Tuning Tips & Topics
“What to know about tuning a pedal steel guitar and much more.”
By Tom Bradshaw
Foreword
“This Won’t be Easy” – Because this may prove to be the dullest thing you’ll ever read, I digress occasionally and make pathetic attempts at humor. I also provide 15 classic steel recordings to stimulate your desire to play this great instrument of ours and, be in tune when you do! So please struggle through it. And if you understand what I do my best to convey, you may never have to read it again or even want to!
And hey, there is no need to read it all in one sitting. Take a break occasionally; but vow to commit yourself to return and read it all. In doing so you will likely learn more things about your instrument than you had ever imagined, besides my main point: how to tune it accurately!
Related Topics: Also included are important topics unique to our instrument, and some of my personal experiences. All are worth knowing about, rather than having to learn them the hard way: on your own through trial and error. Although you gain experience through self-teaching, absorbing knowledge from the experiences of others is a more intelligent and efficient use of your time. To lessen the fatigue and spark some enthusiasm for the information to absorb here, begin by being astonished by one of the most amazing instrumental creations by a fellow steel guitarist. As I too wondered, you too will ask yourself, “How did Buddy Charleton conjure up this melody?” The tune is “Almost to Tulsa.” Buddy wrote it after he had…! Oh no, I’ll not reveal that now, but you will find out later as you read about tuning a pedal steel and other topics included in this paper.
So, now listen to: “Almost To Tulsa” by Buddy Charleton & Leon Rhodes
“Almost To Tulsa” by Buddy Charleton & Leon Rhodes
I’m now challenging you to read
“Tuning Tips & Topics.”
Table of Contents
To get to a Topic from the Table of Contents, left-click your mouse’s cursor on the Topic you would like to go to.
A REQUEST BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Don’t be discouraged by the many topics in the Table of Contents. All steelers need to know everything in these topics, so read it all. Hey, you can do it!
This Paper’s History
A brief description of the tuning procedure advocated in this paper was originally included in one or another of the Newsletters in my Record or Cassette Clubs of decades past; like away back in the early ‘70s. Winnie Winston asked to include the procedure in his famous course booklet titled “Pedal Steel Guitar,” published in 1975. Buddy Emmons published and sold his own version of harmonic tuning as one of his instructional publications in the ‘80s. Sometime in the early ‘90s I included a brief summary of the procedure in an advertisement for Korg tuners that I was selling back then. I once posted a brief description of it on the Steel Guitar Forum. This current version replaces what was previously printed in my 1996 Products Catalog. That catalog is also listed here on this website, and is also a free-read. I ask that you not read that article in that old publication because it contains a number of errors and is very incomplete. If you happened to have read any of those old versions, this one is more thorough. I’ve learned a bit more since I wrote those old versions all those many years ago, so stick with this one in spite of its “mind-freezing detail,” but with far more information, information that you need to know. Others have written about this topic, but not likely as it pertains to the pedal steel guitar. …Tom
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Introduction
The word copedent (pronounced co-pee-dent) refers to a steel’s complete tuning and its string pitch-changes. The one used here is that for the E9th’s basic tuning and its three common pedal changes. However, the tuning you may employ, or how it is configured, will not matter for understanding the information provided.
Truths & Realities
Most steel guitarists are going to tune the way they want regardless of what anyone says. However, nearly all steel players prefer their instrument tuned to a “Just-tuned Temperament,” but few know what that is. If you’re not sure, I’ll define it for you: It is the absence of sound-beats among all the voicing strings of your steel’s basic tuning, and the absence of those beats with each engagement of a pedal or knee lever that alters the pitch of any tone within every chord and at every fret where a player positions their tone bar. Wow! How could I start this discussion with the longest (53 words) definition I’ll probably ever write for defining only 3 words: Just-tuned Temperament? But the unique beauty of such a Just-tuned steel guitar is worth the effort to achieve the elimination of tone-dissonance among string-voicings that players want to harmonize. Harmonizing is achieved when a steel guitar is tuned to a Just Temperament with all the voicing strings blending with each other. A perfectly tuned instrument is also devoid of dissonance among notes played together at any fret where a tone bar is placed. If you want that blending sound from your guitar and know there is a way to get that “Good Sound,” that method is revealed in this paper. I use a lot of words to get there (just as I’ve done so far), but what you ultimately get is worth the read!
Such a method of tuning makes the steel guitar unique and unlike all other fretted instruments that are manufactured with fixed-pitched tunings. However, a bit before I do get there, I want you to have some background information that should interest you. If it doesn’t, I do provide a method for you to escape it, but do read up to it.
First, what is “dissonance?” It is the pulsating sound of chords that aren’t blending. Musicians hear this dissonance as pulsations and call it “beats.” Such beats signal that our guitar is out of tune. They are clashing sound waves between tones, whether voiced as dyads (two strings together), as triads (three strings together), or any other combination of strings that create a chord or the intervals between scale tones that aren’t blending as a single sound or chord.
