Peterson StroboPlus Question

[Don Downes]

I have a Peterson StroboPlus HDC. I'm sure everyone has one.
Question: I'm having an issue with the "sweetened" tunings. Using the preset EM9 and EP9 presets are not working for my ears.
In your collective experience, does it make sense using the "equal" temperament, and dial it in using the cents feature, or use the preset tuning?
OR, just trust my ears?

[Jay Coover]

Equal temperament is not good on steel. Just not, it fails right out of the box. Tried it.

I have 5 Peterson tuners, but not the one you mention. On ones where you can view the cents offset, you could dial in something off a chart. There have been many players and methods to tune by ear, but there's no reason you can't use a Peterson tuner to dial in.

What's failing? Pedals up should sound good right? Which pedals/levers combo is giving you fits?

For me, all the F#'s need some extra love to get them to behave. Strings 7 and 1, plus C pedal string 4. Mostly the diff between strings 7 and 4.

[Jim Pollard]

I too have tried equal temperament and harmed some sensibilities in the process. The built in tempered tunings may or may not work depending on your particular steel and it's characteristics. Eventually what I ended up doing was learned how to tune by ear. Sounds great but not very practical when the drummer is sounding off and the bass player is also trying to tune. So I took that tuned by ear guitar and worked my way through all the presets I could find (there are a bunch more you can load on the peterson website) until I found one that matched my by ear tuning as closely as possible. That pretty much works except I know to tune my C pedal even with the tempered tuning I also need to hold down the B pedal. Point is, you'll need some experimentation.

[Dave Grafe]

Have you tried the SE9 & SP9 presets? Those are from the great Jeff Newman and they work perfectly on my Zum, DR, and push-pull guitars. I have always heard that Buddy tuned to A=440 and then did his fine tuning i.e. "sweetening" by ear.

You don't tell us what instrument you are playing so tuning methods vary, as will solutions for hysteresis and cabinet drop.

[Fred Treece]

What Jim Pollard said. You can also tune by ear and then check the offsets on your tuner and either save them as a preset or write them down. I memorized mine after a while. This way you can use your ear-tuning on a noisy stage.

[Lee Baucum]

All the sweetened E9 tunings I downloaded from Peterson (including Jeff's) resulted in the F#s being in tune with the Bs but not in tune with the C#s. (Age old problem.) If I tuned the F#s somewhere in the middle, they weren't in tune with either the Bs or the C#s! I think compensators were going to be the answer.

My tuning scheme has always been just a hair closer to equal temperament, very similar to what Larry Bell uses. It ends up putting the Bs and the C#s a little closer together and the F#s can be tuned just a smidge flat. Not enough beats to bother me on the bandstand.

I may have saved my offsets on the Peterson site. If it's there, it would be labeled LEE.

[John Drury]

I have a Peterson StroboPlus HDC. I'm sure everyone has one.
Question: I'm having an issue with the "sweetened" tunings. Using the preset EM9 and EP9 presets are not working for my ears.
In your collective experience, does it make sense using the "equal" temperament, and dial it in using the cents feature, or use the preset tuning?
OR, just trust my ears?

What Dave Grafe said : SE9

I own one, finest tuner available IMHO

[Don Downes]

Have you tried the SE9 & SP9 presets?

I did, but I didn't give it my best shot when I saw the EM and EP presets. I will go back and the SE9/SP9 another shot.
And, the guitar is a Desert Rose.

All great advice gentlemen, thank you.

PS: I have very good ears but nowhere good enough to tune a steel without serious help

[Don Downes]

For me, all the F#'s need some extra love to get them to behave. Strings 7 and 1, plus C pedal string 4. Mostly the diff between strings 7 and 4.

Nailed it Jay. It's especially noticeable tuning octaves.

[Tommy Mc]

Every instrument has different characteristics and amounts of cabinet drop, so it makes sense that a sweetener that works for some people may not sound good on your steel. One of the nice features of Peterson tuners is the ability to download other sweeteners or create your own. I suggest you start by trying the others that are already in your tuner like SE9 or OE9. (These are essentially the same except SE9 is shifted 9.8 cents higher) Then there is the Peterson library where other users have made their custom tunings available for download. If you can't find something that works for you, you can tune your steel by ear, measure the frequencies, and create your own custom sweetener using those offsets. FWIW, I've found that OE9 works well for me.