The Steel Guitar Forum

To all the blind or vision impaired pickers (all 5 of us), how are you tuning your steel? I'm using a software tuner called Chromatia Tuner V3.4 which gives me the choice of tuning out the beats to a series of tones, or acting like a geiger counter - clicking faster or slower as I approach the correct pitch.

Its best feature is that it allows for user-programmed temperments, although its not so easy to do - you have to manually create your frequency tables. I created an Excel spreadsheet for that purpose, where I plug in my cents offsets and it creates a table of values that the tuner references.

So far I have created two presets, one based off the Newman chart which works good, and another based on Herbie Wallace's Peterson settings from his book "An Approach to the E9 Tuning", which also works quite well.

This is great for the living room, but I don't know what I'd do in a bandstand situation for tuning, unless I bring along my laptop which would be a pain. So, you blind guys, what are you doing for tuning?

Tune by Ear.

I too have lots of eye problems. I do prefer to tune by ear when I can like dances in a local bar or club, but let's not forget those times when we HAVE to tune quietly like a show or something else. I prefer the needle type tuners like a Korg WT12, but I have found that I can tune alot quicker and see the screen much better on the Peterson VSII. This of course is the strobe type tuner. You can see this perfectly in the most dimly lit venues, and hopefully, you have already saved your fined tuned settings in the pre-programmed area or you can use the presets available in the tuner. Again, I DO prefer the Korg needle type tuners out of habit, but at 53 with eye cataracts, I guess we must make some compromises if we are to continue playing out. Adapting to a new type of tuner is a bit tough at first, but the alternative to quit playing altogether is NOT an option, at least for me. My best to you, and May God Bless you all this Holiday Season. Thanks. Zeke

Zeke, I was (for all practical purposes) nearly stone blind from cataracts in both eyes.

Take this advice, if you never listen to another word I say: "Go Get Implants" (Man made lenses). I know it sounds horrible. But they use a laser to remove your regular eye lens, and replace them with brand new lenses, that will last you for the rest of your life. I'd never have waited so long, had I known it was like being born again. 20/20 vision "without glasses."

Think about it, because it'll be the best thing you ever did. Color now jumps right out at you. In real vivid color. Before it was all thick, thick fog. And that was even with glasses.

Hope you take this advise and check into it.

Don

So Phil, do you plug in your guitar to an interface or listen by ear or what. How do you use the program to tune your guitar if you have trouble seeing it? Thanks, Greg

Zeke: Don is correct. My life changed for the better after I had the cataract surgery.

Don Brown, Sr. wrote:Zeke, I was (for all practical purposes) nearly stone blind from cataracts in both eyes.

Take this advice, if you never listen to another word I say: "Go Get Implants" (Man made lenses). I know it sounds horrible. But they use a laser to remove your regular eye lens, and replace them with brand new lenses, that will last you for the rest of your life. I'd never have waited so long, had I known it was like being born again. 20/20 vision "without glasses."

Don

Hi Greg,

I plug into the soundcard of my laptop and the tuner program reads the signal from the soundcard. I listen, either to the geiger counter-like clicking noises from the tuner that slow down or speed up as I approach pitch, or alternatively, I listen to a tone produced by the tuner and tune out the beats with that tone.

If you meant "how do I use a computer if I have trouble seeing", there is speech software available called "JAWS" that put simply, "speaks" whatever pops up on the screen.

Hey Don et al, if you want a laugh, my father made his living doing those cateract surgeries, while two of his kids were blinded from an unknown cause. How's that for irony? I expect that, when I die, there'll be someone waiting there to give me the punch-line to that little cosmic joke--oughta be a real kneeslapper.

Thanks Phil. I just wondered if it was that easy as plugging into the computer. Thanks much. Greg