’s a song I’ve heard before, it plays back in my head in the right pitch, even if I haven’t heard it for a very long time. If I dig it up and play it, my memory was almost always correct. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6284 "2024-01-01T18:54:59Z")
That’s interesting. There may be a sort of sliding scale between absolute and relative pitch? I can quite often realize what key a song is in because I recognize the guitar lick patterns. But pitch memory? Not so much. Of course once I’ve got the key, it’s all relative harmony: Nashville notation and all that… ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172/6285 "2024-01-01T20:31:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Btw, I’ve read perfect pitch can be a curse. It makes listening to music annoying because the listener notices the slightest error in pitch. A performance that 20,000 might applaud isn’t perfect enough for that one person. I used to work with a singer who had perfect pitch. She claimed there are 50 ‘microtones’ between each half step. I spent a lot of time tuning up, even when things sounded fine to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172.md?page=313) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-guitar-thread/527172.md?page=315)