what tuning plays best with acoustic guitar

[acordiansam]

I play with acoustic guitars a lot and have noticed that with a box tuned to 441 seems to blend better. I have a box at 440 and 439. They seem to be flat sounding most of the time. I think that even a guitar tuned correct at 440 when the string is 1st plucked it goes sharp then down to pitch.
So when they sturm they are playing just a little sharp.
Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Glenn]

I would imagine that the question should be phrased the other way around as it is so easy to re tune a guitar .

 

[acordiansam]

Thanks for you're input Glenn.

 

[AccordionUprising]

It seems like the big change that Jackie Daly and them made was to tune their instruments quite dry. That seemed to make it easier to blend with other soloists and not drown everybody out. (I guess the old dance hall and céilí bands used to play in unison to be loud, so it didn't matter if each one could be heard?) That wet/dry tremolo might have more to do with blending than which starting pitch a given single reed is on.

I thought you were going to ask which registers would sound best together while playing with others. Those would depend on how wide your tuning is too I expect.

 

[george garside]

I agree with Glenn re tuning the easily tuned guitars and other stringy things to suite the tuning of your box.

However it is also worth bearing in mind that if playing as a 'band' rather than as a 'motley collection of ?musicians' it is the overall sound and balance of the ensemble rather than that of individual instruments that matters. This is best arrived at by experimentation with the tuning of 'stringy things' ( some of which seem to need fairly constant farting about with) Also the coupler settings of a box ( and the choice of wet or dry tuning or anything in between)

As an example I prefer the fiddle in a ceilidh/country dance band to be tuned on the sharp side so that it sort of comes over the sound of the box rather than just doing a bit of the same.

george

 

[acordiansam]

Thanks George. That's more what I was thinking about. As in a band I played key boards in several years ago the guitars would tune 1 cent apart. It made them sound fuller.

On a nouther note I've had band mates tell me that one box fits better with the groop using the same basson reed and that's all I could come up with.

Now I have a 3X and been having the same problem. So I set it up one cent sharp at 441 and my band mates now like the same sound and patch. Funny how a small tuning differance will change the hole over all sound. They never had a problem with the wet sounds. I think the dry has the most afect.

Just wanted to see what others thought.

 

[losthobos]

How long does it take to tune a guitar?......Dunno, no ones ever managed to yet!!!
Old joke but if the accordion is the butt of jokes best have a riposte