I'm a regular viewer and hold their knowledge in high regard, but something Mick said today really got my attention and was a wake up call....
The question was: what is the most important pedal on the board. PRS said that the tuner was, but Mick said if you can't tune the guitar you shouldn't be playing it.
Holding my hands up here...I cannot without a tuner, as I've always used a tuner so never learned to.
How many others are in the same situation or do you feel it's a necessary skill, given that tuners are so readily available?
Thoughts, comments, brickbats.....
Don't let your mind post toastee - like a lot of my friends did!
Comments
I can't tune by ear but I know how to bend to the right pitch.
I'm also an avid follower of TPS and respect there opinions and views with high regards. Can highly recommend seeing them live.
flanging_fed “
But Mick is still wrong (for a gigging board anyway), no one wants to listen to you tuning up. Let alone if you needed to retune mid song and were trying to do it by ear. Headstock tuners get knocked off, aren't reliable when other things are making loud noises and don't mute your output.
Tuner pedals are great for silent visual tuning but you’ve got to train your ears before relying on a box.
I suppose you’ll be telling me next that you can’t read a map and you’ve always just followed the satnav.
http://www.theboxwoodchessmen.com/
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Equally when gigging you should have a pedal tuner that mutes your signal. Nobody needs to hear you tuning. With a Polytune I can check tuning silently in the space of a single bar mid-song if I need to.
But... tuning up in a noisy performance room at volume is not easy. The human ear will tune up too sharp under those circumstances and it's far simpler to use an electronic tuner to mute your signal and quickly get it right so you can give your best to the next piece or song. For an audience, hearing musicians tune up is boring. The important thing is to make sure everyone in the band agrees that A=440 or whatever, and all the tuners are set so it is! :-)