Digression No. 1: A Referral
In this discussion I occasionally refer to chord structure. If you’re a bit intrigued by those references, I encourage you to check out another FREE paper of mine titled “Chord Construction for the Pedal Steel Guitarist” on this website. If this discussion doesn’t tax your patience, that one should do it! But learning isn’t always a joy to achieve, but the result is! Check it out on this website. Now, back to the “beats.”
As players of the steel, we have difficulty understanding why it’s so hard to eliminate all of those dissonant string voicings we hear from the chords we create. Those voicings also create distortion of our sound, even when we make subsequent pitch-changes by employing our steel’s pedals and knee levers. We strive to eliminate all such dissonance and we can do it most of the time, but not always. Fortunately, “most” is plenty good enough.
Next, allow me to amuse (or maybe abuse you) by sharing 75+ years of experience trying to learn how to tune the steel guitar, or what I prefer to voice in the words of the 1934 tune by Pinky Tomlin: “The object my affection can change my complexion….”. Google it!
Cheating On Our Love
We steelers need to accept the fact that music is NOT a mathematically exact science and is hardly ever performed with in-tune instruments. Even so, listening audiences have remained pleased by what they hear from us, but we don’t feel that way when playing what we sense to be an out-of-tune instrument. Those audiences aren’t aware of the fact that all musicians hardly ever play with an in-tune instrument. Nor do they play in perfect pitch with their band members, who don’t even play in tune with each other! But they and we do play close enough to sound pretty darn good.
You may ask “How have steel players managed to accomplish this?” The answer is: we cheat, figuratively speaking. Cheating is positioning our tone bar either above or behind a fret where our ears tell us that we sound in tune with the rest of the musicians with whom we play. Thus, we compensate at every fret as we tell ourselves that we blend, and are in tune with the group. For most of us it is involuntary and we actually don’t even know (or care) about our cheating, even when we observe ourselves playing “off-fret.” We can’t help pursuing the sound that suits our ears and makes an “in-tune” sound for us all.
Clarification: I’m going to call “cheating” to be truing the sound to be in tune with what sounds good to you, and actually, to all steel players. I just like that word better than using all those other words each time I mention it. Incidentally, other notable authorities agree, but they avoid the word “cheat” in their description! The foremost tuner manufacturers (Peterson Tuners), calls their cheating recommendations, “offsets,” or “sweetening.” They want you to select those offsets available on their tuners to achieve a sound that is closest to the “good sound,” which is nothing more than getting a Just-tuned-sounding instrument. Their “sweetening,” by selecting tuning “offsets” from Equal Temperament (ET) tuning, more often provides the sound they conclude that will be liked best. However, steel guitarists actually go beyond basic offsets from ET every time they decide to move their tone bar “off fret” to play in tune, even if they have tuned as I recommend here or as Peterson does. [I’ll discuss ET in more detail very soon]. But let’s get to the guts of what may become for you, a mind-exhausting discussion. But, please bear with me for just a while longer, before I provide that escape option I mentioned.
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Tuning Tips
The Realities of Tuning a Pedal Steel
Every steel player has tuning problems. Most often they don’t know what to do about it, but would sure like to. The following is a list of the problems that I’ll cover in detail in this paper. In fact, what I call “detail” may have you screaming as you struggle through this whole dissertation. So, I’ll just provide my short list for now, so hold your screams until you read it:
- No one listening to you, unless you are miserably bad at achieving simply fair intonation, will recognize whether you’re playing in tune or not. That is because you use a tone bar to fret your strings, which easily permits cheating. But you can also cheat so badly as to sound like you don’t know how to play at all, and don’t know how to tune your guitar! [Steel guitars are among the worst sounding instruments ever invented if played poorly or really out of tune!]
- Most other fretted instruments require one’s finger tips to press a string to fixed embedded metal frets. The sound of those instruments is therefore restricted to the tone-pitch dictated by the frets where each string is pressed. [But hey, you knew that didn’t you?] Players of those fixed metal-fretted instruments can’t easily cheat! OK, regular guitarists will say their “string-bending” technique is cheating, but that’s stretching the point (excuse the pun). Conclusion? Steel guitarists aren’t hindered by the restriction of permanently fixed frets!
- Most listeners rarely hear well enough to even make assumptions as to whether you’re playing in tune or not. If you flub a note or chord, it becomes “history” once the next note is played. Your dancing crowd has already “moved on” (oops, another stupid pun). Even the greatest steel players don’t always hit their notes on target, if ever! They likely call their flubs and their out-of-tune playing, “Style, man!” I heard the great Buddy Emmons play in a pitch-dark room. He still sounded great. Do you think he was always playing right over the frets? Well, maybe he could, since he frequently practiced the technique in the dark. True!
- Tuning a pedal steel obsessively is a common malady (aka, waste of time) of many, many pedalists, including some pros. Their penchant for getting their guitars in tune (meaning, sounding perfect to their ears) can seem to last forever. Following that, I’ve observed those same players barring the strings at least a quarter of a fret above or below the fret-lines throughout their gigs. They surely would say that it was their effort to play in sync with their band members. And, those pros seem to make us salivate with musical envy, whether in pitch or not! Had they used an electronic tuner and created a tuning chart, they would have avoided all of that (as I will explain later on).
