The British Steelies Society

Fellow forumites,
Are there any players among us, who only use their ears when tuning?

The reason I ask is, I've just rewatched the Beatles Get Back documentary and it dawned on me.....no digital tuners!!! They were tuning from a note on the piano. I'd completely forgotten all those old ways, of the tuning fork and the pitch pipe.

The sound of them playing together was really full, alive and harmonious. Now, I wonder if that's a 'sound' that's lost in today's music, that's bound together by digital tuners and autotuned vocals.

I appreciate that, from the pedal steel perspective, tuning can be a moveable feast, but when I listen to recordings from the past, of Green, Emmons etc, they must've employed that same method.

At this point I must confess that I am one of the lazy b$st@rds that sits gazing at his Peterson HD, and the only player I know who tunes by ear (heaven forfend!) is Brother Willie Gamble, who's intonation always sounds rich and full to these grizzled ears.

Anyone else out there, sticking to their guns/lugs/earholes?

Hi Danny, this is an interesting topic, and something I've thought about often myself.

I tune by ear because I could never get digital tuners to work for me, (but there are obviously different ways to tune pedal steel by ear, and I guess it depends on what grips and combinations of strings each players wants to be in tune, and which of those they may not use as much and are happy being a bit out of tune, or a lot out of tune..).

I think there is certainly something lost in today's music by auto tune and digital tuners (and metronomes!). It may be something only us audio engineer type people notice, but old great recordings are often out of tune in various ways, and the tempos nearly always fluctuate too, and this is what happens in real live performance.

Danny, very interesting topic indeed., in the early days of our steel meetings in the village of Pucklechurch South Gloucester, me lover, we had more Hawaiian style lap players than pedal men, and what I remember most of them tuned by ear, tuning fork etc.
I must admit I am also one of those lazy B@%#@£d you mentioned with my sacred Peterson tuner.
I do own a tuning fork but that is put safely away in case I need it for my roast dinner
Seriously I hope we hear from others to the way they tune.

Zak, thanks for the response, it's good, and interesting, to hear you're 'old skool' approach, and from what I've heard from your posted videos, it works a treat.

Roy, I don't think we need feel any shame for our Peterson addiction and those Pucklechurch (what a great name!) meetings, with their Hawaiian leanings, sound fantastic.

As an experiment, I gave the ear approach a go, but after a frustrating 10 mins I relapsed. I guess I'm just an auld feartie

Like many others, I’ve been down the rabbit hole with regards to tuning. I tune the E’s to my Peterson Strobe, and then tune the rest by ear to the Es.

I must say, I’ve tried the Peterson Presets and I can’t get on with them at all. The open strings sound okay, but the pedal tunings (SP9 etc) don’t work for me at all. Perhaps it’s my guitar because I know of other players who use them and they sound fine.

But it’s ears for me!

Ken, I know exactly what you mean, on the few occasions I took the steel to a gig, before I got the Peterson, I had to take closed back headphones to be able to concentrate on tuning.

Brad, I found I had to tweak the presets, the Emmons' ones, and store them in the tuner. That was a long session of cross referencing, involving a Waves tuning plugin, a Reaper tuning plugin and 2 jaded ears, listening through an amp, whilst holding the various chord inversions up and down the neck. I think I almost got there. I do admire the confidence to tune by ear, respect due.

With guitar, steel and mandolin (and the singer's guitar - for safety and reassurance!) I used to use a Boss TU12 when I gigged regularly, but it stopped working. I got a Peterson, but found it a pain to use - and it stopped working too! Now I've got a £12 Korg to give a reference note then tune by ear. I tune each note on the steel guitar (pedal or non) by listening to it within the major chord it's in Then check the minors, which are usually right by then. But I have to agree with Ken about tuning by ear in "company"; I was lucky that didn't happen often, we were usually the only 'turn' on.

bradsteel wrote:Like many others, I’ve been down the rabbit hole with regards to tuning. I tune the E’s to my Peterson Strobe, and then tune the rest by ear to the Es.

I must say, I’ve tried the Peterson Presets and I can’t get on with them at all. The open strings sound okay, but the pedal tunings (SP9 etc) don’t work for me at all. Perhaps it’s my guitar because I know of other players who use them and they sound fine.

But it’s ears for me!

I used to use SE9 and SP9 which sounded fine mostly but there were some sour notes hear and there. I now use MA9 which is Jody Cameron's preset. This is basically SE9 to my knowledge but with some added modern changes which is where I think my sour notes were coming from. When tuning my pedals I put both in instead of tuning singular. I also add a corresponding pedal when tuning my E levers. I don't do this for my other 2 levers though. Compensators are required for those and I don't have them so if needed I just correct with the bar on demand.

Tony Russell Davis wrote:I tune each note on the steel guitar (pedal or non) by listening to it within the major chord it's in Then check the minors, which are usually right by then.

That's interesting, Tony. So, if I understand correctly, after tuning a reference E, you'll tune the B strings while holding a Bmajor (in it's different inversions?) up the neck, then on through the other strings before changing to minor chords?
Actually, whilst reading your post something else occurred to me, re tuning. Whenever I have the occasion to record, I'll tweak the tuning whilst playing the chords/scale that relate to the key the song is in. I do this with 6 string, too, especially if a capo is involved.

Thanks for responding, Gents.