Tuning with a Peterson sweetener

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 26 Feb 2022 11:46 am

Hi all,
I'm picking this beast up again now after getting frustrated and going back to my 6 strings for the last couple years. I am compelled by its sonorous fluidity to do so. I can't help myself.

Question - when tuning with the Peterson sweeteners, I realize that open strings are for instance tuned with SE9 and pedals with SP9. Clearly, when tuning the RKL lever that raises 1&2 I should use the SE9 tuning or bad things will happen. All the E9 pedals (without levers) sound really great with SP9. I have a 3x5 with a 2nd string half stop on RKR and B string split. Are there any other tuning points involving lever/pedal combos where I should use the SE9 as opposed to the SP9? It's really close. Not sure about my 9th string and my A+F combo yet.

Question pt2 -
When tuning open strings using SE9, am I supposed to tune E's with pedals down, then the rest of the open strings with pedals up? Haven't tried this yet, but the Internet seems confused.

-Jay

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 26 Feb 2022 10:51 pm

OK, here I go answering my own question.

I loaded the JE9 and MA9 presets both of which sound great and don't require wondering which pedal/open version to switch to.

Slight edge to the MA9 preset because the open strings sound great played along with a guitar E major chord tuned to equal temperament. Not sharp.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2022 3:10 am

My JE9 is the Newman SE9/SP9 combined. They are tuned 442.5. I never heard them sharp in a band, I was actually "in tune".

David Dorwart · Post by **David Dorwart** » 27 Feb 2022 6:39 am

Are the levers tuned using the open string setting or the pedal setting?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2022 7:17 am

The knee levers, like everything else, are tuned "open". The way I've done it for the last 50 years.

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 27 Feb 2022 7:35 am

Jack Stoner wrote:My JE9 is the Newman SE9/SP9 combined. They are tuned 442.5. I never heard them sharp in a band, I was actually "in tune".

I appreciate your work here Jack. Just on my guitar the MA9 sounds better to me, but mostly just the open string thing, which isn't a big deal if you don't go there.

Clearly, the JE9 E's are sharper than the MA9 E's.

I guess it comes down to whether you prefer hearing flat G#'s or sharp E's and B's against ET E major. I know there are other small differences and I may revisit the Newman tuning, but this is what my ears are telling me today.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2022 2:22 pm

The OE9 Newman is at 440.

Dale McPherson · Post by **Dale McPherson** » 27 Feb 2022 4:08 pm

Just curious. How many tune the knees with the open settings (E) vs. the pedal settings (P)?

Zach Turner · Post by **Zach Turner** » 28 Feb 2022 10:12 am

I would like to hear as well about whether knee levers should be tuned using the program for the open strings or the pedals. So far I have been using OE9 for the open strings and OP9 for pedals and knee levers. Overall, things sound good except the A pedal and F lever combo sounds off to me. Is this because I should use the open tuning program for it?

Zach

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 28 Feb 2022 12:19 pm

I would avoid using SE9 or OE9, not because they're not OK or right, but they are harder to use because of two separate presets and if you pick the wrong one for your situation you'll often get a horribly wrong note. For instance, you do not want to use the pedals version of either to tune the RKL 1st&2nd string raise. Yuk. Lot's of other bad notes in these to land on as well. On top of that, neither come with an instruction manual.

I would use either Jack's consolidated JE9 (new Newman), which also has a small 2nd preset for a couple infrequently needed changes that couldn't be put in JE9, or the all-in-one MA9, which truly has everything in it, so is not quite like either new or old Newman, but works very well.

There are a bunch of other steel presets for E9 at the Peterson (free) store, but little info on them. JE9 and MA9 are the most popular and have the most downloads and are discussed here more often as far as I can tell.

This Peterson tuner breathed new life into my beginner learning journey. Hard to explain, but yeah, it saved me from wanting to give up.

-Jay

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 28 Feb 2022 3:02 pm

Jack Stoner wrote:The OE9 Newman is at 440.

Well, the tuner itself is set at 440 for both SE9 and OE9, but the offsets for SE9 turn it into what it is. This makes me think that we could take SE9, and without changing any of the offsets, set the tuner to something like 437.5~437.6 and then it would be your consolidated version of the older Newman tuning, right?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 1 Mar 2022 3:19 am

Jay Coover wrote:
Jack Stoner wrote:The OE9 Newman is at 440.
Well, the tuner itself is set at 440 for both SE9 and OE9, but the offsets for SE9 turn it into what it is. This makes me think that we could take SE9, and without changing any of the offsets, set the tuner to something like 437.5~437.6 and then it would be your consolidated version of the older Newman tuning, right?

Never thought about that but I guess it would work. 437.5

One day when I don't have anything to do I'll work up an OE9 combined version.

Bill Ferguson · Post by **Bill Ferguson** » 1 Mar 2022 7:43 am

IMHO
Try tuning both ways and see what sounds best for you and your steel.
Unlike today's automobiles, steel guitars are still different and so are our ears. hehe

Jay Coover · Post by **Jay Coover** » 1 Mar 2022 9:29 am

Jack Stoner wrote:
Never thought about that but I guess it would work. 437.5

One day when I don't have anything to do I'll work up an OE9 combined version.

"I think" that Hertz is stored with the preset so it would be a couple clicks. It should be slightly more than 437.5 because it's not a subtract but a ratio, plus I don't think flat E's here are desirable. 438 might be a sweet spot compromise.

Dan Behringer · Post by **Dan Behringer** » 5 Mar 2022 7:43 am

I got so confused reading about all the different ways to tune a pedal steel. I finally sat down and got my guitar perfectly in tune to my ear, then I wrote down how each string and pedal registered on my tuner, and I memorized the settings. That’s what werks fer me!

Stefan Robertson · Post by **Stefan Robertson** » 14 Mar 2022 2:53 am

Even though I play E13 12 string lap steel I studied the Peterson videos plus YouTube videos on Pedal Steel tunings with a Peterson.

There are plenty of videos on YouTube and directly on the Peterson site is a PDF step by step instruction.

Ryan Forster · Post by **Ryan Forster** » 17 Jan 2026 12:14 pm

Jack Stoner wrote: 27 Feb 2022 3:10 am My JE9 is the Newman SE9/SP9 combined. They are tuned 442.5. I never heard them sharp in a band, I was actually "in tune".

Just want to say that jack stoner’s JE9 and JC9 tunings worked great for my old 73’ Sho Bud Pro II, and having them in one setting each is a game changer. I tried the MA9 but it sounded a little off on my steel, just wanted to say thank you for coming up with these and making my life a lot easier.

Alex Stewart · Post by **Alex Stewart** » 18 Jan 2026 11:23 am

Certainly no expert, here, but after trying SE9 for a couple years I wasn't totally happy with my tuning. I tried Jack Stoner's JE9 and liked it much better. Since all our guitars have different quirks and cabinet drop, I started tuning my open E's with A&B down and my lever E's in chord form (C#M & G#m) thinking I needed to compensate; probably thought it through too much. I am also pretty mediocre and started late in life.

After reading Jack's comment above about having tuned everything 'open' for the last 50 years, I figured that was advice worth trying. Just went back and re-tuned with all 'open'. Sounds different and good. I will see when I play with my band how I feel. (If I glance down at my Peterson while using the bar...ackkkk!!!! That is what ears are for...lol)

Thanks, Jack, for JE9 and mentioning how you tune!

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