An observation from Saturday night... My buddy and I went to see Kansas on the 40th anniversary Point Of Know Return tour. Richard Williams played his PRS all night when he wasn’t playing acoustic. The other guitarist played a Strat. I noticed that Williams never touched the tuners on his guitar. I saw him check the tuning a few times, but never made an adjustment. The other guy? Tuned a lot, including during a couple songs. Williams’ tech did take the guitar off stage at one point, so it may have gotten a tuning tweak, but I couldn’t see that. After the show, my buddy got a notification on his phone that a guy we both really like (I took lessons off this guy for about a year) was playing at the casino across the river. What the hell - it’s a Saturday, and he’s only playing until midnight, so let’s do this. We caught his last set, and he was playing his PRS (CU22, I think). Played “Purple Rain” as the first song in the set, SRV’s “Cold Shot” later, and a few other things. Guess what he never touched. I find myself watching this stuff a lot more - the tuning stability of PRS guitars never ceases to amaze me. Just this weekend, I pulled out my DGT (with really old strings) and worked on a song Friday night. Didn’t get back to it until today - the guitar sat in the rack in between. I had to adjust the G string a few cents. That was it. Everything else was still dead on. Still makes me shake my head a bit, even if it doesn’t surprise me.
Cool story. I saw Richard play his beautiful PRSi during a show in Erie, PA a couple of years ago. But Point of Know Return is my favorite Kansas album, and I wish I could have caught that show.
That's the way my gigs always go. It's great with the Polytune tuner. I just strum real quick, see a bunch of green and move on. To be fair to other guitars, the setup matters a lot. I've only done one gig with the new Strat I built, but it was in tune straight out of the bag at the bar. It was also still in tune when I took it back out of the bag at home later. I didn't touch a tuner all night.
It was a great show. I saw them last year on the Leftoverture anniversary tour as well. My buddy is a big Kansas fan, and I know very little beyond the hits, but I figured he'd want to go last year. He's gone to several shows w/me where he didn't know any of the artists and came away a fan. "Dust In The Wind" was spectacular - you could really hear the interplay between the parts. Both times I've seen them I've come away wondering how I didn't become a bigger fan.
I have a few (non-prs) guitars that stay in tune incredibly well. I came across one (import) recently that hadn't been out of the case in a couple of years... tiny tweak to get spot on! The right strings and set up have a lot to do with it as well...
Yeah, that’s one of the major reasons for deciding that G and F have run out of excuses for lousy tuning stability. Looking at my PRSi...including the SEs...I look to the last hook on the right on the wall and mentally chew out my Les Paul, “see, they can do it, you lazya$$”.
I was entertaining the idea of a [email protected] fancy tuner for my pedal board, then I realized that I literally only tune once before shows or rehearsals... so what’d be the point?
My PRS HB1 12 string stays insanely good in tune. I often change from standard to Csus2 tuning and where ever I have it, that is where it will stay. Crazy fine instrument. They should make a model for the SE line!
Completely agree. Not to even make a comparison w other makes. One of the reasons I love my PRS' is they just seem to stay in tune a long time.
As most of you know, I got an Axis from Brians Guitars a couple months ago. LOVE the guitar. Great playability, great tones, great guitar! Couple weeks ago it got chilly enough that the furnace kicked on. Went in to play that night had had to loosen the nut because all 6 strings had drifted to where you couldn't get them back with the bridge fine tuners. Loosen nut, center the fine tuners, tune, lock nut. A week later, it was hot again and the A/C was on. I tuned night one, night two, and by night three the fine tuners were maxed and I had to re-loosen the nut to get back to tuning. Our A/C is set at 76. (Yes, my wife has a high metabolism and is always cold) and furnace to 71. That few degree swing over a couple days created those tuning issues. Meantime, my strings have been on my NF3 for almost a year now (I do polish them, more on that later) but it was in the car twice last week in the heat for a little while, and I barely have to tune a couple strings over the last few weeks. The Axis has a locked not and takes wild whammy bar use in stride, but seemingly small weather changes make it go well out of tune. PRS C24 and NF3 get played for an hour and might need a string or two adjusted prior to the next time they're played.
I was sold on the solid tuning when I fly my McCarty from DFW to HNL, got home, waited an hour and opened the case, not flight case but regular PRS case. It was in tune with the tuner.. I couldn't believe it.
I frequently have to tune my PRS. Because as a gig bag user, the top tuners get nudged when I put it in the bag...
Yet some of my favorite PRS artists rather conspicuously tune in between songs. This confuses me. Is it for show?
