Problem with new acoustic guitar.

[Newbie123]

Hey everyone,

I've been playing for 4 months now on a pretty low-end classical acoustic guitar. Today I bought a new acoustic, the Seagull S6, and I was playing with it and it was great. Then I got the idea to tune it and noticed that it was horribly out of tune, according to my tuner. So I tuned it up according to my tuner and now it sounds horrible. The tuner worked pretty well for my classical acoustic (my instructor would always retune it during lessons thought) and I had it on the guitar setting and it basically ruined me Seagulls sound. Am I doing something wrong? What can I do to fix this?

Many thanks!

[Gilliangirl]

Hi Newbie123,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new guitar. I have a Seagull S6 and they're good reliable guitars. What exactly do you mean it's horribly out of tune? Was it in tune and you made adjustments to it? Also, what kind of tuner are you using? I'm assuming you're wanting it in EADGBE tuning?

[ssdeluxe]

welcome.

you know, this sounds like maybe the tuner was switched to a diff key?? ...I do this all the time on my cheap seiko tuner ! ......major tuning badness!!

make sure its in a440 and in auto mode/and/or key of C for reference.

I like the korg aw-1 click on (clips to the headstock) one better.

[ClintonHammond]

Your Seagull might be misfretted. (I'm lead to believe that is the biggest flaw Seagulls have... occasional misfretting)

In which case it will be impossible to play in tune.


It's also possible you've been listening to you POS for so long that a new, in tune guitar doesn't sound right to you.

[Mooh]

Many of my students will inadvertently tune a string to another pitch, say D instead of E, because the tuner says it's right. Double check that the string pitch is the correct note, not some other note.

Peace, Mooh.

[shoretyus]

Many of my students will inadvertently tune a string to another pitch, say D instead of E, because the tuner says it's right. Double check that the string pitch is the correct note, not some other note.

Peace, Mooh.

Or is in in 440 pitch. I bought an acoustic last night and is was down a half step or so. Hard to get it to concert pitch ( with my weak ol' eyes) with the tuner oh you have to read it :smile:

Welcome you have got over big hurdle in guitar playing you know something is not right !!

[jimmy c g]

hey there,I notice occasionaly when i tune by ear I can be an octave to high and this is BAD.When you start out make sure you start low (slack)and SLOWLY wind to pitch.you can go to high real easy and some tuners wont know the difference.Hope you dont pull apart!! like the harmony guy!! stay tuned for more

[ratdog]

I had a very similar thought with my new A&L and think it's my old tuner. I'm going to take the tuner to the music shop tommorrow and see how it compares to a tuner there.

Hope that helps.

Ratdog

[Ship of fools]

Well I think you really did answer your own question, when you metioned that your instructor has to re-tune your guitar at the beginning of your lessons. I think it might be time to re-invest into a newer tuner, Seaguls tend to be fairly reliable ( I am sure there might be one or two out there that don't measure up ) and when you buy the new one ask your teacher to show you how to use it so the stting are correct at 440 and that you are starting off in E, I am sure that is all the problem is.Ship

[Grenvilleter]

A nice thing to have in your case is a tuning fork. The batteries never go dead and it can be used to check the calibration of your tuner as well. Most forks are standard A-440 tuning but all notes are available. They are usually less than $10.00 in most stores for a small one.

[ratdog]

Newbie123..How did your tuning problem work out? I took mine in as I suggested and it reads perfectly. I guess it's my old ears that maybe need to be tuned up.

Cheers, Ratdog

[tenyrsgon]

Everyone here has a pretty good explanation as to what this could be. Try tuning it against another guitar you know to be in EADGBe.


or you could always tune your guitar using the dial tone on a telephone.

http://www.wikihow.com/Tune-a-Guitar-Without-a-Tuner