View Poll Results: How often do you tune?

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  • Every time I pick up my Mandolin

    81 73.64%
  • Only when I hear it is off-tune

    27 24.55%
  • When it is seriously off-tune

    1 0.91%
  • Never

    1 0.91%
  • I can't tell

    0 0%
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Thread: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

  1. #1
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    Default How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    How often do you tune your mandolin and how important is it to you?

    (I wish I was able to make a vote.)
    Anyhow I usualy check it every time I take my mandolin for playing and if it sounds seriously off I hang the tuner on. Sometimes I just attach it to see how my ears are working.

    Let me know your routine.

  2. #2

    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    It only requires a few moments, and keeps it settled at perfect tuning much longer, so why not?
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    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

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  3. #3
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Dunno whether to select A (1?) or B (2?)...I cannot play my mandolin without picking it up, and I cannot hear whether or not it is "off-tune" (izzat the same as out-of-tune?) without playing it, but I do not tune my mandolin until I have played it (after I have picked it up), which is when I determine whether or not it is in tune. The actual poll question, as I read it, is "How OFTEN do you tune?". This would depend on which mandolin...I have a Chris Stanley V5 that rarely seems to go out of tune (one of it's virtues for which I rate it highly!), then again, my old Gibson A Jr. with its disagreeable old tuners is rarely ever in tune, no matter how often I tune it. All of this combined makes it difficult for me participate...sorry..
    too many strings

  4. #4
    Registered User Charlie Bernstein's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    I took the second choice, but my policy didn't get on the ballot.

    I like tuning at the start of a gig or a set, AND I tune it when I can hear that it's off, which for me means it's way off. So I'm the first three options.

    Got rid of the old tuners a few months ago and put on a set of Rubners, which several people here recommended. I have to tune it a lot less often now.
    Gibson A-Junior snakehead (Keep on pluckin'!)

  5. #5
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Depends on the Mandolin ..
    writing about music
    is like dancing,
    about architecture

  6. #6
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Depends on the situation. At home in a stable environment, every couple of days depending how often I play. At an outdoor festival, seems like every other tune.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  7. #7
    small instrument, big fun Dan in NH's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Every time I pick it up to play.

  8. #8

    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    If I am just practicing only if it sounds out of tune. If it were in a public setting (Jam, etc,) as often as needed.

  9. #9
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Quite often.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  10. #10
    Registered User Eric Platt's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    When I pick it up to play. Then if playing with others, after a tune or two because "something sounds off. Must be me." If at a gig, usually after every 3 or 4 tunes.

    Repeat as necessary.

    FWIW, I usually find one of the A strings shifts. Sometimes more than once. Temperature swings also influence things.

    Lastly - my Coombe classical flattop with flatwounds stays in tune remarkably well. It's the only mandolin I own where I can tune it up at the start of an evening and it will not have changed at all by the end.
    Brentrup Model 23, Boeh A5 #37, Gibson A Jr., Big Muddy M-11, Coombe Classical flattop, Strad-O-Lin
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  11. #11
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    I chose "Every time I pick up my mandolin" because it was closest, but the real answer is "When I first pick it up in the morning, and again later on if I notice it's out of tune."

  12. #12
    Registered User Pete Martin's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Every tune
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  13. #13
    My Florida is scooped pheffernan's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Like Queen Elizabeth I and her baths, I tune my mandolins once a month whether they need it or no.
    1924 Gibson A Snakehead
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  14. #14
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Every time I'm gonna play it.

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  16. #15
    Registered User Dave Hicks's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    If it sounds in tune when I pick it up and I'm just practicing I don't generally tune it. If it's obviously out of tune or if I'm playing with other people (or a record) or recording, I always do.

    D.H.

  17. #16
    Registered User John Soper's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    How come "All the time" is not an option?

  18. #17
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by pheffernan View Post
    Like Queen Elizabeth I and her baths, I tune my mandolins once a month whether they need it or no.
    What a royal way of tuning :D

    @John Soper: sorry I missed that. "All the time" sounds exhausting though. When do you even play then?


    What I find curious is that sometimes the strings get more tense than lose. So they are pitched higher than lower. And then again they turn lower than higher.
    I thought maybe it had to do with humidity, but this also happens in rather stable environments.

  19. #18
    Registered User Bob Buckingham's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Every time it needs it. Most often when I pull it from the case and then as needed.

  20. #19
    Registered User zookster's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    As Tim O'Brien likes to say, mandolin is Italian for "out of tune". I normally fine tune at the beginning of a session, and tweak after the first tune or two.

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  22. #20
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by slepa View Post
    What I find curious is that sometimes the strings get more tense than lose. So they are pitched higher than lower. And then again they turn lower than higher.
    I thought maybe it had to do with humidity, but this also happens in rather stable environments.
    Keep in mind that with the very short length of string and the high pitch=tension of mandolin strings, it takes very little variation in temperature/humidity to have an effect on tuning. A slight increase in humidity and/or decrease in temperature will cause strings to go sharp (“get more tense”). You may find that if you play on your instrument for a short length of time the strings will warm up and decrease in tension.
    too many strings

  23. #21
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by musicofanatic View Post
    Keep in mind that with the very short length of string and the high pitch=tension of mandolin strings, it takes very little variation in temperature/humidity to have an effect on tuning. A slight increase in humidity and/or decrease in temperature will cause strings to go sharp (“get more tense”). You may find that if you play on your instrument for a short length of time the strings will warm up and decrease in tension.
    Yeah good point. It really only needs a fraction to make an effect.
    That makes me curious about another thing: how long does it take in average to tune the mandolin? I'd say it takes me between 1 and 3 minutes, depending on how wild it went off. And then I also try to bring the two strings in tune together, so I only measure one and hit them together so they line in and make a clear sound.

    The tuning alone is an interesting procedure, come to think about it.

  24. #22
    Registered User Perry's Avatar
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by slepa View Post
    How often do you tune your mandolin and how important is it to you?


    Let me know your routine.
    Constantly tweaking it in between songs.

  25. #23
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    I chose "Every time I pick up my Mandolin" but in reality it's "Every time I pick my Mandolin".

    I check tuning between songs. And outside, in varying weather conditions, I'm always listening for reason to tune.
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


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    [About how I tune my mandolins]
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  26. #24
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    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

    I don't see what the big deal is. It was in tune when I bought it, so ...
    - Ed

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  27. #25

    Default Re: How often do you tune your Mandolin?

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