- And about charts, using other steelers’ tuning charts will not result in your steel being in tune to your ears. And frankly, nothing will permit being perfectly in tune to other steelers’ definition of perfection. Just remember what I’ll repeat here, getting close to having an in-tune sounding guitar is possible, but getting complete satisfaction with every chord you are about to create is probably impossible with some complex copedents. But if you follow the procedures recommended in this paper, your guitar may become the exception!
- If you also spend a lot of time tuning up, once done, think twice about allowing anyone to sit behind your guitar. Perhaps not immediately, but very soon they will re-tune something about it! That’s because everyone hears sound a little differently. In-tune pedal steels are the ones that sound good to you, but not to almost any other steel player who might play it!
- Unlike the pedal steel, nearly every other musical instrument is tuned to the Equal Temperament (ET) scale. And for the human ear, they seem to play in tune with all the other ET-tuned instruments. That is likely the reason steelers have problems with those other musicians who believe that most steel players don’t know how to tune their guitars. But we steelers know, don’t we, that it’s those other players’ instruments that create the problem?!
- Most steelers tune to a Just-tuned sound when possible. When not, they must resort to Temper tuning the few remaining strings to get a blended sound, even when they change to a different chord in a musical progression (which obviously, is a constant in every musical performance, whether vocal or instrumental).
- However, we are different from everybody else. We hear differently, position our amps differently, hold our bar differently, fret our steel differently, strike our strings differently, and above all, we tune differently! The angle of our head-tilt toward our tone bar is different because of our positioning behind our steels. Even our position in relation to which fret is directly in front of us is different from every other steeler. Thus, these variables mean that every player is different; perhaps being one of the virtues of the general truth that “Variety Breeds the Extraordinary,” which is exactly what steel players are, extraordinary. [Well maybe; I like to think so!] So, play your steel with pride as you repeatedly break many musical rules, besides strings!
Break Time: The following discussion is important, so let’s take a short break and listen to the great Sonny Garrish and his composition:
“Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” by Sonny Garrish
Equal Temperament Tuning
First, most steel players want to avoid Equal Temperament Tuning (ET). So, what is it? It is the notes within octaves that are set by fixed standard pitches, selected for blending as closely as possible with the same notes needed in other chords that all musicians are required to modulate to as they play music. They might be called “compensation notes,” since they satisfy listening audiences and the musical sensitivities of musicians (those others who don’t play pedal steel guitars)! Unlike fixed-tuned instruments, we steelers strive for perfection in tuning. And, what’s wrong with wanting what most musicians call the “Good Sound,” when we can get it? Hey, stay with me here!
But let’s get back to ET. Its accepted definition refers to the equal spacing of its cycles-per-second-sound-spacing between each of the 12 half-tones of any 12-note chromatic scale. Whoa! What is this? Actually, it’s simple. Since all musical notes have their tones calculated in cycles per second (called Hertz values), it means that those tones have been assigned a frequency in pitch that equally separates all pitches within an octave. A piano is mostly tuned that way and the classic example of ET. The problem with the piano and all other ET-tuned instruments is, if listened to closely, they sound a bit off-pitch with every other note when used in different chords; and they are! But for us contrarian steel guitarists, we want as much of the “Good Sound” as we can get when using those tones in all the chords we create. When we can’t, we are forced to Temper-Tune a few of the other note-pitches as we must. Saying it another way, we want to blend as many of the tones as we can get away with, in every chord in which we play and at any and all frets. And unlike most other instruments, we can get most of them, and sound good when we do! Are you a bit confused by my claim? I’m as much of a contrarian as all other steelers are. If you read Wikipedia’s explanation for piano tuning, you’ll likely have your mind blown completely. Read the following and see what I mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies.
Most steel players cannot live with the sound of their guitars being Temper-tuned. If you question this, try tuning every string and pitch-change required on your pedal steel to the exact string pitches of a so-called “in-tune” piano, and then tell me you can live with that sound from your guitar!
Steelers typically end up with a few strings being a little out of tune, but most of the notes and chords will blend well (amazingly, even when accompanying an out-of-tune piano!). Pianos must employ equal temperament between all their notes, because the difference between each note is very small within the 7¼ octaves on most piano keyboards. The piano is really conflicted, while we’re able to get more of the blended “good sound” from a pedal steel than any fixed-tuned instrument, which is one of the many reasons we love it. But then, few listeners of a piano aren’t aware of the slight out-of-tune condition of a piano. But we can detect it! Please read on.
