The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody heard anything about this lately? Is Jernigan or anyone else actively using this tuning? I'd love more information about its development.

did this ever go anywhere?

Hello Carey,
Sorry I'm so slow getting to this.
Somewhere around the house here I've got video of Doug and Gary both playing the Avenger tuning. Both are playing Fessenden steel guitars.
If you get hold of Jerry Fessenden he'll have all the news about it. I think Doug and Gary are good with this tuning but it would be strange for me to try to play.
Good luck.

Where can we hear something played on the Avenger tuning?

I have Doug on two cuts on my Dust Bowl CD .. Window Faces South , and Miss Molly ..( not sure since he and I play so much alike ----Nah! ) He did some stuff near the end of each tune ...I kinda caught him while he was changing strings on the Avenger ... We had Gary at the Indy show 2 yrs ago.. I may have a video of that somewhere. JF

Is anything going on with this concept? Is Doug Jernigan even working on this anymore? Seemed very interesting. Some buzz was generated then it all seamed to disappear

Carey Lainhart wrote:Is anything going on with this concept? Is Doug Jernigan even working on this anymore? Seemed very interesting. Some buzz was generated then it all seamed to disappear

I was at Doug's house for a lesson about 3 years ago and it was set up in his music room where he was working with it at that time.

<bump>

Well today UPS dropped of Doug's Fessenden, with the Avenger tuning intact, and a copedent chart. Doug was great to work with on this transaction.

I know I am past the point of this type of adventure, E9th and C6th is more than enough for me...

But... before I would remove the Avenger tuning setup, I would like to see if anyone is interested in taking it on?

Doug said it's basically 2 tunings stacked together, with the D9th grips on every other string down to string 9, the root D.

So string grips 1, 3 ,5, and 3, 5, 7, and 5, 7, 9 are your E9th style grips. RKL lowers the 's D -C# for your most common E lever, and... LKR raises the D's a 1/2 step, acting as the common F lever... as far as I deciphered.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in this guitar, let me know.

I just realized that it's D13th, with a G# stuck in the middle!

Without the b7, my brain twists it into a D6/9+11 (IV of A major) or an E11 (V) with only one 3rd. Looks daunting.

I just realized that it's D13th, with a G# stuck in the middle!

Yeah, from the D root, it's just Dmaj on alternate strings with color notes in between, and D6 pops right out - I don't see a b7 (C) for D13 on the open tuning. But of course, P4 gives the b7.

But it's really a diatonic tuning, and depending on the root chosen, it will give a different mode. For example, taking D as root, it's just D Lydian, but missing the 7th tone. And LKL1 brings the scale back to D major - of course still missing the 7th tone. But RKL fills that in.

On the other hand, if you view it from the E root, it's basically an E11. But the scale from strings 11 to 1 is E mixolydian (missing the 6th tone) starting at the 4 (A) and ending on the 2 (F#). And root E on the bottom. Plus two right levers give the 6th tone C#.

This looks incredibly versatile. But one must really master a lot of different string grips to make full use of this.

BTW - if you look at the 12-string Alkire tuning here - https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=384759 - omitting the chromatic intervals at the bottom of Alkire, it does bear significant resemblance to Alkire, but in D.

I have to think from a scale root and convert to numbers to make sense of the possibilities here. There are a ton of them. But the grips - yikes, do I have enough time left on this earth???

Just noticed the raise of a P4 G# to C# on RR2. Is that accurate?

Here is a copy of the updated copedent that Doug sent with the guitar.






Sorry for the crooked scan....

Thanks, Mike.

Looks like he refined it quite a bit.

That 2 1/2 step raise made me think of and old Jeff Newman joke from the '80s about wound strings. Something about the spelling working both ways, "wound" as in the string being wrapped in a winding, and and "wound," as in "flesh wound" when you break one and it smacks you.

R. E. Miller wrote:Thanks, Mike.

Looks like he refined it quite a bit.

That 2 1/2 step raise made me think of and old Jeff Newman joke from the '80s about wound strings. Something about the spelling working both ways, "wound" as in the string being wrapped in a winding, and and "wound," as in "flesh wound" when you break one and it smacks you.

Just Curious... What, exactly, were Doug and Gary "avenging?"

Dan Kelly wrote:Just Curious... What, exactly, were Doug and Gary "avenging?"

Poorly thought out tablature?

Well, going to convert this one over to Jeff Newmans U-12 and put pedal 6 on a knee for now.

If anyone ever wants to try Doug's Avenger tuning out, the final copedent is listed for reference.