Tuning Question . . .

[mandolin breeze]

I can believe that. Just looked at a couple sites about your mando. I see that they are a quality, mid-priced instrument. How does it sound compared to a wooden instrument. What's it's strong points (besides staying in tune . . . a biggie)? What do you wish was better? Here's an F model that I'd love to play and hear. I spend way too much time on the classifieds and don't recall ever seeing one. Very cool. However, it probably won't be a vintage weathered instrument for about 2,000 years.

[Willie Poole]

For me I do like Sonny Osborne once told me, use the tuner and then retune using your ear, after all its what you hear that's important and not what the tuner hears...Takes some doing at first but it works...FOR ME ANYWAY...

Willie

[CES]

Ha!!! In tune, you say? Ha!!! A myth!!!

My MT and Silverangel hold tune quite nicely. I can usually make it through a 4-5 song set at church without retuning, once they settle in to the temp/humidity difference. I play J75s on those, which helps. I feel like I'm constantly tuning my 1N and Martin style A, which have much lighter strings...

[Louise NM]

Did you mean flat? If you tune to perfect fifths, like you said, the bottom-to-top strings will be noticeably different. But to get them to equal temperament, the fifths have to be slighly flat of a perfect fifth, not sharp.

It drives me crazy, because my A-E fifths always sound sour when done according to the tuner. I have to sweeten the E course slightly sharper than the tuner says is acceptable (closer to a perfect fifth) so that it sounds good when played open with the A course.

I guess "flat" and "sharp" aren't a good choice of words, as which you use depends on whether you are talking about a string above or below what you're tuning to. The interval needs to be a few cents narrower than a perfect fifth.

[AndrewBee]

It always fascinates me the wonderful things you can pick up on this forum. Like many others I am a recent convert to mandolin after playing assorted guitars for fifty years. On the guitar I always used an A440 tuning fork and then used the related harmonics to tune the other strings with a final tweak depending what key I was playing in. I have also noticed how finicky some top musicians are about fine tuning their instruments during performances.
On the mandolin I do find tuning more delicate and I agree the the ear has the final say over the best electronic tuners. Many years ago I built my own octave mandolin because I couldn't afford a Stefan Sobbel. When it came to fretting the fingerboard I was very anxious to get it right and I did a lot of reading which is where I encountered comments about the compromise nature of the tuning of fretted instruments and the impossibility of being totally precise in all circumstances. When I have mentioned this to other players most have no idea what I'm talking about so I give up. But here you people know all about it.
More to he point of the subject my modest Kentucky stays in tune pretty well day to day. I also do most of my home playing with recorded music and rarely have to retune. It has taken me a while to get used to paired string tuning and I still think the ear is the only instrument for final tuning. The E string does always seem to be the most recalcitrant, maybe it sulks because I leave it to the last.
When I take the mandolin out to play with others I find the relative inability of some people to tune their own istruments because of an over reliance on digital tuners very annoying. Maybe I'm just over sensitive to poor tuning!
Andrew

[mandobassman]

First as stated above, perfect tuning on a fretted instrument does not exist. As one who started playing before electronic tuners I do just opposite of OP. The tuner gets me in the ball park then I fine tune. After years of tuning I know how I think equalize the temperament, and the mandolin don't sound in tune to me if it's perfect by the tuner. I think this is true of anyone that learned to tune to a pitch fork instead of a electronic tuner.

I have always tuned mostly by ear. I think it's a skill that should be learned by everyone. I can't tell you how many times I have seen someone spend ten minutes tuning to a electronic tuner, only to play chords that sound awful. Then say "but the tuner says it's in tune".

I grew up using a tuning for for the A and tuned the rest to that string. I do the same for guitar. I use the tuner for the G string and tune the rest by ear. Especially on guitar, I get much better results.

[UsuallyPickin]

Well .... I guess as long as it takes me to beat it out of tune. Older strings are more stable than a new set up to the point that they no longer intonate properly. Insofar as "perfectly" in tune .............. a song or three.. R/

[Astro]

I can ear tune with a Q-tip.

To get the mando in tune, I need a Snark.

[Timbofood]

Before every practice session or jam, and several times during, depending on the temp, humidity etc...

Tim Obrein
"I don't tune for me because I don't care. I tune for you because you care"

Tim is pure gold on that one!