Tempered vs. Just Tuning
Besides the piano, almost all “fixed-pitched” musical instruments are Temper-tuned, being tuned to that Equal Temperament” (ET) scale described previously (as well as in the Wikipedia link). They sound good enough in every key and chord, but if listened to closely, are all a little out of tune. Only one note is typically deemed correct. It is the A note, the one that is 4½ full tones above middle C. That A is tuned to a pitch of 440 Hertz, and is said to be doubled with each higher octave, as well as cut in half at each lower octave. But that isn’t quite true! However, it is close enough not to matter. I’ll spare you the lengthy story. Let’s just accept it with one example:
Middle C on a piano is set at 261.63 Hertz in the ET scale. It clashes a bit with that A-note on many fixed-tuned/fixed-pitched instruments. But it doesn’t have to clash on a pedal steel. And I love that fact. But let me continue this sermon with some interesting observations.
The harmonica is the only fix-tuned instrument I know of that is tuned perfectly, if you accept my definition of perfection as having the blended, Just-tuned chord-sound in the two chords you get when blowing or sucking on it. Not surprisingly, it is tuned to a Just scale. Practically all other fix-tuned instruments are manufactured with their builders knowing they have to end up being a little out of tune. Why are harmonicas tuned to a Just scale? It beats me. Maybe it’s because most harmonica players do their thing alone, and when playing alone, an out-of-tune instrument is easier to detect by an “educated” ear. There are some other instruments that allow for cheating to get the good sound, but most are un-fretted, particularly the bow-string instruments, being the violin, viola, cello and upright bass. They can be played in Just-intonation because their players are able to cheat too! A few brass instruments (those without valves), can play in Just-intonation, such as the bugle (a one-key instrument) and the trombone (because the player controls the pitches with the telescoping slide). No need to discuss those instruments here, so let’s get back to what history has informed us about sound.
Need to Escape?
You’ve now read 10 pages, or about 20% of this whole paper. If you would prefer to bypass all of the neat stuff yet to read, immediately scroll to and begin reading at “Harmonically Tuning The E9th’s Basic Tuning.”
Let’s Get Started.” When you finish that, and when you get to the “Supplemental Topics” at the end of the tuning procedure pages, do come back here and finish up. I suspect that you will still be yelling “TMI, TMI” (i.e. Too Much Information). While thinking about my proposal, listen to the great Hal Rugg play “Release Me”.
“Release Me” by Hal Rugg
If you do choose to leave here, only you will know you didn’t finish reading knowledge that all steeler’s need to know. …Tom
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Beginning Topics
Ancient Musical Geniuses of Long Ago & Far Away
Archaeologists today have determined that in past centuries (amazingly around 3400 years ago) the budding prehistoric musicians decided to write music in notation form. Some evidence even traces it back to Pythagoras in the 6th century BC, but I’m not taking you back that far (“Thank Goodness” you say!) It was at the time they began discovering that all musical sounds didn’t always blend. They hadn’t learned about slicing their sounds within octave notes into12 equal pieces to fit better together with the required tones, particularly in chords they invented to play their music (the same problem we experience today, huh?). But eventually it happened, as I’ll get to shortly.
Their first problem was trying to play with other instruments. If they got their key-chord to sound reasonably in pitch with the other instruments, all the other chords in their own musical progressions were out of tune when they changed by modulating to another chord. And when a complete key-change was made, their instrument, and all the other instruments, required retuning! They didn’t understand that the intervals in one key wouldn’t blend with the interval notes of a chord played in another key on the same fixed-tuned instrument (but incidentally, blending is nearly achievable on a steel guitar when tuned harmonically, which I’ll reveal later on). It isn’t exactly known how long this frustration lasted for those musicians of old, but like most human conflicts, violence can’t be ruled out. Hey, if steel players are arguing about it today, this subject had to be just as serious back then!
Please note that the two previous paragraphs offered general information about the emergence of the Equal Temperament tuning method. If you researched all the available information on the Internet that discusses this topic, you could likely spend the rest of your playing days glued to a computer screen reading, and you are probably thinking that this diatribe will last that long too.
Break Time: So, let’s pause and listen to a tune you’ve heard perhaps hundreds of times. Can you identify the tune and the player? If you can’t, I’ll understand. For “The Mystery Tune” click below.
The “Mystery Tune”
You will have to wait until the end of this treatise to learn the tune’s title and player. Now, humor me by enduring a little more history.
In the next paragraph I have selected the following summary of events from one of the many stories as to how Equal Temperament developed. But why even care; we’re stuck with it; so why not just move on? We will, but first I have this personal urge to share my short version of the ET story, so chill for a bit, and keep trying to identify the name of the mystery tune while I digress.
The Big Event
Credit is given to a music scholar named Andreas Werckmeister (1645–1706). He proposed a compromise to the problem of instruments not being chord-wise compatible with one another once a chord is changed in normal musical progressions (probably after removing an axe from his head). He advocated the adoption of what became known as the “Equal Temperament Scale” that I’ve belabored for many pages so far! Andreas likely told his fellow musicians that if all instruments played together using a Tempered 12-note scale, everybody wouldn’t be losing their tempers (darn it, another idiotic pun), but would have “tempered” their instruments by splitting the differences between and among each note within the 12-note scales. He apparently prevailed, and everyone has just lived with all the slight dissonant sounds in chords they played when they had their jam sessions back then.
