J, I thought it might have been in a John Bohlinger column in Premier Guitar but I looked through all of this years issues. 
 
As far as "tuning"...I use whatever, whenever but the only thing I would consider a challenge is if there is a piano involved. Guitar working with a piano can be tricky...at least from experience with them. If the guitar is a challenge...something's wrong the way I see it.
 
 
 

spacey
Mosh, I've been looking for it but haven't found it yet.
It was cool - it was a challenge presented to figure out the chord by "ear" and then "how would you name it".
 ...

That "Perfect Pitch" guy, seems to associate things with a color ... at least he suggests each person devise their own color for it. He does not really suggest, that I have noticed. that a C is more important than a D or an E, and then goes on later to teach people how to define the chords, by this and that and this and that.
 
All in all, it was a very nice and interesting listen for me, not difficult, though it went wayyyyyyyyyy too fasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttttt for me, to be able to stick with a little longer, and probably would need to do a little each day just to catch up, which would make it difficult to get ahead.
 
In some ways, it was a bit "mechanical" for me, but it should be very good for academics that have no Joe Cocker in them, if you know what I mean! I guess that classical and opera folks are not allowed to get out of the academic scale of emotions?
 
I heard/read somewhere some funny stuff about Stevie Ray Vaughn that cracked me up ... and it was on an evening when they were rehearsing and the bass, for some reason was tuned down by half ... and 2 minutes into it, Stevie goes ... wow ... that's wrong ... but we got a new song!
 
Makes me wonder sometimes ... what people are listening to ... the music or the notes? I still believe there is a massive difference.

i've always found that every guitar no matter what it is,
has a 'sweet spot' where the most stuff is in  tune.
 
but you can never get the damn thing to be 'all in tune' unless you put a temperament system on it, 
something like this:
http://www.truetemperament.com/
 
 
for my own guitars, i typically tune by a strobe,
but then, i use my own ears and check with harmonics and with chords....
 
if i know i'm focusing on high-neck chords, i'll tune to that....
if i'm doing open string chords, same deal...
etc etc ad naseum
 

have no idea what les paul did..
but my guess is, it's something similar to what i do.
 
 

Moshkito

spacey
Mosh, I've been looking for it but haven't found it yet.
It was cool - it was a challenge presented to figure out the chord by "ear" and then "how would you name it".
 ...

That "Perfect Pitch" guy, seems to associate things with a color ... at least he suggests each person devise their own color for it. He does not really suggest, that I have noticed. that a C is more important than a D or an E, and then goes on later to teach people how to define the chords, by this and that and this and that.
 
All in all, it was a very nice and interesting listen for me, not difficult, though it went wayyyyyyyyyy too fasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttttt for me, to be able to stick with a little longer, and probably would need to do a little each day just to catch up, which would make it difficult to get ahead.
 
In some ways, it was a bit "mechanical" for me, but it should be very good for academics that have no Joe Cocker in them, if you know what I mean! I guess that classical and opera folks are not allowed to get out of the academic scale of emotions?
 
I heard/read somewhere some funny stuff about Stevie Ray Vaughn that cracked me up ... and it was on an evening when they were rehearsing and the bass, for some reason was tuned down by half ... and 2 minutes into it, Stevie goes ... wow ... that's wrong ... but we got a new song!
 
Makes me wonder sometimes ... what people are listening to ... the music or the notes? I still believe there is a massive difference.

I couldn't agree more Mosh. How people can process information so differently can sure make one wonder.

spacey

Moshkito

spacey
Mosh, I've been looking for it but haven't found it yet.
It was cool - it was a challenge presented to figure out the chord by "ear" and then "how would you name it".
 ...

That "Perfect Pitch" guy, seems to associate things with a color ... at least he suggests each person devise their own color for it. He does not really suggest, that I have noticed. that a C is more important than a D or an E, and then goes on later to teach people how to define the chords, by this and that and this and that.
 
All in all, it was a very nice and interesting listen for me, not difficult, though it went wayyyyyyyyyy too fasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttttt for me, to be able to stick with a little longer, and probably would need to do a little each day just to catch up, which would make it difficult to get ahead.
 
