The Steel Guitar Forum

I just bought a Mullen S-12 and have been trying to get some idea of what the Temperment settings are for the strings and changes (How many cents + or - for each string and changes). I have charts and books from Jeff Newman but they are not always consistent. I am trying to program my Peterson Strobe Tuner and I would like to do it once. Can anybody help or offer advice? Much appreciated.

Robert, there is no one correct tuning temperment, which is why you found that even Jeff Newman had a couple of versions. Ultimately, it comes down to what sounds best to you.

When I played a 12-string Universal, I used Larry Bell's tuning method. It is a very good compromise between Equal Temperment ("straight up" on a tuner) and Just Intonation (tuning out the beats by ear).

You can find Larry Bell's general discussions about tuning issue here:
http://www.larrybell.org/id5.htm

The "hybrid" 12-string tuning chart is here:
http://www.larrybell.org/id32.htm

I still use this method for E9 and am very happy with it.

Thank you for your comments
Tucker. I had reached the same conclusion, but being new to this I figured I was probably wrong so I figured I should check here. I have a teacher who is very good, but I didn't want to bother him. He is very supportive and I will discuss this with him, but as I said he is so giving of his time that I didn't want to impose. I am going to start with the Newman temperments and take it from there. I get alittle overwhelmed when I see 16 and 18 cents variations on a couple of the changes which seems extreme to me. Thanks again for taking the time to reply. By the way, what do you use for a tuner?