String Pitch: A Little History
Once you accept the fact that your pedal steel has to be tuned to what sounds in tune to you, how do you begin? First of all, accept one pitch that I previously spoke about. It took nearly 200 years after agreeing to adopt Werckmeister’s Equal Tempered Scale before a pitch-standard was established. Then, in the beginning, that pitch was for only one note, and perhaps chosen alphabetically. If not alphabetically chosen, how it came to be the first A-note above middle-C is a mystery to me, but surely for some good reason. Likely though, no one knew exactly what a true A-pitch was back then. As mentioned, the A-note’s pitch was established at 440 Hertz (cycles per second), but not until 1939. Since then, it has been referred to as “International Concert Pitch,” and most instruments are built to replicate musical tones, with that A-pitch being the benchmark for setting all the other note pitches.
That Elusive So-Called “Good Sound”
Most steel players haven’t bought into Andreas’ solution. They want their steels to have the “good (Just-tuned) sound” in all keys and at every fret. I’ve been told that some players have adjusted to a Temper-tuned sound even tuning to a piano). They surely view us as belly-aching nut-cases! However, the vast majority of steel players I’ve met want the blended sound, with the absence of those oscillating “beats” being heard when harmonizing all the chords they create. What is hard to overcome are those unequal note-intervals when executing a simple chord progression, say from a tonic E-chord, then on to subdominant A-chord, then onto the dominant B-chord, followed by a B7th chord, the chord that creates the needed musical tension, requiring a return to the original E-chord (the progression being referred to as a 1, 4, 5,). Fixed-tuned instruments experience conflict between each of those chord changes, but steel players don’t need to. How can that be, you ask?
Initial Conflicts: You will soon discover that after tuning your E9th neck and eliminating all those sound “beats,” you’ll feel good about your blended sound, having created a Just-tuned chord on your steel! But you’ll also get a surprise! Next, depress your A and B pedals and fine-tune the strings (at your guitar’s end plate), which are those that have been raised in pitch by pedal action. Once done, and with the pedals still depressed, you will have an A6th chord (except for the 2nd and 9th strings). While keeping the two pedals depressed, strum the strings for a surprise. Those F# strings that were 9th tones in the E9th chord are now 6th tones in the A6th chord and are they sharp of a blending pitch or what? You quickly realize the problem confronting Werckmeister those four centuries ago. “I can’t live with that,” he likely whined, and we tend to whine too. After going partially nuts trying to figure out why they were out of tune, Andreas couldn’t! He obviously hadn’t read this essay as you are doing. He wasn’t aware of the fact that some notes in one chord don’t exactly blend correctly when used in a different rooted chord! But you, however, fight it and decide to see what would happen if you flatted both F#s and made your A6th chord sound “perfect.” You do so by retuning the string (at the tuning keys) to match the new chord (A6th) you created by depressing your A and B pedals. So, you release those pedals and scream “yikes,” because you then discover that those F# strings in your open E9th tuning are now out of tune, being really flat and clashing with the rest of the notes in their open (E9th) chord. Hey, remember what I said at the beginning of this paragraph? Those F#s that were 6th tones in the A-chord, but become 9th tones in the E9th chord, even though their names are still F#s! By wanting a Just-tuned instrument, they need to be pitched slightly different, but for you, they are excessively different now! Hey, don’t “fret” it (gadzooks, another mindless pun). “How do I live with this?” you moan. So, what to do? Just read on.
All 9th tones in any chord will sound out of tune when voiced with any other string that is pitched a full tone higher or lower than another tone. Please re-read that last sentence. If you’re a “doubting Thomas” as this Thomas is, re-tune your F#s to be in tune when your A and B pedals are depressed. Next, pick any of these combinations of your open and in-tune E9th strings, being strings 1 and 4, 6 and 7, 7 and 8 or 8 and 9. These are the string combinations on your E9th tuning that are separated in pitch by only one full tone (or two half-tones). Listen to them closely. Do you hear what I’m talking about? Even if you could tune them to a true in-pitch sound, they will still sound “funny” (not in tune)! You scream “Gee whillikers, what am I to do?” Answer: Make a decision. Either tune them to sound in tune in the A6th chord or in tune with the E9th chord. But with any decision, you’re screwed. So, my recommendation is to tune them to blend in the A6th chord and live with their out-of-tune sound in the E9th chord. No one listening will know or hear the difference, believe me.
OK, let’s move on. But first, there is a solution to the out-of-tune problem I just brought to your attention, so not all is lost.
Compensators
There are some who resist living with their beautiful A6th chord by having their basic E9th tuning being a little out of tune (as I have recommended above). They have heard of a way to have the good sound in both chords, and boy do they want that. They’ve heard that “compensators” can be added to their A and B pedals to lower those F#s to be in “perfect” pitch when in the A6th side of the E9th tuning is created when depressing pedals A and B.
