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Topic: Tuning to D# |
Frank Parish
From:
Nashville,Tn. USA
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Posted 5 Aug 2022 12:38 pm |
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| The band is tuning to D# and I need a good setting on my Peterson HD to do this. I have the older stomp from them and the new HD. Is there a setting on it that will have the Sweetener settings? Anybody here doing this? |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 5 Aug 2022 3:15 pm
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I play regularly with a band that tunes down to D# . I play in standard tuning with them. It keeps you in shape !
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Bob |
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Andrew Frost
From:
Toronto, Ontario
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Posted 5 Aug 2022 5:32 pm
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| You can program your own offsets through the Peterson website, and upload them to your tuner pretty easily. The preset 'sweeteners' are 'once size fits all' at best, and probably even less appropriate if you're tuning down a half step. Get your string guages sorted out for Eb, measure your preferred tuning offsets in cents and then program it all into your tuner. That way you know it'll work for your guitar and your ears. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 5 Aug 2022 11:48 pm
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I doubt if you need to change string gauges. At one point I tuned my back neck down to B and it sounded and worked fine.
Having said all that, unless you rely on a load of open E, why not leave it alone and play down a key like Bob says?
_________________
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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Justin Emmert
From:
Greensboro, NC
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Posted 6 Aug 2022 4:15 am
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I had the same issue and at first chose to just transpose everything instead of detuning my steel. Playing tons of songs in F# and Eb got a bit tiresome. Also started to develop muscle memory for common songs in the detuned keys. I would try playing a commonly played G tune in G and my body would start trying to revert to F#. So if I were to take a pickup gig, it could mess me up. So, I made the decision to get a drop pedal. It works great. No noticeable latency or tone suck. No retuning my guitar from standard.
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 6 Aug 2022 8:49 am
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Why do they call it D# instead of Eb? 
The D# scale has 9 sharps (two are double sharps). 
The Eb scale has 3 flats.
Is this a guitar player thing, where all accidentals have to be named as sharps?
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-๐๐๐- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 6 Aug 2022 2:50 pm
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Frank,
I played gigs regularly with a band that tuned 1/2 step lower than standard
I dedicated the Fessy to that task. It took less than an hour, using E9 strings, to retune open and all pedals and levers. I used the same tuning offsets and kept that guitar tuned down for 3+ years and hundreds of gigs, without an issue.
Your mileage may vary. Worked great for me with no adjustments necessary.
_________________
Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
My CD's: 'I've Got Friends in COLD Places' - 'Pedal Steel Guitar'
2021 Rittenberry S/D-12 8x7, 1976 Emmons S/D-12 7x6, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Quilter ToneBlock 202 TT-12 |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 6 Aug 2022 5:56 pm
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Frank - I think some of the Peterson tuners have a 6-string guitar tuning setting for tuning down a half-tone. But I know of no setting for tuning E9 pedal steel down a half-tone. But it's not hard to make a user setting using the same offsets from the sweetened E9 tuning, transposed to Eb, as Larry suggests.
| b0b wrote: |
Why do they call it D# instead of Eb?
The D# scale has 9 sharps (two are double sharps).
The Eb scale has 3 flats.
Is this a guitar player thing, where all accidentals have to be named as sharps? |
Maybe they read this thread - https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=35908 
I've been playing guitar most of my life, and know tons of guitar players. I know of no convention among guitar players that accidentals must be called sharped or flatted, either way. My experience is that guitar players that know music theory are gonna name notes sharped or flatted based on the key signature of the music being played, not what the tuning is. Players that don't know music theory are gonna call it whatever they please, based on any reasoning they feel like (or know).
Beyond that, a tuning is not a key signature. For standard guitar, a tuning is not really a 'normal' chord - I don't think many guitar players think for a millisecond about what chord the standard guitar open tuning makes. The high and low notes on strings 1 and 6, respectively, are simply reference points.
