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NOOB HERE - How do you string and tune these things?

Posted by Snuffy Smith on April 23, 2017 at 5:26pm in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts

I don't even know where to start. My CBG is being built now. I've never dealt with a guitar ever. The guy that's building my CBG said he's going to loosen the strings when he ships it to me, and said I'll have to tune it when I get it. I should mention he's putting a standard bridge on my CBG, not a key or a domino, etc, etc. I just need some coaching here. So I attach the Snark tuner where? Then I start turning the tuning keys, and how do I know if I've tightened them too much or not enough?

I need a lesson here...and advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Replies

  • Russell Bryant April 24, 2017 at 9:33pm

    Don;t listen to KnotLenny. With good cheap tuners going for $10 - $12 bucks just go ahead and get one. As for stringing the guitar there are plenty of good videos on the net. There is a good, simple one on justinguitar.com .  By the way, it's pbobably the best free guitar lesson site on the web if you decide to go into a full 6 string guitar.

    New strings need to be stretched when you put them on or they will constantly need to be retuned. Tune them close to pitch and then put your fingers under the strings near the midpoint and slowly pull up on them. Put quite a bit of pressure on them. Retune again and repeat the stretching. Keep doing this until they hold tune after stretching.

    Welcome to the insanity!!!

    Russ

    • Snuffy Smith > Russell Bryant April 24, 2017 at 10:11pm

      Thanks for the info. Seeing lots of different opinions on this. Guess it's gonna be through trial and error. I bought a nice Snark tuner. It was less than $15. I watched  a YouTube video of Justin Johnson use it to set his intonation. I figured he knows what he's doing. I hope it works for me. I want my CBG tuned as best as possible. Nothing could be worse than a beginner trying to learn on an out of tune CBG.

  • Jim Morris April 24, 2017 at 9:25am

    Yup, I'm with pick. Knotlenny is a great source of useful info.

  • Snuffy Smith April 23, 2017 at 8:32pm

    Thanks guys!

  • the anonymous pick April 23, 2017 at 7:47pm

    simple  . easy  . and funny  .

     

  • darryl kernaghan April 23, 2017 at 7:29pm

    Attach your tuner to the head near the machine heads, then bring the strings to tension, so they are just beyond being floppy and are starting to ring out, at this point your low g is probably reading around a c,c sharp, tighten it up to just beyond g, maybe g sharp, strum the string 20-30 times to let it settle, then loosen it below g a little, then carefully bring it back to g, do the same for the other strings and you are good to go, by tuning up from below your note, you eliminate any slack that might be in the tuners from tuning down to a note

    • JL > darryl kernaghan April 24, 2017 at 9:25am

      As Darryl said, the top string low G should be the first G you run into on the tuner once the string is no longer floppy.  The middle string D should sound the same as the low G string fingered at the 7th.  the bottom string high G should be the same as the low G 12th fret and the middle string D at the 5th fret.  that is your check that you haven't gone past your note.

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