Some reading this may ask, “What the heck are compensators?” They are extra string-pitch rods (dubbed “pulling trains” by manufacturers) that can be added to one or more of the various out-of-tune strings to bring them into a blended-pitch sound when a chord’s root-tone is changed by pedal action (as is an open-E9th chord with no pedals engaged, or after being changed to an A6th chord when the A and B pedals are depressed). They “compensate” for this out-of-tune condition when strings are raised or lowered in pitch to achieve a Just-tuned blend. In this example, one compensator each is typically added to those F# strings (the 6th string on the A-pedal and the 1st string on the B-pedal), but sometimes those rods are reversed on the pedals, depending on the player’s preference. They are then adjusted to bring the F# strings to an in-tune sound when both the A and B pedals are depressed alone or together. Those extra pulls don’t add much resistance to either pedal, and the result is a nice, blended sound on all the strings. It can become costly however, if the player wants individual pulling trains added to every out-of-tune chord change on their guitar. But I know players who have innumerable compensators all over their E9th copedents. When additional bell cranks and pulling-train hardware is required, the cost is multiplied and the installation work gets complicated.
Some Realities of Compensator Additions
Tuning up all those extra compensators has to be exhausting, with all the extra pulls to adjust, unless they had a tuner and created a tuning chart, as mentioned at the beginning of this rant, and discussed in detail later on.
Those players enjoy reveling in their guitar’s “Good Sound.” But with a tuning chart it would be a breeze (as I’ll get to later on). But frankly, if you aren’t playing with a Universal (typically a Single-12, 8 + 5) tuning, I question their worth, since no player ever positions their bars perfectly on target anyway, and listening audiences are unlikely to recognize the difference. To which those players will likely say, “Yes, but I can!”
If steelers could handle the Tempered sound, they would tune it that way and be done with it. That would make tuning easy. But they and we know that would be surrendering, and that breed of musician we are not! But look. Who among us will accept playing out of tune if there is a way to avoid it? As I have pointed out, players of fixed-tuned instruments are trapped. They must play their instruments the way they were manufactured. Some players of fixed-tuned instruments have grown so accustomed to their “out-of-tune “Tempered sound, that a blended-sounding “Just-tuned” instrument sounds strange to them! “Dagnabbit, what’s wrong with those people,” I say. But steel players are going to try to have it both ways: have a Just-tuned sound where it’s a must for them, then they Temper-tune all the remaining strings. And dad burn it, I’m no different. I love that blended sound when I eliminate all of those oscillating sound beats between harmonizing strings. And don’t doubt it: everyone hates a chord that has a dissonant sound in it, and why shouldn’t they?
More Problems and a Little More History
Unlike fixed-tuned instruments, pedal steels have an obstacle that interferes with any tuning method. Each time pedals or knee levers are activated when raising the pitch of strings, the steel detunes slightly. Steel players refer to it as “cabinet-drop” (which it is, as well as the ET problem already discussed). There is a way to compensate for it. Read on.
Steelers rail against cabinet-drop more than it deserves. The drop occurs when strings are raised, while lowered strings don’t seem to create much drop, if at all. Every pedal steel manufactured in the early days of the instrument’s manufacturing detuned a lot. The only early pedal steels I found that didn’t detune or produced just a “blip” of the needle on a tuner’s VU screen were the old Fender 400s, 800s, 1000s and 2000s. That was perhaps because they had a metal frame that encircled their hardwood cabinetry and had the pedals attached to that frame, not to the cabinet. But they aren’t manufactured anymore! Most of the early pioneering “shade-tree” builders created many pedal steels brands still existing today. Back at their beginning they had little knowledge of the stress the wood they used would endure when they built their guitars’ cabinets.
To my amazement, the particular strings on those “bender-board” cabinets that were mostly affected by the detuning were the F# strings, (and that’s still true today)! Fortunately an amazing positive event occurred because of that detuning matter back then. It led to the emergence of a great basic tuning (the E9th) that has become the most popular employed by pedalists today. Because those cabinets allowed for excessive detuning, those F# strings detuned the most. Although beneficial for the E9th tuning then, it displaced the Western Swing tunings of C6th and A6th. Who knows, maybe the emerging 12-string E9th Universal tuning will displace the current 10-string E9th and the swing sounds will become more prevalent. And one final note about steel builders. Home-grown builders have returned. Click on this link and see what they are up to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/191853811313497/
Today’s players complain if their steels detune as much as a cat’s whisker. “Minimal detuning” has become the cause célèbre of many of today’s builders. Thus, some newer steels are so rigid that adding compensators becomes nearly a must for those F# strings and even other strings, in order to get the Good Sound most players strive for. So, to the point and in hind-sight, I feel we should be thankful for the detuning that those pioneer builders haplessly created in their flimsy cabinet-creations, because of the new tuning that was created.
Break Time: Hey, enough of this? I need a break and you surely do too. While accommodating me, how about listening to the most popular and recognizable steel guitar instrumental ever recorded. It was written and recorded by Western Music’s steel pioneer, Leon McAuliffe back in the early 1930s. “Steel Guitar Rag” is a tune almost every steel guitarist has felt compelled to learn. It was the first tune I tackled back at age 11! This version by Ernest Tubb’s “Texas Troubadours” I deem to be the most famous ever recorded. It features Buddy Charleton on steel and Leon Rhodes on lead guitar. Click below to listen.
