[musictlk] Tips for Stringing a Guitar

[Sheri Beth Wells-Jensen]

Wow, Dale, what a groovy little device!  I have to admit that, in the roar and fuss  just before we get started playing, I often just give up and hand my guitar or uke or whatever to someone who can see the built-in tuner... it just really is too loud to tune by ear in some situations.  You can also teach nonmusicians to tune instruments using the built-in tuners, and I've done that in a pinch, too!  

It beats running off to tune   in the Ladies Room... *grin*

Sheri

-----Original Message-----
From: musictlk [mailto:musictlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Foggddm at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2013 9:38 AM
To: musictlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [musictlk] Tips for Stringing a Guitar

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
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