Buddy Emmons Demonstrates how to tune the E9th Pedal Steel

[Bill McCloskey]

This is side A of Buddy Emmons Tuning Guide to E9th. Buddy sounds out each note so you can tune along with Buddy. I'll be posting Side B, which is the C6th neck,, shortly.

https://youtu.be/Z30UZGBz-2w

[Bill McCloskey]

Here is something interesting. I used the record to tune my E9th and it worked really well. My guitar sounded more in tune than I can remember.

THEN I compared it to the petterson sweetners.... and every thing was WAY sharp except the Db which was flat. But to my ears it sounded perfectly intune.

Now what?

[Bill McCloskey]

Wow, I just tuned the C6 neck up using the record (I'll be posting that one tomorrow). I'm blown away. it is significantly sharper than the petterson sweetners but man, it brought the neck to life for me. everything sounded more in tune and brighter.....have I been tuning too flat all this time. The C6 neck suddenly sounds alive.

I'll be curious to see others reactions or if I am just crazy.

[Andrew Frost]

Bill, that's a neat record but I think your record player might be playing a bit fast...
Those pitches were all around the A-450hz zone. That's roughly 40 cents sharp of concert! That is insanely sharp, and almost into the next semitone.

[Bill McCloskey]

Definitely sharp. But not the turntable. It sounds good. I played it against some backing tracks and it sounded in tune.

[Brad Issendorf]

Another issue is YouTube itself. Even using it to learn a current music setlist for a job, the base pitch as the song progresses, goes from sharp to flat and back again even over the course of a half bar. I honestly couldn't imagine trying to tune to a YouTube video. Just my 2 cents.

[Dennis Detweiler]

You can't depend on standard pitch on youtube or a vinyl record. Turn tables will vary slightly. I've downloaded some YouTube recordings, and some were slightly flat and some sharp to standard. Some were perfect. If you have a playback unit that has a speed control knob, you can play with it and find standard pitch. If the vinyl is slightly warped, you'll never find it.

[Bill McCloskey]

Here is the C6th neck side.

Buddy Emmons teaches you how to tune the C6th neck: https://youtu.be/x5Uq3CpScxE

[Andrew Frost]

Another issue is YouTube itself

Yes. I'm no audio tech wizard but any kind of compression at the AD conversion stage will potentially mess with the integrity of the original sound source. The more compressed and cruder the conversion, the more problems seem likely to happen with duration and pitch fluctuations. Mix in digital streaming playback inconsistencies and its a pretty dicey situation.

Bill, the C6 pitches are just as wildly sharp, if not worse.
I don't mean this as an attack, just an observation that might be helpful, especially if if someone is trying to use this youtube video as a learning resource.
The roots and 5ths will naturally sit a bit higher in most players' approach, but the Cs & Gs in your video read at about A455hz. That's about 60 cents sharp.
Keep in mind that at just 50 cents sharp, the pitch is pretty much into the next semitone.
Sure this might be trivial to some, and no doubt the guitar will be intune with itself as you said. But at that point you're technically tuning to Db6 than open C6.

[Bill McCloskey]

I compared it to the C note Buddy gives you on his Basic C6 lessons. It is exactly the same as the record. All I can say is, it sounds more intune to me and it sounds intune with a backing track.

[Dick Wood]

I did a little checking and the pitch appears to be 450hz.

[Tiny Olson]

I remember when the tuning record came out. I always got a kick out of the cover photo with the Evans Hybrid 300 amp in the background.