How often should my mandolin need to be tuned?

[tiltman]

I once heard Frank Wakefield say that he likes to play out of tune…so it sounds like there’s more than one of him!

Kirk

[Eric Platt]

Don't be discouraged by needing to tune the instrument more often. It's the nature of the beast. (Although I do wonder if carbon fiber instruments need less attention?)

It seems like I'm constantly retuning my mandolins. OTOH, I can leave my Martin guitar in the case for months at a time, take it out and it's still in tune. Go figure.

[Sue Rieter]

I know plenty of half deaf old geezers that never tune their mandolin. That's probably why they rarely are invited to play with anyone else and spend all of their time plinking at home or on the world wide waste of time.

All of the folks I play with expect our instruments to be in tune on every song, so we check it every song and make necessary adjustments.

Not wanting to become one of those geezers, or should I say, galzers...

You could get one of the Daddario micro tuners that attach to a screw on one of the tuning machines, then it doesn't show at all on the front of the instrument:

https://www.daddario.com/products/ac...ip-free-tuner/

So it would go on one end of one of the covers?

[journeybear]

My mandolin has Waverly tuners ...

I would still like to know what make/brand/mfr your mandolin is and its age.

[Whimpsta]

It is a 2017 Silverangel. I recently purchased it.

[Mark Gunter]

Rarely are tuning machines the culprit if your instrument goes out of tune. In my experience, the biggest factor is environment: Relative humidity, and temperature.

[milli857]

Not wanting to become one of those geezers, or should I say, galzers...



So it would go on one end of one of the covers?

With those style of tuners, I think that's the only place you could put it, but I think it would work!

[Eric Platt]

With those style of tuners, I think that's the only place you could put it, but I think it would work!

The stock screw on the D'Addario might be too big to fit. And the tuner cover screw is probably to short to replace. Have tried that on my older SOL and it needed a lot of fiddling to work, then I couldn't see the display that well. Would guess the display on Sue's would be entirely obscured by the "valve covers".

[NDO]

It should fit on the south end of one of the covers. It comes with two or three screws of varying lengths to replace your stock screw. I have them on a couple of my mandolins and like them pretty well (though I switched to a TC Unitune on my daily driver because I like it so well).

[journeybear]

Thanks, Whimpsta. Well, to my mind, knowing that eliminates a fair amount of possible causes. If I recall correctly, Silverangels are regarded pretty highly around here. So I'm leaning more toward what many others have been saying - environmental causes, like heat and humidity. The only other thing I can think of is strings.

[Jeff Mando]

I tune before I play each time, then check it between and during songs if something sounds off. Strumming a chord should tell you that without getting the tuner out each time...

[Charles E.]

[QUOTE=

"Bill Monroe said, 'No A-strings went to heaven'" he claimed at one point.

[/QUOTE]

The A strings on both my mandolins are the bane of my existence.

[Mitch Stein]

So, when I played shows and had the D'Addario I simply clipped it on the headstock but on the underside. I'm able to see it fine from my vantage point and all anyone in front of me sees is the small bottom edge of the clip. I've done this on mando and guitar I might be missing something

[Dave Hicks]

I usually need to tune a little these days, but not much. I think that's because the mando is usually in the house these days, and the environment is pretty stable. But when I take it to a jam somewhere, sometimes I spend the first 10 minutes adjusting the tuning.

I took a workshop with Jeremy Wanless, which met on a porch in West Virginia in the summer. One time he looked sadly at his mandolin and said, "This thing is swoll up like a June bug!"

D.H.

[Tom Haywood]

If you develop a habit of tuning it every time you pick it up, you'll be in good shape whenever you play it. The second habit, not often discussed, is to learn to tune it quickly. At that point, I use two levels of tuning. One is "close enough". This works for the initial tuning to let the mandolin and strings settle in to the environment. It may be good enough for your personal practice. The second level is tuned "as close to perfect as you can get it". This is for playing with other people, and is very useful for training your ear to be in tune. Most good mandolins require fairly frequent tuning. That means being "ready to go" as quickly as possible.

[DonKayG]

Tune every time you play, check while you are playing.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Constantly.