Tuning Straight Up?

[Dave Magram]

Most people don't realize the new chart technically sounded exactly the same as the old one if bar placement was done 'by ear': he just added 10 cents (or 2.5 Hz) to every single number on the chart. This shifted the entire tuning sharper in one shot. All the intervals and interrelationships between strings were therefore by definition identical and sounded the same (except at the nut... but remained identical once the bar went on the strings and could be slightly shifted up or down by 10 cents).

Why would Newman change the chart? It wasn't cabinet drop, that's only a few cents... but he shifted the new chart sharper by a full 10 cents.

Personally, I went the Larry Bell make-your-own-chart route 20 years ago and, as Dave said, it's logical and brilliant. Somebody else's 'canned' chart can never know the quirks of your particular steel.

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Tucker,

Thanks for explaining that Newman "just added 10 cents (or 2.5 Hz) to every single number on the chart"--I never noticed that! I just assumed it was a generic adjustment for cabinet drop.
I learn something new every day!

I still use Jeff Newman's original tuning chart--because it works.
Although my steel guitar normally has very little cabinet drop, sometimes, if it is very cold, the B strings may be off by a cent or two...
Larry Bell's clever tweak fixes that right up--and no band I've been in has ever complained about my guitar being out of tune!

- Dave

[Tucker Jackson]

Yessir. The original Newman chart sounds just as good as the newer one in the hands of an experienced player such as yourself who knows the importance of intonating by ear.

And +1 for tweaking that chart to account for the individual quirks of every guitar you use it on. I bet most players don't feel comfortable adjusting the chart for the few places that don't sound right... but maybe they should consider that a canned chart can't possibly be expected to work perfectly on every guitar. If a string or lever is out of tune, it's legal to adjust the chart.

[Doug Taylor]

Jeff Newman got his temper tuning chart from Lloyd's steel?

I recall reading that around 1970, Jeff Newman purchased a then-new product, the Peterson Strobe Tuner. Jeff asked his friend Lloyd Green to tune his guitar as if he was about to do a recording session.
Once Lloyd had tuned his guitar to his satisfaction, Jeff used the Peterson Tuner to measure the frequency (in Hz) of all of the open strings and then measured the strings with the pedals and knee levers engaged.

Based on those measurements, Jeff Newman's developed his original tuning chart, based on the E strings tuned to the "440 Hz" straight-up position...
Tuning chart--Jeff Newman E9 (original version).jpg


A couple of years later, I attended one of Jeff Newman's one-day workshops, and one of the handouts Jeff gave us was a copy of his original tuning chart (E at 440 Hz).
This was very timely, because I had just joined a band, and the guitar-player kept saying that my guitar wasn’t in tune. I had been playing PSG for about a year, and not knowing any better, had been tuning everything “straight-up” to 440 Hz. It didn't sound quite right, and I thought it was my newbie's fault.
When I tuned to Jeff’s (original) tuning chart, it sounded much better to me, and the guitar-player said, “I don’t know what you did, but now it sounds in tune.”

● A few years later, Jeff Newman created a revised tuning chart--apparently to accommodate for the cabinet drop on his guitar at the time—based on the E strings tuned to "442.5" Hz. I tried Jeff’s revised tuning chart, but did not like it, so I went back to Jeff’s original tuning chart (E at 440 Hz).

A few years after that, I read a SGF post by Larry Bell about a tuning method he had discovered...
Larry Bell’s tuning method is based on E at “440” Hz (“straight-up” on tuner), but adds a little tweak that automatically compensates for any degree of cabinet drop on your individual guitar—which no other method seems to do.
● Larry's method works very well with Jeff’s original tuning chart (E at 440), with a clever little tweak that adjusts for any level of cabinet drop.

I tried it, liked it, and still use it..
I just use a simple Boss TU-12 Chromatic Tuner to tune--with a little notecard taped inside its cover, to remind me of the correct tuning offsets for each string.

If you're interested, this logical and brilliant suggestion from Larry Bell would take about 30 seconds to test and costs nothing...

DETAILS:
http://www.larrybell.org/id32.htm
http://www.larrybell.org/id29.htm

Check out some of Larry’s recordings here: http://www.larrybell.org/id9.htm
They certainly sound in tune to me.


- Dave

I just tuned my guitar using Larry Bells method. I just played along with 3 backing tracks and I don’t believe I have ever sounded more in tune with a track.

Thank you for sharing this!

[Tucker Jackson]

Welcome to the club. It's hard to beat making your own custom chart that takes into account your guitar's particular level of cabinet drop.

Thanks to Dave for posting the link to the Larry Bell website. It's the thing that explained why I should try a Universal 12-string (well, for 3 years before giving up).... and it also set me up for a nice tuning system. I've since tweaked it a little further, as needed.