KVR Audio

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:17 am

Hey guitarists... forgive the ignorant question.

Is it bad to switch between string tunings a lot? I recently had to have my intonation problems ironed out by a shop (couldn't quite manage it myself) and the guy in the shop mentioned that tuning to different tunings can cause the intonation to go out.

How serious a problem is this?

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:27 am

well as far as i know it can mess with the strings as your tightening and lossening over and over but as for the actual body and neck and such im not 100% sure.
its better to have a couple of guitars and one for each tuning cos then you dont have to piss about so much,but i dont think its because you knacker em

meeks · Post by **meeks** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:41 am

I can only imagine, and this is my dumb point of view, that it could throw off the harmonic center of the strings (dependent on the tuning). I recently took mine to the shop and was explained the importance of the bridge. It was amazing the difference in the way a bar chord at the first fret was in tune and not in tune when the same chord structure was played on the 13th fret. Had lots of problems with floyd rose and bridge position. Is this an acoustic or electric? I'm assuming acoustic but in my wildest dreams I can't foresee a simple alt tuning to throw that much stress off the neck or body to alt tonation. What exactly were you tuning too and what did the guy fix?

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:42 am

absolutely not, I change tunings all the time and only change ny strings about as often as vurt changes his underwear...

I have had no problems, today actually my acoustic was in 4 different tunings...(I'll change the strings next spring of course)...

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:42 am

Depends how you tune I think. If you're using an open tuning like DADGAD you're probably ok, but if you want to do something crazy like tune evrything down a fourth you would probably be wiser to get another guitar set up properly.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:43 am

Hink wrote:absolutely not, I change tunings all the time and only change ny strings about as often as vurt changes his underwear...

you dont use strings

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:45 am

meeks wrote:I can only imagine, and this is my dumb point of view, that it could throw off the harmonic center of the strings (dependent on the tuning). I recently took mine to the shop and was explained the importance of the bridge. It was amazing the difference in the way a bar chord at the first fret was in tune and not in tune when the same chord structure was played on the 13th fret. Had lots of problems with floyd rose and bridge position. Is this an acoustic or electric? I'm assuming acoustic but in my wildest dreams I can't foresee a simple alt tuning to throw that much stress off the neck or body to alt tonation. What exactly were you tuning too and what did the guy fix?

on acoustics you do have to be cocerned with tension on cheapies...I've seen the heel break more then once with standard tuning...

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:46 am

dont buy a cheap acoustic

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:46 am

vurt wrote:
Hink wrote:absolutely not, I change tunings all the time and only change ny strings about as often as vurt changes his underwear...

you dont use strings

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:47 am

vurt wrote:dont buy a cheap acoustic

okay....

jplanet · Post by **jplanet** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:05 am

I also use open tunings, and have on a mid/low price Yamaha acoustic (FG450SA) for more than 10 years, with no negative changes in intonation or overall health of the instrument.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:07 am

This is electric. I stopped playing accoustic because it was f**king boring me

Thanks for the Advice. I tend to tune between drop-d, standard, and drop-c, but some bands like My Dying Bride for example, they use quite a lot of different tunings, it's a pain to learn songs and keep having to retune to learn the next one.

I might invest in some pickups for my old strat replica, build it up a lil bit.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:12 am

fwiw I'm not going into all proving it, but I did on another forum...alternate and open tunings do not change the intonation in anyway.

smp · Post by **smp** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:30 am

The only problem I find is that if I change tunings all the time, I find it hard to keep my guitar in tune. If I leave it in the one tune, the strings seem to settle in after a couple of weeks and I only occasionally have to make minor adjustments.

Caveat: in tune, alternate tunings, out of tuning - I still sound crap so it's not like anyone would notice the difference

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:35 am

I've actually made a lot of progress in the past two months. I feel like a lot more of a competent player now.

Is it bad to constantly retune a guitar to different tunings