Why does my new guitar become untuned every day?
I am learning guitar as a beginner and a few days back I bought an f-hole acoustic guitar (steel strings). And every day when I sit down to play it, the guitar tuner says that it is out of tune, slightly. So I have to tune it back.
Is it normal or something is wrong with the guitar for which I must go to the shop and ask for some replacement?
B.T.W., I use the Yousician app to tune my guitar.
EDIT: As was asked in the comments, I keep my guitar in a guitar bag and it stays near my bed. I don't know about the weather going cool, it's spring here, right now. And in the morning, sunlight comes through the window pane and falls on the bag (Not scorching heat!). And as I have already said, the tuning changes only slightly and that too, in between stopping play on one night and then playing it the next night. It takes nearly a day to go untuned slightly. Also I haven't taken it outside my home, since the day I bought it.
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In short: yes, this is totally normal!
German saying: “Der Gitarrist stimmt immer und die Gitarre nie” (the guitarist tunes always and the guitar never, meaning the guitar is never in tune).
If it's a brand new guitar, it's likely that the strings on it are new as well.
New guitar strings have a certain amount of stretchiness that can cause them to become flat (e.g. go down in tuned pitch) over time.
When I change strings on my guitars I usually manually stretch them to try and remove this stretchiness. Have a look at this question for some more information on this.
If the strings are not the issue then it may be something with the hardware, so taking it to a luthier to have it set up correctly would possibly alleviate the problem.
You probably don't need a replacement - most new guitars don't come out of the factory set up properly (even expensive ones - my Gibson was very poorly set up when I bought it brand new!).
Guitars go out of tune on their own anyway - changes in humidity, temperature etc can influence this, but normally it's not a great amount on a day to day basis.
All thing, even steel, under stress will strain (stretch). Most of it is elastic strain and but some of it is inelastic and permanently stretches the steel. Over time this strain hardens the steel and less stretching should occur. The hardening also brings the steel closer to its maximum stress eventually causing it to break.
Have you read your guitar tutorial book, or followed your tutorial app properly from step 1? The first step in every guitar tutorial should say "Strings always go out of tune, so use a tuner to retune every time before playing", and every guitar tutorial I've seen has said that before they tell you how to make a chord.
If yours doesn't, find another one. Any tutorial that doesn't tell you about tuning is so fundamentally flawed that you cannot trust it to be right about anything else.
If you're not working from a proper tutorial, get one and follow it. Youtube is great for showing you how to position your hands and stuff like that, but it's almost entirely amateurs putting up stuff they think might be handy. It's a good resource, but it's not at all an alternative to a properly-thought-out tutorial by someone with genuine teaching experience.
And if you're asking this because you thought you could skip over steps in your tutorial - RTFM! All of the FM, in order, without skipping bits!
Heat and especially humidity affect the wood of an instrument, causing it to shrink or expand, so the strings go out of tune. This is particularly noticeable on a mandolin, but it happens on [acoustic] guitars too. Corollary: do not leave your instrument in the sun, or in the trunk of a car.
This could be due to a variety of things, including:
strings needing to be stretched, or seated firmly in the various areas that they are in physical contact with.
components on the guitar itself needing to become firmly seated (loose neck bolts, bridge, tuners, nut, etc.)
quality of the instrument
The last is the one that I would most want to focus on. If you have a very inexpensive, old or poorly cared for guitar it is likely that one of the many potential issues that plague instruments like that is causing the problem. While it is true that many guitars do require some tuning on a daily basis, it should be entirely unnoticeable to an untrained ear and barely detectable by a mobile phone tuner (the quality of which is mediocre at best).
My advice would be to take it to a luthier and explain the problem and see if they can determine what the issue is, and ask for and be prepared for an honest answer.
There Might be a Problem with your Bridge adjust that and it will help otherwise keep it in sunlight with the wall at approx 45 degrees neck facing inwards
This could be new strings settling in. It could be change in temperature overnight, or even leaving the guitar near a radiator. It could be your tuning technique. Some say you should tune over the note then drop down to the right pitch. Others that you should tune under, then stretch the string, then tune up to the right pitch. See which one suits your instrument. But it's generally agreed you shouldn't JUST tune up to the pitch.
Did you put the strings on? There's a technique for this too.
The shop you bought it from should be happy to give some free advice. Does it stay in tune when HE tunes it?
If the guitar stays in tune throughout a playing session, I wouldn't worry too much if it slips a little overnight. But having said that, I recently picked up a guitar that hadn't been touched since its owner died several years ago (a reasonably long and very distinguished life, thanks for asking). It was perfectly in tune!
When tuning an acoustic guitar, I do not tune the open strings. I instead tune the Octaves. Since most acoustic guitars do not have intonation adjustment, yet are susceptible to minor warping, I have found you can tune your acoustic, yet your octaves may be slightly off. But if you tune your octaves, if your guitar is slightly out of intonation, this will at least average the difference. Another alternative (besides tuning using harmonics) is to find the A note on all your strings and tune all strings to A. Now you are ensured that everything is relative to 440 hz.
A Guitar, regardless of age or price is constructed of physical materials.
Various materials expand or contract at different temperatures, moisture levels, atmospheric pressures, phases of the moon, etc.,etc.
You can tune your guitar, throw it in the case, go to a gig, whip it out and within minutes watch it slowly go out of tune simply because you are now in a hot, moist, smoky room under intense lights. Instead of a dry, air conditioned apartment.
As a guitarist, you should be aware of your tuning at all times. If you like to pitch bend a lot, you will stretch your strings a bit and should be able to compensate. Watch Jimi Hendrix tune by ear in mid note without missing a beat. Pure genius!
There is a direct ratio between your level of education and how long it takes you to tune up. Paul Simon, a college grad in music can tune a guitar by ear in 8 seconds. You can circumvent this by taking a course in perfect pitch ear training. Yes, perfect pitch can be learned. Just like speed reading. You just have to have that inner desire to be the best of the best and apply yourself 100% to mastering your instrument ;)
Ironically, 99.9% of all guitars are not technically accurate to a tempered scale in the first place! You wanna have you mind blown? If you are interested in accurate pitch, look into True Temperament Guitars: www.truetemperament.com/
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