What tuner is the best to use for steel guitar?

[Dale Ware]

Is it possible everyone is right for the sound they like to hear? I think it's possible everyone likes to hear something different. I also think the best tuner you can buy is one you like and is easy for you to use and fits your budget.

[Fred Rushing]

IMO you can tune most any method you like with any resonable tuner. Your steel is still tuned by the MASTER tuner when you play with a band. The MASTER TUNER is your EARS. Your left hand goes where your MASTER tuner tells it. All the tuning methods know won't make any differance if the MASTER tuner can't get you on pitch with the band. Thats my story and I'm stickin' to it. Fred

[David Haddock]

Hey, I don't have an iphone, but I saw a guy who came down to our shop had a strobe tuner app for his iphone and it cost him $10 to download. I just looked it up it's put out by Peterson tuners:

http://www.petersontuners.com/index.cfm?category=150

[Scott Poley]

I use a Peterson Stobro-Flip on the sweetened settings for my D-10. It is a wonderful addition to my rig.

I have the Peterson iPhone app, its a bargain for only $10 (or £5.99 here in the U.K). The only downside is that it doesn't have the sweetened / temper tunings included in the standalone Peterson units.

[John Bechtel]

Any tuner that can produce the Root~Note to the Chord I'm tuning to! I don't use the rest of the tuner! One-Note for each neck!

[Joe Burke]

Does anyone use the TC Polytune 2? I tune +5/-5, and sometimes the room is too loud. I think this would do the trick.

[Jim Reynolds]

Bill, I have to agree with you on Jeff Newman and his tuning. I sure don't think he was wrong, and sure wish he was still alive to add his ideas to this. He put a news letter out on it, and I still have it, but it is to long to post. It sure is plan and simple, and it all agreed with Buddy Emmons too.

[Michael Hummel]

My opinion, FWIW...I use the Jeff Newman sweetened method for E9, and when I am practicing everything sounds sweet and nice. When I hear the playback of the band recording, I'm not convinced things are perfect...

I'm still trying to sort out if it is our guitar player bending a bit much, my imperfect bar technique, or the fact that I'm tuning my Es a bit sharp as per Jeff's tuning, or what. I'm tempted to try tuning my guitar to ET to see if it is any better, but I'm willing to put my money on my technique before anything else!

There is no perfect tuning. Just one that works with you and your band, if applicable. Everything is a compromise.

Mike

[Dave Mudgett]

Ha! Hard to believe this thread came back up.

Hey Barry - somehow I figured out that both you and I were at Antioch (the real Antioch, at Yellow Springs, when it was a college, not a 'university') studying under John Ronsheim at the same time - I was there '71-'75. My major was physics, but my other passion was music, and I studied about as much music and philosophy as physics and math. I was not in the chorale group, I was much more 'underground', musically.

None of this tuning stuff matters, IMHO, except that it sets the nominal straight-across-the-strings tuning intervals, with one caveat: if you are capable of setting the bar, straight up-and-down the neck, and hitting the frets markers correctly (they have parallax) and in-parallel, for the situation. IMO, playing steel guitar in-tune is mainly about your ears. If you can learn to discriminate between "in-tune" and "out-of-tune" with your ears, you're GOLD. Otherwise, no bloody tuner or tuning method is gonna do a bit of good.

FWIW, I'm still working on it, and will probably still be working on it up to the day they shovel dirt on my face.

[Gil Berry]

I've tried several newer tuners (got a strobo-flip and a boss tuner, plus a rack mount job) but I keep coming back to my old korg W/T 10-A. I bought a second used one on e-Bay in case my old soldier one dies before I do. I even put some l.e.d. lights in one so I could see the meter to tune in the dark. As for which method of tuning I use it's pure Jeff Newman, and when the numbers are on, it sounds sweet to me. Straight up tuning sounds anything but sweet to me - sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. one thing I have noticed, though, is that I naturally fudge the bar for some pedal combinations - like the A pedal/E raise lever that would give you an E chord on the 3rd fret on an E9 tuning. I'm always flat with a chord using that pedal combination without "cheating" a bit with the bar. Anyone else noticed this?

[Lane Gray]

Gil, it has to be flat: remember your roots in that position are around 17 cents flat. So you'll need to be around a sixth of the way to the next fret.

[Donny Hinson]

IMO, playing steel guitar in-tune is mainly about your ears. If you can learn to discriminate between "in-tune" and "out-of-tune" with your ears, you're GOLD. Otherwise, no bloody tuner or tuning method is gonna do a bit of good.

Bingo!

[Tommy Mc]

IMO, playing steel guitar in-tune is mainly about your ears. If you can learn to discriminate between "in-tune" and "out-of-tune" with your ears, you're GOLD. Otherwise, no bloody tuner or tuning method is gonna do a bit of good.

Many years ago, there was a well respected local steel player by the name of Dick Willis. I don't know whether he used a sweetened tuning or not, only that he didn't spend a lot of time messing with it. When questioned on the topic, he simply replied "I think it into tune."

I've spent a lot of time reading these ET vs JI threads, and tried tuning straight up, and various sweetened tunings. It seems to me that one reason nobody can agree is that there are so many variables. Even if we could agree on which tuning sounds best in theory, there are real world factors that come into play. Cabinet drop, each player's "most used" pedal and lever combinations, and of course the ear and hand of the player. These will all be slightly different for each of us. Ultimately, don't we all just get it somewhere close and then use our ears to think it into tune?

[John Cadeau]

The Peterson stroboplusHD is by far the best tuner I've ever used. It has presets a.k.a. Buddy Emmons. Jeff Newman, and more. I tune strait up. It is very accurate, and easy to use. The strobe screen makes it easy to get right on the note.