The Steel Guitar Forum

well i guess we all agree it,s a great tuner. what is the best pre set to use? the se9 oe9 or what. looking for opinions. thanks guys. bob

Hi Bob, I've always used the se9 on every steel, and
it's always been right on. But I have always tuned the
4th and 8th string open E's with the A & B pedals down.

Bob,
Make sure you are using the SE9 for open tuning and the SP9 for pedals and knee levers. Common mistake for those of us that have used Peterson tuners in the past.

SE9 is a non-Equal temperament in which the E notes are 9.8 cents sharp.
0E9 is a non-Equal temperament in which the E notes are at 00.0 cents

Peterson used to say:
"Generally speaking, these tunings should be executed with both A & B pedals depressed unless the guitar has minimal cabinet drop".
Now they know better and don't say.

The new tuner Plus HD has tunings for open notes and separate tunings for Pedals and Levers..like 0E9 and OP9

PEDAL STEEL GUITAR
SE9: Peterson E9 Pedal Steel Sweetener 1 SE9
SP9: Peterson E9 Pedal and Lever Offsets for SE9
SC6: Peterson C6 Pedal Steel Sweetener
SP6: Peterson Pedal & Lever Offsets for SC6
OE9: Peterson E9 Pedal Steel Sweetener OE9
OP9: Peterson Pedal & Lever for 0E9
EM9: Peterson Emmons Style E9 Pedal Steel Sweetener
EP9: Peterson Emmons Style E9 Pedals & Levers
EM6: Peterson Emmons C6 Pedal Steel Sweetener
EP6: Peterson Emmons C6 Pedals & Levers
U12: Peterson Universal Pedal Steel Sweetener
P12: Peterson Pedal & Lever for Universal Pedal Steel

I use the 0E9 with pedals down and when I release the pedals my Es are a little sharp.
It is a personal choice and I find the SE9 a little sharp on open notes.
I think the 0E9 used to be for pedals down and The SE9 was for pedals up, but all bets are off now as Peterson is not stepping in this mess.
The new tuner is a good and improved unit but one needs to experiment and find what he likes in a tuning.
Most people can find something in the stock presets that works for them. but I think it is fun to try different things and learn.
Ultimately you will need to listen and say what sounds good to you with other instruments.

I posted this on the other StobeOPlusHD thread.

Here is my E9th program, based on the Newman at plus 9.8 cents. It includes some knee lever changes that the Newman does not have and everything except one change (the C pedal E to F#) is in one program.

The chart can be easily converted to the E's at "Zero" tunings.

Jack Stoner wrote:except one change (the C pedal E to F#) is in one program.

The StroboPlus HD can add multiple notes for the same pitch. I'm trying to figure out the offset for the F# C pedal raise on the E's at 9.8 newman tuning system. You can set the sweetener to EQU and measure your offset and input that in the Peterson Connect for your custom sweetener. You don't need multiple sweetener presets if you build your entire copedent into one custom preset. Regardless of open vs. pedal vs. levers. vs. raises vs. lowers.

Johnny Howington wrote:Bob,
Make sure you are using the SE9 for open tuning and the SP9 for pedals and knee levers. Common mistake for those of us that have used Peterson tuners in the past.

Not every Peterson tuner has SP9. I have a Stroboflip, and it doesn't have SP9. I wish it did.

The SE settings work better if you are playing with a keyboard.

Not every Peterson tuner has SP9. I have a Stroboflip, and it doesn't have SP9. I wish it did.

I don't recall, but does the flip allow you to install custom presets? If so you can download it.

also add to the list the "SPK" preset for Sneaky Pete's B6 copedent.

The Peterson tuners are versatile, but I dislike the lack of documentation. If you don't remember how to access some specific function it';s ridiculous (IMO) to have to try to remember where in a video the instructions are.

The mic sensitivity of the Stroboplus HD is very spotty with acoustic instruments just inches away. I've also had a power supply ]burn up in a Stroboflip and a Strobostomp 2 that works only with a power supply.

If any other brand had the programming functions I'd switch in a nanosecond. The presets and sweeteners really do make a difference - but it's not great feeling like you "have" to use a specific brand - not "prefer" to.