In some ways, it was a bit "mechanical" for me, but it should be very good for academics that have no Joe Cocker in them, if you know what I mean! I guess that classical and opera folks are not allowed to get out of the academic scale of emotions?
 
I heard/read somewhere some funny stuff about Stevie Ray Vaughn that cracked me up ... and it was on an evening when they were rehearsing and the bass, for some reason was tuned down by half ... and 2 minutes into it, Stevie goes ... wow ... that's wrong ... but we got a new song!
 
Makes me wonder sometimes ... what people are listening to ... the music or the notes? I still believe there is a massive difference.

I couldn't agree more Mosh. How people can process information so differently can sure make one wonder.

 
Because we're all *narcissistic sociopaths* like that new composer-guy worried in another thread.  I don't know about sociopaths, but the narcissism sticks.  *Whatever works!*.

I'm not into narcissism, but nachos? hella yeah.

The trouble with combining guitars and pianos is that no guitar is absolutely in equal-temperament tune all the way od the neck on every string and every fret. And no guitarist consistently plays the notes spot-on with never varying finger-pressure either.

To make things more interesting, pianos are generally not tuned to equal temperament either, but are tuned using a "stretch" system which makes them out of theoretically correct tune because the theoretically correct intervals result in some horribly harsh sounding chords and intervals. Which is one reason why piano tuners work a lot be ear and start by getting one note spot on then the octaves, then the fifths then the octaves of the fifths and so on, tining for musicality rather than mathematical accuracy. The other reason they use this method is before electronic tuners it was easy to carry one tuning fork but 88 were a bit of a burden.....

So you have two not quite in tune instruments playing together and at times they are going to clash. Fortunately it's easy enough to adjust the guitar a bit if necessary.

I look at simply, like Bapu I guess...but they can come without jalapenos and a little difference can become an issue to the point one would rather do without and prefer something completely different. I guess it helps when one can read and comprehend the menu. I've seen much difficulty with that and it gets tiresome translating the menu when one would rather be eating...knowing that it all prolongs the meal arriving if it should. Then there's always the bummer that it may not have been worth all the effort or wait.
I stuck a fork in a tamale (on my plate -for the funny guys) at a popular restaurant and asked the waiter if he could get the fork out...big difference...he thought he could and I didn't think so. He was still trying when we left. Now the difference is if I had been him I'd taken it to the cook to see if he could remove the fork. (true story by the way)
One may not realize why the difference or care...the cook may have been crazier than hell and the last thing was to let him know he sucked at cooking...but from my point of view, I didn't care...wasn't my tamale or fork. Sure I paid for it but I didn't lose a tip, a customer and I learned a few things for the dollar.
 
 

tlw
The trouble with combining guitars and pianos is that no guitar is absolutely in equal-temperament tune all the way od the neck on every string and every fret. And no guitarist consistently plays the notes spot-on with never varying finger-pressure either.

To make things more interesting, pianos are generally not tuned to equal temperament either, but are tuned using a "stretch" system which makes them out of theoretically correct tune because the theoretically correct intervals result in some horribly harsh sounding chords and intervals. Which is one reason why piano tuners work a lot be ear and start by getting one note spot on then the octaves, then the fifths then the octaves of the fifths and so on, tining for musicality rather than mathematical accuracy. The other reason they use this method is before electronic tuners it was easy to carry one tuning fork but 88 were a bit of a burden.....

So you have two not quite in tune instruments playing together and at times they are going to clash. Fortunately it's easy enough to adjust the guitar a bit if necessary.

 
 
And I'll add;
 
One can find a range on their guitar that may help. Limited range that works good with the piano part. That's a time it really pays off to know many chord forms as well as "ranges". (not to mention "arrangement skills".)
Most that realize that also realize that it may not take but some well placed chord tones to get the job done...many times two select intervals get more mileage than a "fancy" six string "what's that chord?".
I'd much prefer to re-arrange my thinking than jerk around trying to tune to fit something that keeps changing.
 
I think it's good when a guitarist realizes that many of the notes they play aren't needed and they focus on the ones that are. A simple example to explain my statement is use of full bar chords. Knowing that the bass notes on the guitar may be conflicting with the bass or other instruments working in the lower registers is a good thing.
Triads and less can be your friend. A five and extension may easily take it home. A clean home run...lol , works for me. YMMV.