The Steel Guitar Forum

I wonder if this were possible or would it take the fun out of tuning up??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetVXbYRfWk


Micky Byrne United Kingdom

micky
this was somewhere on the forum about a month ago

Hi Calvin.....must have missed it, sorry all !!

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

Micky,


That would be useful for swapping the top C6th string between G and D. I've watched Doug Jernigan do this manually for different songs. With temperature changes my guitar goes all over the place and it would be a real time saver to re-tune in a hurry. Trouble is, I always hit and release certain pedal or knee levers to manually adjust for string hysteresis. Now if it could tune the pedals and knees, that would be super cool. It's nice to see the technology get better every year.

Greg

You won't have to wait much longer..http://perfecttouchpicks.com/page9.htm

Hmmm, you don't have to know how to tune or restring a guitar now...

Is this what's next

Andy - Can you find one with an automatic crank, instead of that old-fashioned manual crank model?

Calvin Walley wrote:micky
this was somewhere on the forum about a month ago

I believe it was also discussed about 2 yrs. ago when the system was first marketted. From what I remember the general impression was that it could be done, but with pedal steel you would have to have a separate electric tuning mechanism for tuning the pedals and knee levers.

I'm sure if someone had enough financing to carry out the development work it could be done, and would be a great timesaver setting up on stage, but he would need to sell a lot of them to recoup his investment, and I'm not sure there are that many pedal steel players who would order what could become a very expensive instrument.

Alan F. Brookes wrote:...but with pedal steel you would have to have a separate electric tuning mechanism for tuning the pedals and knee levers.

You're supposed to tune them things too?

Seriously, I rarely tune my pedals and knee levers. As long as I stick with the same string gauges, the pedals and knee levers stay in tune.

I go with Alan. A self tuning steel will hardly find buyers. Even at the same price. I think most steelers love the mechanical parts and also the opportunity to replace anything by themselves.

Just imagine a (maybe) coming development in 50 Years:
Single Neck Steel is connected to the Notebook wireless.
On the screen you program today's tuning,E9,C6,Fis13b9#5 whatever. you check all remote contol systems ( No Pedal Rods and Pull Rods anymore) You wear a helmet with an inside screen which shows tabs. A voice guides through your practicing session.
A video camera controls your movements. A video clip shows for tutorial purposes an evaluated and corrected version. This will be Matrix III. I hope I won't experience that

just because it tunes itself doesn't mean someone can play it in tune. It's just more snake oil .

On my MSA, as with most guitars I've owned, the open tuning and the pedal and knee lever tuning drift a lot with temperature. When I played in noisy clubs it was a complete don't care. When I started recording, it stood out like a sore thumb. I tune up all the pedals/knees just before laying down tracks to get the tuning to an acceptable point.

Yeh, you still have to play it in tune, but I am used to positioning and bending the bar to play in tune based on a certain open and knee/pedal tuning point.

I've watched all the pro's tune all brands of guitars, both open and pedals as they go from cold to warm to get everything just right. My house is at 60 deg f overnight and at 70 deg during the time I am awake. This causes a very noticeable (to the ear) change in the open and pedal/knee tuning. The MSA is a fine guitar, but I don't measure the ultimate quality of a guitar based on how it's tuning changes with temperature. Even a $100,000 Strad changes with temperature.

I was quick to ditch my slide rule when calculators came out. I will be just as quick to ditch manual tuning if it allows me to spend more time playing and less time tuning. And also it would mean a higher percentage of the time playing in tune since I would touch up the tuning more often. You'd still have to offset the tuning to allow for the first activation of pedals/knees that causes hystereis effects.

Greg

Greg, Great post. It brought back memories.
I can vouch for what you said regarding temperature swings and tuning. My 1976 MSA Classic D10 was exactly like that. When I brought it in from the cold and set it up in a warm dance hall, it was always 3 cents sharp right across the board. What I did was just leave it for about a half hour and the thing would have dropped back in tune.

Here is my current situation: My home built, which I have set up in my garage, goes completely nuts as the temp in there sometimes goes down to as low as 50. Then it straightens right back up when the temp reaches livable levels at 68 to 72. Since I heat the place with a wood stove, there is a lack of control and some times the temp can go as high as 86. The steel seems to love any range from 68 to 86.