Sweetened Tunings

[henry]

I have recently got a tuner that supports sweetened tunings and trying to work out whose to go for!

They're all different! are there advantages / disadvantages to one or other?

This ones got a Newman and an Emmons tuning, the Newman raises B - C# 5.9 cents flat of C# but the Emmons one is 17 cents flat on the same change.

HELP ME!

I would post the manual but it wont allow PDF files, I'll get a screenshot or something..

Henry

[jonshack]

I think Buddy made his various tunings work because... he was Buddy! You can bet he was doing a lot of micro compensation with his bar/ears.

Most people use Newman (updated version) because it just tends to work on most guitars. I believe he factored in an average cabinet drop, also the story goes that he recorded the numbers directly from Lloyd's tuned guitar. Thinking about it Lloyd doesn't have all the standard changes so it's presumably a hybrid. Evidently he updated the numbers later on the advice of Al Brisco.

I know that Lloyd uses a wound sixth specifically because he says a plain sixth string will go a few cents sharp from body heat! So there's another thing to throw in the mix. I don't think Newman offsets account for heat

The beauty of these tuners is you can quickly try them out and see what works for you. And then tweak

Jonathan

[SteelieAJK]

For a number of years I have been using a Sonic Research ST200 tuner on my pedal board. The tuner has no inbuilt sweetened tunings but is programmable.

I found that programming the E9 offsets from the Emmons chart http://www.buddyemmons.com/TTChart.htm is very close to tuning out beats giving a sweet tuning but, since so many tunings are flat, the tuning sounds well flat in a band setting particularly with keyboards with A as default 440.
I experimented with the base for the tuner and have found that setting A as 442.6 seems to compensate for the flatness and tuning seems sweet and close enough to my ear.

I think this this tuning ends up close to the Newman charts http://www.jeffran.com/tuning.php

[henry]

Thanks guys! A load of useful info.. It's never easy is it?!

BTW mine is a Sonic Research ST300

[Danny Mitchell]

Henry, this is how I set up my PetersonHd tuner.

GFI Ultra bedecked with new, stretched in, SIT nickels, from our very own JD.

First, I tuned to the supplied Emmons E9 presets. Then I went, line in, to my computer, running Reaper and going through the Reatune plug in. Simultaneously, I was monitoring through my amp.

Using the notes that were set at zero, the E and B s as a starting point. I went through the various pedal and lever configurations, tweaking till they sounded okay to these jaded lugs. Once I was happy I noted down the various tuning readouts from Reatune for each string, open and shifted.

Armed with this info, I went on to the Peterson site and created my own custom sweetening, then loaded this into my tuner.

It was a long haul, with coffee breaks and pauses spent watching the starlings shitting on my Kia Rio, but it was a one time deal and now I'm almost in harmony with the universe.

[Nick Bidmade]

What else is a self-respecting starling to do but make personal deposits on a Kia car. Wait till the pigeons make a move(ment). And if you live near the coast, seagulls have an uncanny accuracy and an astonishingly capacious rectum!

I downloaded Jack Stoner's tuning from Jack's posts on the US forum onto my Peterson. It's got my Ben-Rom guitar sounding sweeter than the Emmons tunings ever did. But (and I think you are a Sigler pedalist) I have to compensate Sigler tuning like mad - E's are about 444.5. But this brings the E lever into play - useful and harmonic, once in tune.

[Danny Mitchell]

How right you are Nick. There's nothing that screws up a quick getaway more than having to wipe a seagull's breakfast from your windscreen I park well away from the lamp post for this very reason.

I must investigate Jack Stoner's tuning's. Although (pretty) content with my tuning there's always a nagging search for improvement. Basically, I am like Manuel from Fawlty Towers, I know nothing.

My guitar has been languishing under the bed for a couple of months and I am champing at the bit to get back at it .....not long now.

[Ken Byng]

Peterson's settings of Newman's sweetened SE9 and SC6 settings seem to work pretty well. From several publications, Buddy used to get his E's in tune and tune the rest out by ear.

Jeff Newman did take readings of each pedal and lever on Lloyd's guitar once. Lloyd and Buddy to my ears are the two most 'in-tune' players of the last 50 plus years.

[henry]

thank you everyone! including the surplus of seagull info!

i have yet to try the Sigler change..

Henry

[Jif]

I came across a thread on the US forum where Sid Hudson of Live Strings fame put up his values for sweetened tunings, I believe these are now incorporated into the Peterson Tuners, but for those of you, like me, who use a phone app you can programme these in. I find these values work well for me, both on my Carter and my MSA.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=241523&highlight=tuning

I use the Pitchlab Pro tuner app which only costs a couple of pounds and allows custom temperaments, it's also very accurate and comes with a variety of front ends.