“Steel Guitar Rag” by Buddy Charleton & Leon Rhodes
Determining Your Detuning
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself by mentioning electronic tuners. You probably know this already, but suffer through my explanation with me.
To learn the average amount of detuning of your guitar, accept the standard procedure for determining that average. Once you are satisfied that your guitar is in tune, and while using a tuner, pick the E9th’s fourth string (E) and observe the deviation in its pitch when you depress the A and B pedals. That E string’s pitch will flatten slightly, I assure you. That amount of deviation is considered the average amount of detuning for your guitar, but surely different for all other pedal steels. If you combine knee levers and perhaps use your B and C pedals together, you may get another amount, but the difference is likely slight. Regardless, and once determined, you can calculate and even calibrate many tuners to compensate for this detuning.
OK, if you’ve experienced intolerable detuning with a pedal steel, you’ve probably already gotten rid of that guitar, or you’ve managed to adjust to it. Actually, what you are after is being in tune with other instruments so no one is jumping on you, claiming you’re such an incompetent that you can’t even tune your steel! But don’t come unhinged about it. Just keep in mind that your band member’s ears are just as fickle as yours.
Vibrato, Slides, Glisses & String Bends
Let’s not forget that steelers often choose to play out of tune! What? Bar vibrato is nothing more than playing out of tune a little in both fret directions: sharp and flat (but mostly flat); but it’s a neat effect. [Vocalists do it all the time, calling it their tremolo technique.] Steelers perform tremolo quite often, particularly when playing Hawaiian tunes. Curly Chalker executed it beautifully with his very fast “bar-shiver” technique and even more so with his “quaking” effect, which was a bit slower bar movement, but extends a half-fret above and below a fret line. He created it to cause tension for an impending chord-modulation, such as from a 1 chord to a 4-chord or 5chord transition back to a 1-chord. Also be aware that bar slides are just extended glisses and are actually “nice” out-of-tune playing, besides quickly identifying the sound as being that of a steel guitar. Hey, remember the octave slide called a “swoop” back in the days of movie cartoons? That long slide-gliss in the “Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies” feature, still plays on TV’s cartoon channels. That was steel’s Hall of Famer Freddie Tavares – Wikipedia.
The gliss has two versions. If employed as half-tone pitch-changes that are distinguishable, and officially called a glissando. If each successive half-tone pitch-change is indistinguishable, even to the point of becoming an octave slide, such slides are officially called Portamentos. Neither definition gives credit to a tone included within the effect that might remain unchanged or even changed in pitch during the movement. Few instruments can achieve such a pitch-movement, what I dubbed years ago as a “pedal gliss.” It is typically mechanically achieved by picking two or more strings with some pitches raised or lowered while other pitches remain unchanged. But regular guitarists point to the mechanical device invented to mimic a few of the pedal steel licks that regular guitarists do their best to duplicate. They utilize a device called the “B-bender,” which usually only raises their second guitar string (B) a full tone. Also, let’s not forget Paul Bigsby (long deceased) who gained fame building pedal steels, and for his invention of a device still being produced that is mounted on regular guitars (called the Bigsby “Vibrato Tailpiece”). It raised and lowered the pitches of the full complement of strings on those guitars. It nicely created a chord “slide in,” something a steel player can do any time with their tone bar.
When I dubbed our instrument’s facility to accomplish Portamento, calling it the “pedal gliss,” that labeling caught on among steelers. At the time I had never heard of the words, glissando and portamento (which sound like names of cheeses). Had I chosen to wax arrogantly authentic, I doubt that “pedal portamento” would have caught on! Regardless of what the effect is called, our instrument’s mechanical procedure to create it has become the dominant sound today for identifying the pedal steel. It may be playing “out of tune” for the extent of particular strings’ pitch-movements, but we (and most everyone else) love the sound of it.
Regular guitarists do raise the pitch of their strings by moving a voicing string from fret to fret with their fingers, and crowds go nuts when they do it, and particularly when rockers employ it…but then, their fans go nuts (no offence intended!) even without hearing those gliss-licks. There are other unfretted instruments that permit it, being the trombone, unfretted bass fiddles, violins, and violas, to name some. But, how many of those players are reading this paper? So, forget them. But let’s also not forget about the piano? One Country pianist, Floyd Cramer, was so enamored by the steel’s pedal gliss that he incorporated that gliss incessantly, making it his signature sound. He inserted those halftone glisses (dubbed “slip-notes” on the piano) in every recording or performance of a tune. Listen to any recording by Floyd and hear his use of what he probably waxed authentically, calling them “piano glissandi.” To my disappointment, Wikipedia fails to give credit to the Nashville pedal steelers’ influence on Cramer at the time he developed the technique while he was doing most of his recording there. See Floyd Cramer – Wikipedia. Many examples of his technique are also on Facebook.
And while speaking of glisses (aka glissandi and/or portamenti = both plural), check out the story of the steel’s pedal gliss; the steeler credited with creating it was Bud Isaacs.
