The Steel Guitar Forum

Let's see how many people do what. It's a 8-day poll.

In most situations, I get a reference note and tune by ear, but I'd say what comes out is a meantone tuning, slanted somewhat more to JI than it used to be, so I suppose I could have answered either way.

Peterson VS-II? now if the Bass player could just get the bass guitar intonated we might be able to play in tune.

I tune to Jeff Newman's tuning chart using a BOSS TU-12H chromatic tuner.

Chuck Rodrigues

Carefully and constantly...

I used the old Jeff Newman tempered tuning chart for a long time but it seemed I was always flat to the rest of the band when I played "open" A with the A & B pedals down. About 10 years ago I just started tuning everything with a sharp (G#, F#, D#, A#, etc.) to 438. Everything else such as the E , B, & D strings to 440 except for the E to F change, I tune that to 438 also. It sounds good to me and when I play with other instruments. Example, my G# strings are at 438 but the raises to A are 440............JH in Va.

IF I can hear, I use JI and ear with the tuner at 442. I have a sequence I go through, and sometimes use the tuner to verify.

One band I play with never takes the time to tune up together, or use the same electronic tuner. So, I use the Peterson with JI temperament. I play with this group 'cause they like the steel, and I try to play whatever they throw at me. Keeps me on my toes.

Praise and Worship group I play in are all considerate and experienced. We all use the same Peterson after I check it to the piano.(A above middle C). I have noticed that the piano changes about 4c week to week. Bass and guitar use Peterson temperaments. I use JI as reference at 442 plus or minus what the piano is doing, and tune by ear.

Stu Schulman wrote:Peterson VS-II? now if the Bass player could just get the bass guitar intonated we might be able to play in tune.

I would consider that to be the second option (Newman chart or similar), as the Peterson has a built-in equivalent of the Newman JI chart.

The impetus for this topic was a PM I received from a member who said "You'll note there are actually a lot of 'straight up' players...". I thought that it was probably a small but very vocal minority. So far, the poll proves me right, with less that 10% of us tuning straight up ET.

Peterson strobo Flip, Newmans chart! Works great!
Uffe

I'm an ET guy - my level of skill and accuracy doesn't warrant me getting picky about a few cents at this stage. Maybe when I get better, I will change my tune (ing)

I'm with you Jeremy. I just tune to the tuner..didnt even know it was called ET, now I know.

This may be a terribly naive question but are there any other string instruments where there are actually feirce debates over how to tune the open strings?

ET

I tune my B's and E's to 440 with a a tuner (boss) and tune other strings by either chiming or string comparison and take all the wobble out with pedals up and down. On C6th, I tune the C's to 440 and other strings, same as above.

b0b, I used the Newman chart for a long time, but some of the time it just didn't seem quite "in" with the keyboard being the other main lead instrument. One of the guys posted another similar chart on the Forum a couple weeks ago, using 441's & 438's with 445 on the 9th string; seems to be a lot better to my ear, with the little bit of cabinet drop there.

I tune ET when I play with a band, that said, after I tune up ET , I tweak a bit. F# 6 I tune with pedals down and split the difference, E's are slightly sharp, and sweeten the G#'s.
Then I fine tune with harmonics, my Derby is the first steel I ever had that really holds its tuning.

Get a reference note and tune by ear!

I never really gave it a lot of thought...



EJL


(0:><:0)

basic Newman then i tweek every thing excepts the Es and Bs.
jerry

I tune with what i believe is called a "Just Temperment"...I try to work hard at playing in tune...I think that playing in tune is the "trick"...Best regards. ..jeff

A tuning fork and the rest by ear.

Thanx,
Jim

Jeff Bradshaw wrote:I tune with what i believe is called a "Just Temperment"...I try to work hard at playing in tune...I think that playing in tune is the "trick"...Best regards. ..jeff

Just intonation is the only tuning system that isn't tempered. There's no such thing as "just temperment" - it's a contradiction of terms.

Just intonation is the only tuning system that isn't tempered.

Then, I guess we could say that Jeff Newman's chart is only "slightly" tempered?

"JI" (to me) means "no beats", and that's the way I tune. When I can't get pedals down "beatless" (as with the 7th string), I tune the opens beatless, and then correct the pedaled (out) intervals with the bar.

Gee b0b! I didn't even know that I was using the Jeff Newman tuning,no wonder it works so well..

On E9th, I tune the Es to about 441, pedal up. On the 3rd harmonies like the G# open and 5th and 10th string pulls, I don't tune the beats out. I tune somewhere between "beats out" and straight up, probably closer to straight up. Actually When tuning just before a gig, I tune G#s with the pedals down. I tune to a perfect 5th in relation to the E strings. I trust the pedals are tuned the same way they were the last time I played. If it doesn't sound right, I adjust the pedal tuning, but that's pretty rare. 7th string is slightly flat from a perfect 5th in relation to the B string(5). 1st string is a perfect 5th to the 5th string B. If the pedals are tune correctly, the 9th string is a perfect 5th in relation to the 6th string pedals down. I may shade that one a hair on the sharp side. 2nd string is a perfect 5th in relation to the 3rd string with pedals up. As you can probably tell, I like those 5ths.
This method works ok for me and you can easily tune by ear in the middle of bar fight. When I tune, I'm not listening to the pitch of the notes, only the beats and beat rates.

I'm not sure which catagory in the poll I would fit in.

Ken

Hi Bob, I do not know the correct terminology but I can say that i tune my guitar so that the chords are "beatless"...what terminology should I use to describe "beatless"? Best regards. ..jeff

Edited to add:
Also..Newman's Just Intonation Chart is not "beatless" to my ear...