Acoustic Guitar Tips: Muted Tuning, Broken Strings and Quick Changes
Acoustic Guitar Tips: Muted Tuning, Broken Strings and Quick Changes
I can vividly remember the Sunday after church that I asked my wife: “How was worship today?” and she replied, “You have got to STOP TUNING when the pastor is praying!” I guess I had never realized it before, but as it turns out, people could hear me tuning my guitar over the voice of the pastor while he was praying. Granted, it was a relatively small sanctuary with about 100 people in the congregation, so there was not a lot of space between them and my guitar. But if you know me, you know how much I hate distractions during the worship service, so I was determined to never let it happen again.
I was already using a soundhole plug in my acoustic guitar.
If you don’t have a soundhole plug, you need one. Acoustic guitars tend to feed back, especially if they are given much volume in the monitors. A soundhole plug lets you have your acoustic guitar up in the monitor without feedback problems. Tip: if you are leading worship while playing acoustic guitar, you may want to have your guitar up in the monitors but low or even off in the mains. The band will use what you play for their rhythmic reference, and if you have another player who is more skilled than you, their guitar can be up in the mains. Pretty cool, eh?
But like I was saying, despite my soundhole plug, my tuning was audible to the congregation. I was also using a mutable tuner. There are many brands of inline tuner that can be muted for silent tuning. Just a push of a button and your signal does not get sent through the system. Again, if you don’t have an inline, mutable tuner, you need one. No one, I mean no one wants to listen to you tune your guitar–not even during rehearsal. It is just plain common band courtesy to tune silently. And turning your built-in pick-up’s volume down won’t help because then you won’t be sending a signal to your tuner. Get an inline tuner that has a mute button.
Still, despite my soundhole plug and muted signal, my tuning was still a distraction. My solution? 1) Don’t tune unless you absolutely have to, 2) Change your strings often, 3) Have a backup guitar tuned and ready, and 4) Get an A/B box.
1) Don’t tune unless you absolutely have to.
Not much to say here. Just resist the temptation. Tune before rehearsal, then tune again right before service so you’re good to go. Make sure you’ve given your guitar as much time as possible to adjust to the temperature and humidity in the room where you are playing. It will tend to continue to go out of tune until it ‘settles in’ to the room. I like to let my guitars adjust for at least an hour before rehearsal, so I get there early and put them in the stand or at least open their cases. Guitars that have ‘settled in’ will require less re-tuning.
2) Change your strings often.
How often is often? I suppose it varies from person to person, but old strings just sound old. I mean, listen to them… they’re too… old! (see Happy Gilmore) I have a friend who changes his strings about once a week. Of course he plays electric guitar, and he plays a lot more than I do… he plays one rehearsal and several services a week. I tend to play on my strings for at least a month. They need to stretch and ‘settle in’ as well, but there definitely comes a time when they just feel and sound old. So that’s when I change them. Tip: when you change your strings, make sure you give them a good stretch. Wind them on, then stretch them. Tune up and stretch again. Repeat until not much tuning is needed after a stretching. Learning how to effectively, yet safely stretch your strings takes some time. Here is a video that shows you how.
3) Have a backup guitar tuned and ready.
I used to use only one guitar… until I broke a string during a worship service. Then I started borrowing a second guitar, but I couldn’t always count on getting the same guitar. I also couldn’t count on the borrowed guitar having good sound or decent strings. One day I found a really nice used acoustic/electric for just $250. It was the same brand as my main guitar, so I bought it for a backup. I liked it so much that it became my primary guitar. Used acoustic guitars are everywhere, and if you know what you’re looking for, you can find a good one at a very affordable price. Get one and keep it tuned up and ready when you lead worship. I actually keep two backup guitars at the ready, and, believe it or not, I have gone through all three more than once!
4) Get an A/B box.
An A/B box allows you to plug two guitar sources into one destination (or channel.) I keep my main guitar plugged into channel A and my backup guitar (with its own cable) plugged into channel B. If I break a string or have any other malfunction, I can quickly, easily and silently change guitars by: 1) pushing the mute button on my tuner, 2) pushing the button on my A/B box (and thus switching to my backup guitar which is sitting at the ready… all tuned up and plugged into channel B on the A/B box,) 3) switching guitars (this can be done smoothly with practice–even to the point of not missing any lyrics! Make sure your backup guitar has its own strap,) and 4) push the mute button on your tuner once more to make your signal live again.
Well I hope these tips are as helpful for you as they have been for me. Remember, it’s about helping people get from Here to There with as little distraction as possible.
Now go change your strings,
Scott
