PSG Tuner

[Ron Wendler]

What tuner is use on a PSG? I see the chart for E9 and such tuning and maybe I'm not grasping what is simple, but the sharps, the minors ? I've never run into this in the many years I've played a standard guitar. Or never had to. This seems to be more complex and maybe a better tuner is needed. Mine are not fancy.

[Brian Lenherr]

The Peterson StroboPLUS or StroboStomp (and mini) are great options. They are strobe tuners, read quick, and have settings for "Sweetened" tunings for pedal steel and other instruments. And they're pretty affordable - especially if you can find them used.

[Stew Crookes]

What tuner is use on a PSG? I see the chart for E9 and such tuning and maybe I'm not grasping what is simple, but the sharps, the minors ? I've never run into this in the many years I've played a standard guitar. Or never had to. This seems to be more complex and maybe a better tuner is needed. Mine are not fancy.

Tuning a pedał steel is certainly more complex than a guitar!

If your tuner has an analog needle that allows you to match the Jeff Newman tuning chart by eye that will work just fine

A digital tuner that lets you set A to something other than 440Hz will also work just fine - I've got some Korg CA-30s that were probably $15 and they work great. You would change the tuner reference to match the tuning charts and then tune the string so that the tuner reads perfectly in tune (open E and B to 442, G# to 439, etc)

Something like a Snark or similar is not ideal for pedal steel... Not accurate enough...

You can also tune everything to 440 (gasp!) and get used playing that way - some great players tune straight up though I'm not one of them neither great nor tuned all to 440

The Peterson tuners are the Cadillacs of tuners with the offsets (to match the tuning charts) built in. They are excellent and very accurate but certainly not necessary to get in tune. The clip on one is just okay for steel - in a quiet environment it tunes perfectly but on a loud stage it can pick up interference from other instruments so I don't like it for live as much as my Strobostomp.

[Ron Wendler]

Thank you guys. I wondered I needed something more elaborate.

[David Wisson]

Hi Ron I use the Korg LCA 120 Chromatic tuner. Its a flip top compact tuner that you can set up to Jeff Newman's chart, then just tune your guitar in the centre position 440 across the board. My first tuner was the Korg chromatic tuner about the size of a transistor radio. Brought it at Scotty's convention would have been 17 at the time. It was in my case by my steel when I played in a production of The Best little Hoare House in Texas. luckily enough I had my picks and bar sitting on my steel as this was on the first night. Dave

[Steve Lipsey]

Ron- what the other posters have skipped over, and please pardon me if I seem condescending, is the thing we all had to learn (It was a Huge Aha for me, anyway!!!!) that (roughly) you can tune a pedal steel to sound much sweeter than a regular guitar, because you can tune the chords (levers and pedals) differently than the open strings...and the fact is that in a major chord, the chord actually is perfectly in tune when the 3rd is lower than the plain tuner puts it, and in minor chords, it is in tune when the 3rd is higher than the tuner puts it, because "Equal temperament", the standard guitar tuning method, has no way to accommodate that, due to the fact that you can't change where the frets are to accommodate the actual theoretical right spot for the various chords and keys....
There is more to it than that (it is a deep rabbit hole with many approaches) but that is the basis of the issue, and is why there are "sweetened" tunings you can apply on tuners like the Peterson.

You can try this on your guitar - but then you will realize that you have never ever actually been in tune! Tune normally, play a major chord, and gradually lower the string just a bit that is the 3rd of the chord...voila, all of a sudden all those faint beats you didn't realize you were hearing will disappear and the chord will sound sweeter.....

[Bill McCloskey]

I just started using the strobosoft tuner. Made by Peterson A less than $10 app that works on an Ipad and for $12 more you can get all the pedal steel sweetners. Just one less thing to carry around.

[Daniel Morris]

I've long used only Peterson tuners.
However........when I spoke with someone at Peterson about using their Strobo-clip, I was advised that they don't recommend that particular tuner for pedal steel. There's too much vibration from the floor.
Otherwise, any of the others would be a great choice.