The Steel Guitar Forum

What is meant by the term "tuning out the beats"? Bennie

First you gotta know what 'the beats' are

Play your 4th string harmonic at the 12th fret (barely touch the string right on the fret marker)
Play your 8th string harmonic at the 5th fret

If they are perfectly in tune, you will hear no 'warbling', modulation, or 'beats'. If not, you will hear some slight pulses.

Play both again and tune(or detune) the 8th string until you hear pulses. Go down below the pitch of the 4th slightly and SLOWLY bring it back up. You will note that as you get 1/2 step or more apart the pulses or beats are very rapid. They get slower as you near the unison pitch and eventually become like the same note (I guess that's what unison IS).

One method of tuning 'by ear' involves tuning the beats out of several sets of tones on different strings. I described this process in another thread on this section less than a week ago.

------------------
<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

Bennie, a brief explanation would be if you had one note tuned to A-440 and another tuned to A-441,(cycles per second) this would cause a beat rate of 1 beat per second against your eardrum when the two are played together. If we raised the latter to A-442 it would be 2 beats per second and so on. Tuning them exactly the same would be to "tune out the beats"......Regards, Carson

Tuning out the beats?

...means how to tune out the #$%^&* drummer.

Gave me headache New Years Eve.

You can also tune your 4th string (E) to 440, then pluck 4 and 5 open and hear the beats if B is out of tune with E. Once B is beatless with E, you can pluck the 5th string (B) and the 6th string (G#) together and tune the 6th string beatless with string 5. The beats aren't as loud as described above, but this method will temper the 3rd and 5th tone with your E note. The same can be done if you have a korg needle type tuner. Tune the E's then leave the dial on E and tune the B's and G#'s with the E setting. Sometimes you have to use a harmonic to get the needle to pick up the beats of the G#'s and B's from the E dial setting.
Dennis

Thanks for the information...Bennie

I suggest you use your tuner to tune the E's to 440 when you have A&B mashed. Then let off the pedals and from there start listening for the beats. If you have trouble hearing them, try (believe it or not) using a distortion unit when tuning. For some reason the beats become more pronounced. When your steel is all warmed up and you are content with your overall tuning, then I suggest you get out your tuner and note where each open and changed notes appear, write 'em down and create your own personalized tempered tuning chart. Keep in mind you will have a lot of flat notes. Good luck, DJ.

Buddy Emmons has an instructional tape on Harmonic Tuning that's pretty cool. I have it and it comes in real handy when you can't get to your tuner in "the heat of the battle" if you know what I mean. He sells them on his web site.