Contemporary Music Instruction and Mentoring

  Questions and Answers about
Acoustic Guitar Accessories



Q: What number should my guitar tuner be at?

A: “A = 440 hertz” is the standard setting that you normally want to be at.  Some tuners allow users to make + and - adjustments off of standard.  The purpose of that is to be able to adjust the tuning of the guitar to match an instrument such as a piano or pipe organ at a venue that is not perfectly tuned to A=440 (which is actually quite common).  Tuning the guitar to the piano using a tuner with this capability is a better option than finding a piano tuner at the last minute.

So it is a nice feature to have... BUT I sure wish the tuner manufacturers would have a separate button for that feature that is recessed and accessible only with a pencil or paper clip. I also wish they’d be smart enough to program the tuners to reset to A=440 every time the tuner is turned off! I can’t tell you how often my students have tuned their guitars way off pitch because the base pitch feature got messed up unwittingly. Unless you are playing with another instrument that is out of tune, always check to make sure your tuner is at A=440 before tuning.


Q: Does using a capo on guitar mean you don't really know what you are doing?

A: Absolutely not!!!

I'm sick to death of listening to egotistical, university-trained guitarists look down their noses at anyone who uses a capo.  I've heard them call capos "talent compensaters."  I’ve seen lots of comments from people online who talk about how they don’t need them because they can play “all the chords” in all the keys.

Those kinds of comments show that they don’t know what they’re talking about.  I challenge anyone who says they don’t need a capo to play George Harrison’s Here Comes The Sun correctly in its original key without a capo.

I know a guy who thought he didn't need a capo.  He had a university degree in guitar performance, and taught guitar for a living.  He ended up with carpel tunnel syndrome from using barre chords so much, and he had to stop playing for about a year to allow his left wrist to heal!

Besides, capos enable better voicings.  Imagine you need to play a song in Eb. So you play an open E shaped chord as a barre on the 11th fret or as an open A shape with a barre on the 6th fret.  But when you play it, it sounds like a barred chord. Because it is a barred chord. You don’t have all those lovely, textured, jangly open notes.  But using a capo you can play it as an open G shape with the capo on the 8th fret. Or an open C with the capo in the 3rd, an A shape in the 6th with a free finger for fills, or a D shape with the capo in the 1st fret. Heck, you could even use an E shape and sit your capo in the 11th!  Not only would your hand not get as tired, it would free up fingers to add color, fills, and grace notes, as well as allowing to to move around the frets with open strings as drone notes.

Capos save your wrist, make life easier, and allow far more colorful playing.  Anyone who claims differently is just being a snob.

Here are some guitarists who I'd say "know what they are doing":








The only time you can say someone using a capo doesn’t know what they’re doing is if they’re doing this:





Q: Does the plectrum (pick) you play with make a difference in your guitar sound?

A: Yes, definitely. The thickness, shape, and material the pick is made of, all make a noticeable difference in the tone of the guitar!

For example, a typical “medium” pick will make most Taylor acoustic guitars sound too thin. Also, there is also an annoying scratching noise as the pick edge slides over the windings of the bottom strings (if the pick is angled against the strings), or there is a slapping sound as the pick bends then snaps against each successive string (if the pick’s face is parallel to the strings). In contrast, with a 1.5mm d’Andrea Pro Plec with its smooth, rounded edges and unusual type of plastic material, if the player uses good technique, those noises are reduced drastically, leaving a round, pure tone. That is my favorite pick for most songs on most of my acoustic guitars, for most songs. But not all. It depends on the song. And the guitar. My 12 string sounds horrible with it.
To my ears, the Pro Plec also sounds lousy on an electric guitar, except for jazz. Too dull. Ironically, after trying dozens and dozens of different picks, my go-to pick for rhythm electric guitar is the same thickness, and a very similar shape to the Pro Plec. But it is made of a very different, much harder plastic material (acrylic): the d’Addario Acrylux Reso Standard. Even though those two picks look and feel similar, the sound is as different as night and day.

So, different picks for different guitars, different songs, different moods. I can hear the difference. So can other people who actually listen to the tone, including people in my bands. Whether the average joe in the audience can hear the difference doesn’t matter to me. Half of them are tone deaf anyway. What matters is how I feel when I play, which makes me a better or worse player.


Q: One can now purchase a DYI guitar pick punch, with which you can make your own guitar picks. Would you consider making your own picks and if so, what materials would you use?

A: You can make super cheap picks with those punches. If you don’t care about tone, they will be great for you. However, be aware of two things: First, the manufacturing process used to make the pick makes a big difference in tone. Quality picks have a smooth, rounded edge that is polished. This allows the pick to glide over the string while avoiding a plinking, scratching sound. Second and even more importantly, the type of plastic used to make the pick has a huge effect. For example, the d’Andrea Plec Pro (my favorite pick for acoustic guitar) and the d’Addario Acrylux (my favorite pick for electric guitar) are nearly identical in size, shape, and quality smooth edges, and they are identical thickness (1.5mm), but they sound WAY different from each other (almost completely opposite) because of the different materials they are made of. IMHO, credit card material is just about the worst type of plastic to make a pick out of. It doesn’t last long, and it makes the worst tone of any pick I have ever used. But even if you use another kind of plastic, the edges of the punched picks are very rough. If that doesn’t matter to you, go for it! As for me, the only use for a guitar pick punch is to make picks for keychains or other decorations!


Q: Why don't locking tuners guarantee complete tuning stability?

A: Because tuning pegs accidentally spinning is not the primary reason why guitars go out of tune.

For example, as the temperature changes, the wood in the guitar expands and contracts. Also, the metal in the strings expands and contracts. And they do so at different rates. With acoustic guitars, temperature changes (and, over time, humidity changes) also cause the soundboard to expand and contract, which raises and lowers the bridge. All three of these things make the guitar go out of tune. Sometimes rapidly.

Another example: as strings are played hard, or pulled to different tunings with pitch bending, they may stretch a little. At different rates from each other. That also makes the guitar go out of tune.

If you are talking about electric guitars with whammy bars, in addition to the above factors, there are two more reasons why they don’t stay in tune during a song. First, as the whammy bar is used, friction between the strings and the nut make the strings not return to the exact tension as they were before. Second, most whammy bar bridge mechanisms are notorious for not returning to the exact same position they were in before the whammy bar was used.

There are many other reasons, but these will suffice to show why locking the tuners so they don’t accidentally spin is no guarantee of tuning stability. BTW, quality, low ratio, nonlocking tuning machines don’t spin unless you turn them.