[musictlk] Tips for Stringing a Guitar

[Foggddm at aol.com]

Marion, well let's see, my situation is that I play in cover bands at 
various times and use effects on my guitar that make tuning important. I used to 
have an old discontinues tuner that hhad one huge led that lit up when the 
string was in tune that I could see but it died so I did a little research 
and found the stringmaster robotic tuner. It is a little large (about the size 
of  a hand held hair dryer) but it works exceptionally well. It has several 
buttons on it , on/off mode and 2 others which I forget as I never use. By 
default it comes up in standard tuning mode abnd that can be changed but I 
never need to. It has a jack so you can plug the guitar directly into it (so 
noises aren't a problem) or a built in mic if using an acoustic guitar 
without a jack. You place it over the string to be tuned and pick the string. The 
Unit has a motor in it and it turns the tuning peg of the string unti it is 
in pitch. At that point it lets out a loud beep to let you know the strin 
is in tune. I then move on to the next string. It can be a bit tricky with 
the 12 string on my double neck guitar but it still works. the manual for it 
is available on line so how it works can be downloaded and read for anyone 
who needs fancier functions. (I think it will tune in several keys other than 
standard.) Because pone of the other musicians is usually banging away it is 
a boon to me because I plug into it and it doesn't care about backround 
noise and I can hear it beep. It runs on a 9 volt battery and the battery life 
is good. It shuts off by itself after a period of non use. It also beeps 
when I first turn it on. If the battery is about dead it will give erratic 
performance or stop which is a clue to check the battery. I usually change the 
battery every 8 months or so anyway so I don't encounter this problem. 
I solved my downtuning by getting a morpheus which lets me drop down to A 
so as long as I am in standard with the stringmaster I am all set. I also use 
a digitech harmony mand and digitech rp1000 for playing such things as 
Boston where the guitar harmonies are critical to the songs so pitch is 
important.
The stringmaster does not have any kind of a case but I have a padded case 
I keep it in. I bought 2 of them just in case and have one I keep at home 
just in case. I have had them for sevferal years now)since about 07) with no 
defects or problems encountered. My biggest issues would be is that is larger 
than typical and I think fragile if dropped on to say a crete floor etc. So 
I do try to keep it protected. 
I hope this is helpful.
dale