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Saturday, February 12, 2011

How to Tune a 3 4 Acoustic Guitar

By Courtney Lewinski


Standardized acoustic guitars are often too large for a player at an early age due to the hand span required in order to fret certain chords correctly. A smaller 3 4 acoustic guitar is an excellent option for young player, because the guitar is scaled down by a quarter. Which indicate that the space amongst frets is less and chords and melodies are easy to play. The steps to tune a 3 4 size acoustic guitar is a lot the same as tuning a regular-sized guitar. There is actually no difference in regards to the pitch of the strings and the ways to tuning. Making use of an electronic tuner is probably the most accurate way to tune a 3/4 acoustic guitar.

Step 1. Plug the guitar in to the tuner. By using a standardized guitar jack lead, hook up the guitar to the tuner's input socket. Make sure the tuner is powered. You can also choose to use a clip-on tuner instead of using the electronic one, especially for acoustic guitars. They operate the same, the (blank) difference is the method by which they get the note. If you are using a clip-on tuner, be sure that the battery is perfectly charged then clip it to the headstock.

Step 2. Turn on the tuner. Majority of the tuners turn on automatically at the time you connect; others may require you to depress a foot switch or manually press an on/off button. The tuner normally flashes or lights up when activated.

Step 3. Hit the top E string and observe the reading coming from the tuner. The tuner will show either a dial or a number of LED lights. Both display methods are the same. It will have a center point on its display that suggests that a note is perfectly tune. Your aim is to get the dial hit the center and make the center light illuminate by adjusting the string. If the top E string is not in tune, the dial points to the right if sharp and points to the left if flat . The gap on each side may differ in ratio to the amount that the string is out of tune.

Step 4. Manipulate the tension of the guitar string in accordance with the tuner reading. For a sharp reading, loosen up the pressure of the string by rotating the tuning key. For flat readings raise the pressure. Use a smooth, tender action when turning the key to prevent breaking the string.

Step 5. Keep on doing this step for the rest of the strings. Once you have your first string perfectly tuned, jump to the following down. Several tuners might have to have you manually choose the string for which you are tuning by simply poking a switch. While other tuners will identify the string automatically for you to be tuned.

Step 6. Play a simple guitar chord, like an open E or an open A, and listen very carefully for notes that are dissonant. At times the process of tuning requires a bit of fine-tuning as strings may slip right after you tight them up.




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