Headstock tuners look stupid and unprofessional

Thanks...its not that hard when you get used to it...
been doing it years..easy way..get the main ones in..then the octaves..check n tweak as required..that 12 is a solid thing holds tune quite well...once its in its in..and really stable..and i play it hard...melodically...but hard its my outdoor summer workhorse
takes a bit longer than with a 6 string but not much..normally never that far away from pitch...but the harmonica is a useful device...if your playing out in the sun its hard to see digital tuners...and i keep losing the bloody things...old harmonica?...back in shirt top pocket...or just play it for laughs
theres my 12...its got a few black pegs...looks like my poor old teeth
as for guitars...the man who designed the one in that link taught me what i know
http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009/04/colt-peacemaker.html
he was a very good mate of mine for a lot of years...i used to help him a lot with some of his projects...and often got to testplay them first
alas Mr Jim as i called him is no longer with us....man was pure genius with guitars...and many other things
and a Great Friend

 

I think soon electric guitars will soon be manufactured with LED or similar tuners installed in the upper side of the body. I can't believe no one has done it yet.

 

If a clip on tuner says novice to you I think you're listening-with-your-eyes. If a guy can really play, my attention is on the music he's playing. If he impresses me that says to me this guy is good maybe pro level.

OTOH if the guy plays everything triple forte, has a giant pedal board (with a tuner), and couldn't play Louie Louie in time to save his life, that screams novice to me. YMMV

 

Worked for Chuck Berry...

 

if im in the audience...i just dance...drink a few jars of ale and listen...tend to just let my hair down and enjoy...dont really pay much heed...im not one of those that goes to a venue to sit and scrutinise...or be bored to tears and sleep by endless twee noodling...
its rock n roll...entertainment...if i want to sit and watch...ill go to a folk night...for about 20 mins...be bored silly after much more...
as i said...its a show...a package...we all do different things..i like a good driving rock band...been in plenty of them
enough to know that most people couldnt give a damn about these things and there are bigger things to get worked up about
i dont use effects things...straight into amp will do...unless im playing surf...then into big reverb tank and job done
the more stuff you take the more youve got to worry about...loss/theft/breakage..hit the stage...blow their ears out...get off stage...drink beer...take a bird home
no need to spend an hour discussing the finer points of tuner accuracy...or lack of...or dissing someone on stage cos he missed a passing chord...hit a bum note...we all do it
its not a wine tasters day out

 

This is what i like some may not
This man is a hero in South Shields..not long back he saw the EDL (neo **** thugs) about to attack a coloured female photographer mob handed while on a march...he stepped in and stood up to the lot of them and saved her...got arrested for it!...released without charge...in my mind thats a hero...they would probably have killed or seriously injured her
and they just tune up (ish) and play...woe betide any idiots and troublecausers too...Great Bloke...not a headstock tuner..or any other kind in sight
anyone prepared to stand up and protect someone like he did is in my book a HERO.
Regardless of whether or not you like his music...its just rock n roll...Even Cliff Richard likes them.
somethings do matter more in music and life than fretting about headstock tuners ..or lack thereof...so cut us noisy oiks some slack...we might not always be bang on pitch...want that go see an orchestra and wait an hour while they tune up...and while you are waiting ..spare a thought for that petrified girl one of Our Noisy Lot saved..

 

You guys all love to say stuff like that but the fact is with bands, live shows, etc aesthetics are a huge part of it.

It's SHOW business. The Who, Rolling Stones, even the Beatles, all had a premeditated images and their images were an incredibly important part of their success.

I've always liked bands that put effort into their image or at least had a distinctive image. NY Dolls, Ziggy Stardust, The Sex Pistols, the Who. How successful do you think Bowie would have been if he looked like your office manager neighbor when he was onstage?

 

Wow, I haven't heard or thought about the Upstarts in a long time. I saw them somewhere sweaty back in the late 70's, I think. Are they still going?

 

If you’re playing acoustic guitar digging in a coffee shop or if you’re playing electric guitar in a bar late at night in the dark I really don’t think that anyone notices if you’re using a Headstart tuner. I don’t think that it’s anything that the average person on the dance floor we’re sitting at the bar would recognize or understand whatsoever. It’s like saying that girls on the dance floor count how many effects pedals you have and they think about it. It’s ridiculous.

 

Not really, his horrible local backup bands and lack of care about his own sound killed his career in the 70s and he never really recovered.

I've heard so many people talk about going to see him live back then and how disappointed they were in the show.

Maybe he would have faded into an irrelevant nostalgia act anyway but the crappy shows sure didn't help.

 

Depends on where you're playing and what type of music. My friends and I always check out the gear of the bands we see.

Plenty of people don't care but plenty do. And a clip on tuner is just goofy looking. Yeah, middle aged couples dancing at the local bar probably don't care but for the most part those type of people don't care if there's a live band at all. Just slap a DJ up there playing whatever music was popular when they were in high school and they're good to go.

 

Indeed they are still going.
Mensi resigned...then went back.
I bumped into him when i was working up there on a ship...South Shields isnt far away from me..im on Teesside Area.
I stopped off for a slash on the way...saw a car with a big upstarts sticker in back window...low n behold...theres Mensi with a cup of coffee in his mit...and a big cheesy grin...met a few times in the past...and he remembered my face...which i thought was nice...he is just a great working class ordinary lad...wouldnt want to spill his coffee though
he said they were on that night in Sunderland and wanted me to go...unfortunately i ended up stuck on that ship in untill the middle of the next day re rigging a deck crane and inspecting a load of lifting tackle in port of tyne...bit of a blow....hope he wasnt p155ed off with me..
wonder how many more here have heard of our local champ of the downtrodden working class in here

 

Ive been saying that all along

 

from what i heard and read he was difficult to work for...so had to make do with anyone that was left

 

Yeah, obviously now image isn't as important but I still wouldn't go on stage in shorts or wearing something goofy. That's not the way I want the audience to think of me.

I mean, I bought a Gibson Les Paul in large part because I think they're the coolest looking guitars ever made, I'm not going to clip a goofy tuner on the end of it.

 

I've always read he was just that cheap. He didn't want to pay a competent band, touring expenses etc so he played with all these local bands and it was awful.

I absolutely believe the hard to get along with part though. I love his music but from what I've read and heard about him he was a pretty nasty man.

 

me neither...wouldnt dress like it on or off stage...as rock musicians i think we have certain standards to uphold...looking like ive just been in an office doing tax returns insnt me!

 

Yeah I remember tuning with a pitch pipe, or off the organ, or just the other guitar so we'd at least be in tune "relatively"
They're cheap convenient and accurate, they're only embarrassing because they weren't around 40 years ago.

 

I do something like that with my Snark.
I mount it by the High E String but, I point the face Back so that it goes Under the Headstock.
Slightly less obtrusive and, I can use it on my other guitars.

 

just get me a local bunch...pay them a fiver...less if you can get away with it...and make sure they play like crepe so it sounds like only im any good.....bout right?
chuck the organ grinder....sid snot and the ramjets...the monkeys...in fact tell sid he neednt bother...then we can get em for 2 quid!
just make sure they bring their sisters says chuck