The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone tune their steels using a tuning fork?

I used to tune with a tuning fork, still have one, but now I use a pretty good clip on tuner. It's hard to get the intervals correct when you just start from A-440, particularly after I found that intermediate harmonics are actually out of tune. For me it's now one of those things that you can do, but why would you if something better and easier is available for almost free?

Brian

For many years all I used was an A440 fork but there are better ways available now. We used to churn our own butter and crank cars to get them to start but those too have gone by the wayside. Some improvements are improvements.

I sometimes use the ball on the end of a tuning fork to burnish the reed slots on my harmonicas. Not so much for tuning anymore though.

I carry a flint and steel to light my cigars.

Danny Sneed here in Arizona still uses one.

WHAT do YOU do if you're all tuned up properly and the band climbs up on stage and they've all tuned to some OTHER tuning source?

THEN What????????????
Please enlighten me........ The band always used to tune to the steel as I had three neck and later on four necks.

Ray Montee wrote:WHAT do YOU do if you're all tuned up properly and the band climbs up on stage and they've all tuned to some OTHER tuning source?

THEN What????????????
Please enlighten me........ The band always used to tune to the steel as I had three neck and later on four necks.

when I was playing full time out of Eugene in the 80's, the lead guitar and fiddler got into an argument about who was in tune. It turned out that the guitarist had bumped a button on his tuner and had tuned to 460 Hz.

The more common scenario is tuning to some other musician in the band.

Which I never do again because our instrument has its own tempered tuning and pitch.

So I stick with my tuner on my multi effects pedal. Enables me to tune in between songs or also while performing.

Tuning forks are really old school. I expect that steel players who did that still used the back of a knife or some odd shape steel object to slide.

That was nearly 100 years ago.

Well George I purchased a Korg WT-12 back in the 80's which I still use to this day. I think it is fairly accurate. Mind you the reason I still use it today is that it cost me a weeks wages back then.

now I have a tuner on my phone which cost nothing and probably does a better job.

I used a fork for my six string guitars before tuners came out but I had a better ear then. We get lazy.

Like most of you, I used a tuning fork until the electronic tuners came out.
I still have the tuning fork and use it to check
the accuracy of my electronic tuners.
When they all agree, I'm comfortable.

I think I still have a couple tuning forks around here buried in a box - but it's been so long since I've seen them that in trying to locate them I likely have a much greater chance of winning the lottery.

I have both the electronic and a tuning fork. I'm one who prefers the fork. It's what I am used to and it works well.

I use a tuning fork to tune my fiddle, or the A strings on my steels when I change strings and tune up for the first time. But the thing I hate about battery devices is all the toxic stuff we throw into landfill.

About battery devices:

Get a multi effects pedal that has a tuner and just plug it in. Use electricity not batteries.

Tuning forks
Great for their many applications but not that accurate over time. Metal even steel can bend by a fraction and then on you out by a few cents. If everyone else is using electronic tuners its best in a band situation especially that you all agree on A at 440hz or whatever you decide. That way you are all on the same page.

If everyone uses electronic tuners and you use a tuning fork it won't be that accurate. Also if you are trying to tune in a live venue it's not that practical. Are you going to ask the audience to be quiet. you might cause a riot.

I have been using my tuning fork for twenty years and it agrees with my electronic tuner. As for a multi effect pedal, it may be practical, but it symbolizes everything I hate in guitar playing.

Yes. I still use an A=440 fork (or sometimes a C=523...).
For me it's quicker than fooling around with a tuner. All the rest I can use harmonics or just the plain old method of
putting the bar on the 5th fret of the B string and tune the B string to sound like the open E, etc. It's very accurate.

When I was a 12 yr old beginner, I used a pitch pipe, but it varied depending how hard you blew. Then I learned that the NBC radio station would play the NBC chimes, which are G-E-C (open strings) on a C tuning. Later on discovered that the WWV time station would play the A=440 tone every hour on the hour (many musicians at the time would use this for the standard.)All of these tones gave me a 'standard' for those notes on my guitar and I just tuned the rest as I said above.

Thanx,
Jim

I just get an "E" from somewhere (guitar player, piano, tuner, fork, etc) ... And tune the rest from there ...

When I taught physics ... We had these big tuning forks attached to a resonating box ... A "sliding clamp" on one tine ... To vary the frequency of one unit ...

Talk about hearing "beats" ... I could get beat frequencies so loud ... The students would cover their ears and beg me to stop ...

No need for detention, whacks or sending them to the dean ... It they acted up ... Out came the forks ...

They were great for demonstrating constructive/destructive interference also ... Fun times

Still have my tuning fork from when i was 15 but it's definitely been awhile

A year or so ago somebody I know who is ~30 asked me how it worked and how you could tune a guitar with it.

Sigh, the next generation does know how good they have it

Jim Bates wrote: Then I learned that the NBC radio station would play the NBC chimes, which are G-E-C (open strings) on a C tuning. Later on discovered that the WWV time station would play the A=440 tone every hour on the hour (many musicians at the time would use this for the standard.)All of these tones gave me a 'standard' for those notes on my guitar and I just tuned the rest as I said above.

I love it! Period novelists out there, take note! (No pun intended)

I still have my tuning fork in my bar and pick pouch (Hi E) over 40 years and still going strong. Before that I used the old "pitch pipe" that they gave me when I took lessons in 1961.

The hardest thing about using a tuning fork was holding it between my teeth.