Ever have those nights...

[MediumMando5722]

... where your instruments sound like crap and won't stay in tune for anything?

I hate when that happens.

[Bill McCall]

Maybe you picked up your banjo

[MikeEdgerton]

I was just playing at a rather loud jam. My tuner battery died. It was probably a blessing. I don't think anyone else was in tune either.

[JeffD]

I have a couple of very moody bowlbacks. Some days they play nice and some days the don't want to stay in tune, or the intonation is a tiny but noticeable bit off or there is a buzz but only when in tune or something. But if and when the play nice they sound so darn pretty.

No, both mandolins don't seem to get petulant at the same time, they seem to trade off. One likes it dry the other likes it humid, one likes it hot the other cool. I don't know. Something. I don't remember them ever being sulky at the same time.

Anyway I have been caught at a jam or open mike with the querulous bowl and it is a nightmare. If the gig calls for a bowl, I try both of these before I leave to be sure I take the one that is in a good mood.

[MikeZito]

I was at an open jam one night - playing electric guitar, doing a solo 3-song set. It was loud in the club and I was having trouble tuning my guitar, (long before Snark tuners). I got half-way through the first song and it was an embarrassment. I tried to quickly tune by ear while I was introducing the second song, but it was no use. I got through one verse of the second song, apologized to the audience, and walked off the stage . . . the kicker in all of this was that (apparently) nobody else noticed the problem!

[Bigskyken]

Chris, I think it is funny that you posted this today - maybe it is something in the weather, but I checked the tuning on my mandolin mid-day and it was pretty close, but then tonight (after very little playing) it was farther off than I have ever experienced it!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Chris - Did the weather change at all = go colder / warmer ?. The last few days in my part of the uK have been as you guys say ''muggy''. All 3 of my mandolins went flat,& i'm meaning almost a semi-tone. It's even worse this morning,very humid (for the UK that is) & with the threat of rain. If the rain doesn't cool things down then it'll be re-tuning again today - no big deal.

I'm also pretty sure that some mandolins are affected by temp. / humidity changed more than others. I remember reading about one time that Dave Grisman was playing an outdoor concert - somewhere 'high' i think,maybe Colorado - & his mandolin just wouldn't stay in tune for 5 minutes at a time - it happens,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

I have those days when I am more sensitive, less relaxed about disturbances and things out of balance than I normally am.

The tuning issues of an instrument are such a permanent source of light irritation which is always there * but remains unnoticed or successfully ignored most of the time - except for those days.

Or those nights: it's best to just go to sleep. In the morning sun, the world will look in order and the instrument will sound good again.

(*) and can't be totally eliminated for reasons discussed elsewhere

[billkilpatrick]

I have a couple of very moody bowlbacks. Some days they play nice and some days the don't want to stay in tune, or the intonation is a tiny but noticeable bit off or there is a buzz but only when in tune or something. But if and when the play nice they sound so darn pretty. …

Yep' … same here - bowlbacks are moodier than most. Sometimes they seem to have a will all their own. Weather must be a part of it but I've also learned to play them very gently - curvaceous Italians et al. preferring "il tocco delicate." Deciding which pick is better suited to them is also a problem ...

[Beanzy]

My wee harpist friend & I were thinking of composing a piece modern music for Mandolin & Harp based on tuning up, because the audience may as well get something out of it while they sit there. I'm sure it would be ok if the buggers would just stop breathing while we play

With the bowlbacks I tend to hug my mandolin to my body for a while before I need to play, so it's up to the temperature it will end up at after being played for a while. (including holding it with my hand around the neck so the strings are warmed up too) This helps prevent mid-piece surprises.

But damp days tend to knock some of the life or sparkle out of all of my plucked instruments from the cheapest to the most expensive.

[Ausdoerrt]

^ That's interesting, cause I find some of mine actually sound better/fuller when it's damp as opposed to dry. Then again, talking 40~50% humidity, not 90~100%.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Ausdoerrt - "...I find some of mine actually sound better/fuller when it's damp as opposed to dry. .." Very true - warmth & a bit of humidity work wonders on mine,but i still have to tune them up. However, as all mandolins are different,some will respond positively,others won't,
Ivan

[barry]

Interestingly, this has been on my mind quite a bit as summer has begun to set in. I have two very different F5's that respond to climate changes in complete opposition to each other.
The mandolin that has a fundamentally dry tone seems to perform best in the low humidity of the winter. The one with the complex, full tone plays significantly better in summer humidity.

[Frankdolin]

Yes!!!

[Austin Bob]

Yep, happens all the time. Last Sunday the AC in the church was on full blast and I realized halfway through the first song that my mandolin didn't like it, and that I was too sharp. As the old joke goes, I spent the rest of the morning tuning up and/or playing out of tune.

The other problem I notice is that even though the mandolin is in tune, it sounds, for the lack of a better word, muddy. I notice this the most when the humidity is drastically changing and my mandolin hasn't settled in yet.