It has been part of the discussion here but it is essential to emphasize and understand the factor of compensation for cabinet drop in the SE presets.
All of my steels have fallen in the range that work with the premise of ± 8 cents sharp tuning of the E's that will level off at 0 with the pedals down.
But the Williams I had in the shop (and therefore the one I have on order for myself) read 2 cents drop with pedals down (aluminum neck---Bill Rudolph tells me that a wood neck virtually eliminates all drop). That means learning a new tuning system, with or without the Peterson.

I have a Seiko tuner that gives a numerical read-out of cents deviation from straight up ET and I love it.

Jim... No, the Strobo-Flip doesn't support downloading custom temperaments.

I posted this as a separate topic but it might apply here too.


Not wanting to drop lots of money on a tuner that can save my custom sweetened notes I looked into phone apps. There's only one that I can find that will save CUSTOM sweetener settings.

Airyware Tuner (iOS and Android)

There aren't clear instructions, however. After a few email exchanges with the developer I have these steps.

Presets: It will work fine if you don't select anything. I've set it to Chromatic / Resonance Low. Whatever you choose, the custom sweetening you set up will over-ride it (so I'm told).

Temperament: This was the tricky part. Select "Stretch" instead of the the more obvious "Sweeten." You're given a text-entry field to code the note adjustments. (See below)

I'll use this as an example. Here's what I want (it will cover all open strings along with my 3 pedals / 5 levers):
A2 0 (not on PSG but a place to start in the code)
A#2 +10
B2 +8 (string #10)
C3 0
C#3 -6
D3 +6
D#3 +2
E3 +10
F3 -18
F#3 +6
G3 +6
G#3 -4
A3 +4
A#3 +10
B3 +8 (string #5)
C4 0
C#4 -6
D4 -4
D#4 +2
E4 +10
F4 -18
F#4 -2
G4 +6
G#4 -4 (string #1)
A4 +4

This is the code that will make that happen (you can copy and paste it into the text field):
Steel : A2 0 10 8 0 -6 6 2 10 -18 6 6 -4 4 10 8 0 -6 -4 2 10 -18 -2 6 -4 4
"Steel" is my name for my custom Stretch setting.
"A2" is the note that I'll start with
"0 10 8 0 -6..." are the adjustments starting at A2 and going to A4


Bringing the signal into your phone in a noisy environment (not relying on the phone's microphone) is important. A traditional 1/4" cable to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter might not give you enough of a signal to get a good reading. Just to be safe, I bought the Peterson Adapter for $14 (Plus a 3.5mm to Lightning connector since my new iPhone doesn't have the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack).

One final note... The developer put it out as a free app and seems to work fine (though after a few days you'll have to suffer through pop-up adds). But if you like it you might want to throw $5 their way. It beats spending a couple hundred dollars.

I've used the SE9,SP9 tuning for years with numerous bands and it tends to work good UNLESS everyone is using cheap stomp box tuners and there's no telling what will happen then.

I will add that I can't tell you all how many guitar players guitar's are not strobed and out of adjustment.

So which setting for open tuning and which setting for pedals/knee levers?

Thanks,

Craig

Craig Bailey wrote:So which setting for open tuning and which setting for pedals/knee levers?

Thanks,

Craig

On my Stroboflip, SE9 for all. There is no preset for pedals that is separate.

Does anyone have the SP6 offsets? I'm Trying to program a Stroborack

Schy Willmore wrote:
Not wanting to drop lots of money on a tuner that can save my custom sweetened notes I looked into phone apps. There's only one that I can find that will save CUSTOM sweetener settings.

Airyware Tuner (iOS and Android)

PitchLab Pro can also do custom sweeteners, and is what I used before springing for a Peterson tuner. Like you, I bought a Peterson PitchGrabber pickup. Setting up the offsets is pretty easy, but no allowance for multiple offsets for same notes (like F#).

Does anyone know how to make the SE9 come up as the default when the unit is powered on?

Bruce Blackburn wrote:Does anyone know how to make the SE9 come up as the default when the unit is powered on?

On the StroboPlusHD, if it's the last setting you used, it should come up automatically when you power on. Also, you can configure the tuner so that only the few sweeteners you actually use are visible....no need to scroll through 99 of them.