No matter how much you paid for your prized high-end guitar, and no matter how well your guitar was constructed, (by whoever the brilliant craftsman was who built it)... no matter the wood used, or the care taken to assemble it... Your guitar will never tune up into absolutely perfect tuning...

The fact is all fretted instruments, are slightly imperfect. And, this means that it's pretty much impossible for a fretted instrument to be perfectly in tune everywhere on the neck (at the same time).

Deal of the day...



WATCH THE VIDEO:


If you did want something close to perfection, (as close as possible anyway), do a Google search for a, "micro-tonal guitar". You'll get to see how the frets need to be installed in order to be in pretty much "perfect tune" everywhere, It's a very crazy looking guitar neck.


Now, obviously a micro-Tonal guitar isn't something that everyone's going to run out and buy. But, there is an interesting approach that you can use for tuning your guitar that will allow it to be the most in tune for the region of the neck that you're playing in.

This idea that I have for you is based upon the concept that your guitar is at the best available tuning upon the fret that you'll tune it at. So, if you tune the open strings, the guitar will be at its most in tune from open position, but the farther up the neck you go the more that it's tuning will become degraded.



What you can do (to get the best tuning as possible), is you can take a tuner, and tune your guitar, "2-frets" down from where you'll be performing. Now, granted this is more of a recording studio idea, (it's pretty hard to do this for a guitar that will be used live on-stage).

If you are doing some recording, if the gig you're doing is in the studio - this idea is fantastic. Here's how it works...

STUDIO TRACK TUNING METHOD:
Let's say that you're recording an idea around the 7th fret, (maybe it's a solo, or a chord progression in a song), whatever it is, let's say you're going to be up at the 7th fret. What you'll do, is tune your strings at the 5th fret, so that your ideas up around 7th will be at a much more accurate tuning.

If you're going to be up at the 10th fret, tune at the 8th fret. That way, the majority of what your playing up at the 10th fret will be far more in tune for the recording.



Using this "Studio Track Tuning" method might seem like a little bit of overkill, and I could understand if you didn't use it all the time. But, it can work wonders for some vintage guitars that might have great tone but, are a real Frankenstein when it comes to getting them to balance out and be totally in tune for a recording.

You can use this tuning idea to tune a guitar for chord parts, for high-register secondary rhythm tracks or for lead harmonies in high registers. And, it'll do wonders for 12-string guitars that you may want to include for backing tracks in your recordings.

Basically, if you're an experienced player you'll really appreciate the noticeable difference that this method makes for your guitar tunings when you're recording. Any musician with a good ear will be also happy to hear the better tuning that will come from applying this method in the recording studio.