[MediumMando5722]

I have those days when I am more sensitive, less relaxed about disturbances and things out of balance than I normally am.

I agree this is the more likely culprit. Had I gone through the entire stable of instruments last night, from the mandolin to the '62 Les Paul, they would've all sounded awful.

I've been noticing this more lately, since I switched over to playing acoustic instruments. In the past, if it sounded bad, I put the guitars away. Now, I try to play through it, if that makes sense. Not sure if it's doing any good or not, as I end up in a foul mood either way.

[Randi Gormley]

Some days I just can't seem to get any tone out of my mandolin, I can't seem to catch the rhythm of a piece, i'm misreading sheet music and just get disgusted with myself entirely. And I'll put the instrument away (I've been know to do so in a pretty un-refined way and walk out on my-husband-the-guitar-player, saying I just can't play tonight and wander off in a huff). It doesn't happen often, but it certainly has happened! I've also suffered from strings going out and staying out of tune -- pointed out either by my ears or the fiddler sitting beside me (blush). Occasionally, once the louder instruments end (the banjo goes home, say) and it's suddenly me and a handful of whistles, I'll realize I've been playing out of tune for most of the night but couldn't hear it before! So, yes indeed, I've certainly had "those nights" !

[mtm]

Chris, I think it is funny that you posted this today - maybe it is something in the weather, but I checked the tuning on my mandolin mid-day and it was pretty close, but then tonight (after very little playing) it was farther off than I have ever experienced it!

We are so water logged here in MKE ... when I picked up the mando last night, like Ken, it too was "farther off than I have ever experienced". Interesting ....

[allenhopkins]

My NYCity friend Toby Fagenson wrote a parody of the old rock song Tossin' and Turnin', called Talkin' and Tunin'. After one of those nights.

However, I usually find, after blaming the humidity and the temperature, the alignment of the planets and the innate perversity of all inanimate objects -- instruments included -- that it's my fault. Shoulda changed those strings, practiced those licks, brought the better mic and PA, checked the stage set-up, replaced my tuner battery, used the pick I was planning to use and left in my other jeans.

Can't shirk my responsibilities; if I suck, it's on me.

[catmandu2]

... But damp days tend to knock some of the life or sparkle out of all of my plucked instruments from the cheapest to the most expensive.

It's funny - playing an instrument is really a problem requiring a solution. The past five years I've been persevering with the dilemma posed by playing wire harp - notoriously more temperamental than ubiquitous nylon harp; won't go into why it is so - suffice to say it's far and away more problematic to perform with than any other instrument I've played. After five years I've come to need a break from the time/energy required to perform with it. I've gone back to accordians.

[Randi Gormley]

tbh, when my daughter was playing harp, the joke was that the harp stays in tune "until someone opens a door."

[catmandu2]

tbh, when my daughter was playing harp, the joke was that the harp stays in tune "until someone opens a door."

With the vast overtones from wire, it's a more exacting process. I can tune my nylon harp easily and quickly (without e-tuner); the wire is much more arduous a task - and e-tuners are useless as they're not sufficiently discriminative (a $300 strobe might be, but I don't have one).

I should have become a piano tuner. Then I could justify the expenditure. As it is, I just go to a different instrument.

[Mark Wilson]

I take the good with the no so. After retiring a few months ago, and getting to play lots more, I've been expecting better results. But it has not been what I expected.

Until this week. It was like a switch flipped. Came home on a cloud.

[Eric Platt]

Yup, happening to my Jr. right now. Put a set of EJ73 on and all of a sudden had some strange overtones on the D strings. Still not sure why that is. Prior set was unknown 80/20 lights. Ended up threading a piece of leather through the strings to stop it.

Otherwise, I have found most of my instruments (mainly guitars) sound a bit better in spring.

Oh, and the Jr. was sounding really dull and lifeless the last couple days. Then I switched picks. That did it. Went from a 1.6 casin to a 1.2 Wegen. Am discovering this instrument prefers picks in the 1.2-1.4 range.

[Ivan Kelsall]

It is very frustrating that the day after playing any one of my mandolins which,''on that day'', to my ears sounds as perfect as i'd ever want it,to find that it now sounds different. It does happen, & 99% of the time it's down to temp. / humidity changes. In the UK,i'd say it's temp. rather than humidity, unless we have heavy rain followed by a prolonged hot spell (rare).

I discovered the 'temp.factor' very soon after starting to play mandolin. At one time,most of my playing was done in my unheated upstairs front bedroom where i have my PC,my main music source. On occasion,i'd practice downstairs in my heated living room only to find that my mandolin went 'flat' within an hour or so - the only change was 'temp.'

This morning,it's bright & sunny & a tad humid. My Lebeda mandolin is sitting on a chair 'acclimatising' for today's Bluegrass thrash. It'll be interesting to hear how it sounds - usually very good indeed in such conditions - but !!!,
Ivan