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Topic: Diminished 7th Chord on U12: Intonation (C6 also?) |
Daniel Morris
From:
Westlake, Ohio, USA
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Posted 5 Oct 2017 9:10 am |
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Well, I saw a recent thread for a dim7 chord on E9, and lately I've been questioning my ears in tuning strings 5-8, P5 & P6, E9/B6 Universal tuning.
I assume there's no one perfect solution, but I'd like to get some ideas/tips. I use a Peterson tuner, but end up having to tweak several pitches, including the P5 & P6 changes.
Is it impossible to avoid some "beats",as I suspect, or have some of you U12 (or C6) players found a great solution to that chord?
I've heard suggestions of straight 440, Just Intonation and just tweaking by ear.
I'm all ears, so to speak....
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1979 MSA U12 Pedal Steel
1982 Kline U12 Pedal steel
2019 Sierra U12 Pedal Steel
2011 Bear Creek MK Weissenborn
Milkman 40W Mini amp w/Telonics 15" speaker.
Dr. Z Surgical Steel w/TT 15" speaker.
Frenzel MB-50 head.
Spaceman, Empress, Eventide, Pigtronix. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 6 Oct 2017 2:26 am
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The diminished 7th is inherently dissonant, so don't hope for a beat-free recipe. If you set up your P5 & P6 to give a satisfactory D9 & F9 respectively*, then both together will give you a serviceable Cdim.
It gets complicated if you want to go further and lower string 3 to give you B7. Then you find that you are trying to use the Eb that gave you F9 as a D#. I exploit the fact that in a 7th chord we are quite tolerant of what a flatted 7th actually sounds like - any ratio between 7:4 (1.75) and 9:5 (1.8) will do. I tune the B so that it makes a correct minor 6th with the Eb/D#. The interval between B and A feels fine, but like I said the 7th isn't critical. The F# on the 5th string is a bit sharp, though. If you are using a traditional thumb-plus-two grip that doesn't matter; in the four-part chord it's tolerable.
I tune by ear - how you would achieve this with a tuner I have no idea.
* I'm talking C6 pitches but the same principles apply to B6 uni, which is what I play.
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Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Daniel Morris
From:
Westlake, Ohio, USA
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Posted 6 Oct 2017 4:03 am
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Thanks, Ian.
I should have been a bit more clear: I always fine tune by ear after using the Peterson.
I only mentioned it because I wondered if anyone else using that has found a sweet spot for P5 & P6 in that tuner.
_________________
1979 MSA U12 Pedal Steel
1982 Kline U12 Pedal steel
2019 Sierra U12 Pedal Steel
2011 Bear Creek MK Weissenborn
Milkman 40W Mini amp w/Telonics 15" speaker.
Dr. Z Surgical Steel w/TT 15" speaker.
Frenzel MB-50 head.
Spaceman, Empress, Eventide, Pigtronix. |
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