BTW - I have a Digitech Drop pedal. I work with a singer who tunes his guitar down and sings from those dropped keys a lot. Like, more than half his tunes. I find the pedal quite useful for standard guitar, where many licks and tricks are specifically based on open strings. But I'm a bit iffy with it for slide guitar, and definitely iffy with it for pedal steel. Sometimes I like it and other times not - and that is generally determined by whether or not I like the deeper sonority in the particular context. So I just play the pedal steel tuned standard. But for guitar and slide, I would definitely rather use the pedal than carry around extra tuned-down guitars. Now, if I was doing SRV stuff on guitar, I would just carry a tuned-down guitar, where that deeper sonority is already baked in. But otherwise - the Drop pedal is a pretty nice tool to drop and still get the open string stuff when needed. |
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John Norris
From:
Peterson Strobe Tuners, Illinois, USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2022 2:41 am Re: Tuning to D#
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| Frank Parish wrote: |
| The band is tuning to D# and I need a good setting on my Peterson HD to do this. I have the older stomp from them and the new HD. Is there a setting on it that will have the Sweetener settings? Anybody here doing this? |
Hi Frank,
On any of our tuners, including the StroboStomp HD, just enter a "Drop/Capo" value of -1 (minus one) to transpose the tuning (including the offsets of whatever E9 Sweetener you're using) one semitone or half-step down.
Then just tune as if you were tuning normally using the standard E9 note names, the result will be D#9 with the correct offsets where they should be.
For those with StroboPLUS HD tuners, you have the choice of transposing as described above using the "TRANS" control - OR - shifting the root of the Sweetener, so that the note names that appear are the actual note names with the root (and therefore the offsets) shifted one half step down.
"Home" root for all Sweeteners is C.
You can transpose to any amount of half-steps/semitones or shift the root to anything you like.
On the StroboPLUS HD, select the Sweetener, then press, hold and rotate the dial to shift the root, then release.
The Sweetener and root will display alternately to alert you to the current status.
The root reverts to "Home" when the tuner is switched off.
_________________
John Norris
Peterson Strobe Tuners
- Celebrating over 75 Years of Tuning Products in 2024! |
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Frank Parish
From:
Nashville,Tn. USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2022 3:40 am
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| Thank you John Norris! I had the instructions out yesterday and talked with Larry Bell about 2 hours figuring this thing out. In all the years I spent in Nashville, I only needed to tune down just once and I just played it as is for that day. I was playing an old Emmons p/p and I wasn't about to mess with that thing and wind up taking it somewhere to get tuned up. First thing I'll do is change the strings today to start at zero. Having played about 15 gigs or more in Florida tuned to E and then tuning down a half step, I just don't think the the strings will ever stay in tune and it didn't. It looked good on the tuner but sounded awful so I knew the strings were shot from the beginning. I'm going to restring it today and start out fresh and I think it'll turn out better. The guitar player suggested I get the Digitech Drop pedal like Dave Mudgett had mentioned. I heard somewhere it would not work near as good on a pedal steel so I'm trying not to do that. I've got a Pedaltrain Nano pedal board so it's limited to 5 pedals tops. I have another one for more pedals but I try not to use too many effects and get away from the true sound of the instrument. A little delay is most of what I use. Very little chorus on my 2 tunes all day and a 7 band EQ pedal for a kinda Dobro sound on maybe 1tune. The bigger pedal board is for home use to experiment. It'll take me a bit to work on a tuning since I like to tune out the beats. Either one of these Peterson pedals have been great so I use the HD pedal on stage and the other older model at home. I brought 2 guitars to Florida so I'm doing exactly what Larry suggested tuning one guitar down a half step (the all pull) for the band I work with most and leaving the p/p tuned as is for everybody else. I think I'll have it solved today. Playing in F#, C# or D# is not a fun day for me. |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Henry Matthews
From:
Texarkana, Ark USA
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Posted 10 Aug 2022 1:44 pm
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Band here in town does that. I think itโs stupid and totally out of line for steel and fiddle players that sit in or play with band for that matter. If singer canโt go half step up on down, he donโt need to be singing, lol.
_________________
Henry Matthews
D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes. |
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