Korg MT-1200 Tuner

[Mark Herrick]

The post on “Buy and Sell” for the MT-1200 tuner got me thinking about this again.

I have an MT-1200 tuner and it is great. Regarding the programmability: How can I make this work for steel?

There are two different progammable modes: Instrument - in which you can program 15 different notes, in different octaves, but in only one temperament; and 88 Note - in which you can set the deviation, in cents from equal temperament, for any note in any octave.

Now, judging from what I have noticed of Jeff Newman’s charts, and after tuning harmonically to just intonation (and using Ricky Davis’s advice!) it seems that you can have different strings tuning to the same note in the same octave but with different deviations in cents from an equal temperament.

15 notes is not enough to set all the open notes plus all the raises and lowers. And in 88 Note mode, some of the notes with different deviations are in the same octave. How do people who use this tuner set it up to be programmed with their steel tunings?

(Man, that gave me a headache!)

[John Lacey]

Mark, relieve yourself of a headache and try the equal tempermanent approach. Start with you're G#'s a little flat (around 4 cents) and slightly flatten you're B's to C# and G# to A to adjust to cabinet drop. Next, play along with just about any tape or CD that you have and you will find that there's much less compromise when it comes to chord combinations and string choices. It takes a little while to get used to the sharper thirds, but if you play with a band, the band will thank you. It also makes tuning with a tuner much easier. I don't believe that Newman's chart is the way to go. IMHO.

[John Paul Jones]

John

I have only been on this forum a very short time so I don't know how thoroughly this subject has been discussed so if I'm beating a dead horse folks you have my apologies, but here goes.

John, it's great to hear that someone else, besides myself, has discovered this. This works out to be a compromise between the two hotly debated tuning methods. It simplifies the tuning process and sounds great once you get use to it. It certainly is in closer tune with the band. Here's the way I do it.

I tune all open strings to "0". Then I tune the 3rd string. I set my tuner to Ab. With no pedals depressed I chime the 4th string at the 4th fret. This is a just tempered 3rd, or Ab. I read the tuner. It will be flat to "0". I tune the 3rd string, Ab, half-way between that reading and "0". I then tune the 6th string to match the 3rd string.

Then I push my A & B pedals and read the drop on the 4th string. I then tune all pedal-down notes to match that drop.

I tune all knees to sound good with these notes.

It's that simple and it works great for me.

John Paul