HISTORY: Let’s travel back in time almost 300 years when organs were tuned with a system that kept fifths closer to perfect, but allowed other intervals to sound dissonant, not allowing composers to write in keys too far away from C without sounding audibly unpleasant. Johann Sebastian Bach, the most famous composer of all time, was not only a great improviser and organist (the synthesizer of the day), but also a multi-instrumentalist, theologian, mathematician, a father of over 20 children, among other things. Through tuning his own lute and other stringed instruments he realized that the restrictive mean-tone tuning method of the day and the short lived enharmonic keyboard (which used a set of black keys divided into two halves, the front half for flat key signatures, the back half for sharp keys) could be averaged out into an equal or well-temperament where instruments could be slightly out of tune everywhere and sound pleasant to the human ear in every key, thus allowing composers to modulate more freely and not have to avoid particular intervals. In 1722 Bach wrote a set of pieces named the Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846-868, to be played on the newly invented instrument of the same name. These 24 short pieces are 12 pairs consisting of a Prelude and Fugue in every key (a pair in C major, pair in C minor, pair in C# major, pair in C# minor, and so on until it reached B minor- Bach’s favorite key). They were used as way to demonstrate the flexibility of this new tuning system and to help sell the instrument. This tuning temperament is the standard of today, so yes, when a piano tuner comes and tunes your Steinway, he or she is making it slightly out tune all over to allow for any key to be played pleasantly.
TODAY: Now that we take into account electricity, Les Pauls, rock and roll, and a lot of egos with altered states of mind, we have somehow ended up with guitarists who have tried to reinvent the wheel by making it a standard practice to tune the instrument using 5th and 7th fret harmonics on adjacent strings or even using a 7th fret harmonic to tune an open B string. NOTE: THE GUITAR IS AN EQUAL TEMPERED INSTRUMENT, 7th FRET HARMONICS ARE NOT! Please understand that if you are using 7th fret harmonics to tune, you’re traveling back in time about 300 years to a mean-tone tuning system which made perfect intervals more smooth than today’s standard, while making 3rds and 6ths very unpleasant. Here are some thoughts for you to ponder: When was the last time you heard a concert played on the guitar consisting of nothing but harmonics? How about a concert where the guitarist played harmonics more than 1% of the time? When was the last time you saw someone interrupt the flow of the show to tune with harmonics, only to check the tuning with fretted chords and to make final adjustments (usually taking as long as the harmonics process)? Realize that we hear the guitar with open and fretted notes and that’s how you should tune the instrument. Having the TP-6 bridge is a great way of allowing for this, plus it allows for greater tuning stability if you are tuning with a capo connected. Orchestras, piano tuners and even the best bluegrass players LISTEN to the sounds of the instrument and the way they blend with the other sounds, not through listening to harmonics blend together.
SUGGESTIONS ON TUNING: An excellent chord to tune to is a D major chord with your pinky stretched to the A on the 1st string. Checking how the sounds homogenize starting with the A string, you’ll end up hearing: ADADA - nothing but 4ths, 5ths and Octaves. This how piano tuners work (I’ve had some piano tuning experience), in addition to hearing the 4ths and 5ths inverted (a 4th is a 5th backwards and a 5th is a 4th backwards). First tune the open A string by playing the 5th fret harmonic and comparing it to an electronic reference or pitchfork at 440 Hz. This kicks the sound up 2 octaves, which is exactly what tone is ringing. Try allowing the A440 to ring the whole time while fine-tuning the rest of the chord. It’s easier for your ear to reference one sound than it is to change the target every string. If you have a pitchfork, try ringing it on your knee and then putting it in your teeth. This not only rings your whole cranium but also is a very healthy thing for your central nervous system. Once the chord is in tune, move it up to the 5th, 7th, and 9th positions, still allowing for the open A & D to ring. If the chord starts to sound unpleasant, chances are you need to stop in at Straight Frets and get a tune up.