Tuning Methods

Adair Torres · From: Sao Paulo, Brazil

There's nothing worse than to listen to an instrument out of tune
There's nothing better than to listen to a well tempered pedal steel guitar.
My eternal discussion during recording sessions is about the tuning of the pianos.
I didn't hear one at all that was perfectly tuned, and certainly I won´t have this pleasure.
For me, the topics about cabinet drop and tunings systems are the best topics inside this wonderful Forum.
I could spend all day reading it.
It seems that each one of us uses a different tuning method.
Some use the Jeff Newman Tuning Chart system, others tune the instrument by hear just listening to one good old "E" note of the nearest piano or the "A" note of the tuning fork.
Some people use the Peterson Strobo and so on.

Buddy Emmons uses the harmonics tuning for example.

Does anybody know which method Paul Franklin uses for tuning??
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Adair Torres - Boss at TowerS Steel Guitars
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Zum D10 8X7 Wineberry 2010.
Emmons SD10 3X8 Black 1994.
Derby D10 8X8 Rosewood 2008.
TowerS SD10 3X5 Imbuia Mica Finish 2018

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Paul tunes by ear, listening to the intervals as he bars at various positions. Lloyd Green does the same.
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Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Amen, and thank you Paul for telling me to learn to tune by ear. It was THE single best piece of advise that I ever got about pedal steel guitar.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

i bet Paul uses harmonics & his ears to tune his psg

Ray McCarthy · From: New Hampshire, USA

I tune the 4th string with a pitch pipe & the rest by ear. To me it's obvious when someone's (or my own) instrument is out of tune. One of the guys I play with is always tweaking his Tele with an electronic tuner of some sort, and yet his guitar always sounds out of tune to me. Drives me crazy. Are some of these tuners (I've never used one) just plain inaccurate?

Derby SD-10 (#316), TruTone, NV-112

David Doggett · Posted 1 Sep 2009 8:52 am

Ray, most electronic tuners are pretty accurate, but the cheaper ones have a little slop between the two lights. But some of the problems you hear might be because tuners give you what's called Equal Temper (ET), which is an artificially tempered chromatic scale that sets all the half-step intervals exactly equal. When we tune by ear, we tend to tune closer to the natural chord intervals based on harmonics, called Just Intonation (JI). You can look these terms up with an internet search, and can find lots of threads about this by searching the Forum.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Paul Sutherland · From: Placerville, California

If everytime you tune, the starting point for your tuning is the exact same pitch E note (E9th) and C note (C6th), then tuning is much easier; you won't have to be retuning the pedal changes nearly as often. Only a quality tuner can get you to the exact same pitch every time. No one's ear is as exact as a GOOD tuner.

Slight variations in pitch add up. If you tune your steel ever so slightly flat (you can't hear it, but you can see it on a strobe tuner), and you had previously set a pedal change ever so slightly flat (same), the combination probably would be noticeable, and now you are retuning pedals. Why go through this when you can avoid it by always starting from exactly the same pitch?

Once I have the Es and Cs set I can reliably tune everything else by ear, unless is I can't hear the beats due to the surrounding noise level, which seems to be very often at rehearsals & gigs. So once again the tuner becomes highly valuable.

A good tuner should be a tool and not a crutch. It has its place, but it's no substitute for developing a keen ear for intonation.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Ray McCarthy · From: New Hampshire, USA

Hey, Adair, How do you like your new Derby?

Derby SD-10 (#316), TruTone, NV-112, Holy Grail

Paul Sutherland · From: Placerville, California

Georg

A strobe tuner is really nothing more than a really reliable reference. It always gets me to exactly (or almost) the same pitch for starting the tuning process.

I have tuned my steel by ear to where I was convinced it was perfectly in tune and then immediately checked various strings on the strobe and I am always very close, and sometimes dead on. Often the strobe will tell me I am a little sharp or flat but I can't hear it. That's the primary basis for my previous statement.

I don't rely on the strobe to tune pedal changes, nor do I use it to tune all the open strings. I still tune certain strings and changes by ear, even in the noisiest of bars. In essence, I use a hybrid approach.

I have found that tuning to the nearest piano only works if the piano is actually in tune, which they frequently are not. (If the piano is relatively in tune with itself, but overall a little bit sharp or flat you might be able to tune to a stobe and then compensate with your bar, so you don't have to re-tune all your pedals and levers. If the piano is not in tune to itself, why would you want to play with it or tune to it?)

Further, tuning by ear is made much easier if you are given pure tones and not pitches that are full of overtones, which accoustic pianos are full of. A strobe does not have this problem.

A tuning fork can work quite well if you can hear it clearly. I have rarely found that to be the case.

Paul

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Paul,

I buy your argument. A strobe is as good as a tuning fork, although I find a tuning fork to work so well for me that I put away my cheap but perfectly acceptable tuner years ago. I let the tuning fork ring against a particular point on my steel's top-plate, and tune against it.

Oh, and I check my tuning forks too - with a frequency counter. The one I have now is 0.34Hz too low, which is fine with me as I intentionally tune "A" .6Hz flat and "E" .6Hz sharp for "JI".

When tuning to other instruments, I ask for some chords - or preferably parts of a tune or two - in various (most used) keys and then approximate the tuning in my head and apply for open with near-zero beating. I then quickly check the tuning across all strings and chords up the neck by ear, to be on the safe side. Slight offsets from my own "norm" in open tuning, doesn't affect my pedal-tuning enough to bother touching them.

Adair Torres · From: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ray McCarthy · From: New Hampshire, USA

Adair, when I first got my Derby about three years ago I had the same trouble, but it didn't take long--it fits like an old glove--comfortable as could be!

Stick with it--you'll love it! Very Happy

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