Digression No. 2: Bud Isaacs & The Pedal-Gliss
If you’ve read any of the history of the pedal steel, you know that a big change occurred when Country singer Webb Pierce recorded “Slowly.” That occurred in Nashville on November 29, 1953. Webb Pierce hired Bud Isaacs (now deceased) for that session. On that tune, Bud unknowingly introduced the “pedal-gliss” in a recorded song. Besides the tune being a huge hit for Pierce, it proved to be a career-boost for Isaacs. Many recording artists began hiring Isaacs to record with them. Bud’s sound prompted other steel guitarists (like yours truly) to add pedals to their lap steels, or simply buy pedal steels.
This led to the pedal-gliss becoming a huge crowd-pleaser for that sound, as well as a boon to record producers who discovered that the sound increased the sales of all Country recording artists when it was included. Fellow steel guitarists reacted to the sound with amazement, envy and curiosity as to how it was created. That was followed by major players creation of innumerable ways to include the gliss in almost every Country song recorded. By altering their tunings to deliver that sound, they immediately began expanding it. This form of a gliss might have been created by some other steel player, but if so, it had obviously gone unnoticed as a remarkable sound. Thus, Bud was credited with this feat of discovery and deservedly so. Years later I thought, “Maybe Bud Isaacs can reveal how his pedal-gliss” originated, and he did!
So, an “incredibly non-brilliant thought” came to me, “Why not just ask Bud how he came up with that sound?” He lived about 600 miles from me in Yuma, Arizona. I had interviewed scores of players over the years for the liner notes of albums I produced and for the interviews published in Guitar Player magazine. But I had never interviewed Bud. So, at some time in the mid-90’s I got his phone number, called and asked if I could interview him. He was happy to oblige.
When we met, Bud immediately revealed how his pedal-gliss happened (and as with so many great innovations, it was an accident). Just prior to the recording of Slowly, Bud was tuning his 8-string Bigsby. Bud’s tuning is as follows. Note the two strings that are raised by only one of his pedals: Strings 1-E, 2-B (Raised to C#), 3-G# (Raised to A), 4-F#, 5-D, 6-B, 7-G#, 8-E.
Another musician was in the room, also tuning up. Bud recalled that he was depressing the pedal that raised those two strings to their required pitches (as shown above). In the open-strings position, the chord was an E Dominant 9th. When that pedal was depressed, the chord was changed to mostly an A6th chord. [In the Nashville numbering system, that would be termed a “5- to a 1-chord” change. If executed in the key-chord, it functioned as a “1- to a 4-chord” change. However, Bud wasn’t thinking of chord changes; he was simply trying to get the two string-changes tuned properly. After getting his steel in tune, he got up to leave and awaited the arrival of the other session players. At that point the conversation went like this:
The other musician: “Why don’t you put that lick on the tune?”
Bud: “What are you talking about?”
Musician: “The lick you were playing; use it on the recording.”
Bud: “I wasn’t’ playing a lick, I was tuning up.”
Musician: “It sounded like a lick; I liked it.”
Bud: “I don’t recall what ‘lick’ you’re referring to.”
Musician: “You know; what you were doing.”
[Bud returned to his guitar and depressed that pedal several times, as if to continue tuning up.]
Musician: “Yes, that’s it. Play that on the recording.”
Bud left the studio room but continued to think about what his musician friend had said. When the recording session began, he simply made the 4 to 1 change whenever it seemed appropriate and also employed the reverse chord sequence when also appropriate. Bud recalled that no one at the recording session seemed impressed with the “lick” or his overall playing on the whole session.
Although Bud’s performance on “Slowly” pales in comparison to what he and future players did and have continued to do with the gliss, give a listen to the tune and Bud’s playing, and you will recognize the simplicity of it in that original recording. Realize how it has spurred the steel guitar to the popularity due to its advancing choices of applications. It was as monumental as the steel’s introduction to the United States’ mainland from Hawaii, occurring at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Listen here to Bud’s backup performance on “Slowly.”
Break Time Again: If you chose to read Bud’s interview, your energy is probably spent by now. So, for just the heck of it, I can’t get enough of Sonny Garrish. For years he toured and recorded with Bill Anderson’s “Po Boys.” He was a proficient player in a variety of musical genres besides Country. But, I’ll provide his E9th capabilities here with “Sidewalkin’”.
“Sidewalkin’” by Sonny Garrish
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Tuner Recommendations
Buying
I suggest a tuner with a VU meter, but will not evaluate specific brands or make recommendations regarding a purchase. Review that subject and the options for purchase in the References section at the end of this paper. If you don’t own an electronic tuner, the discussion that follows should still be informative.
Incidentally, and for techies, the “VU” just mentioned is short for “volume unit,” but actually to the “signal level” in audio equipment. It’s that needle behind the small glass window on tuners that points to deviations (being the plus or minus “offsets”) from a note’s standard pitch.
If you’re in the market for a tuner, post on the Steel Guitar Forum’s “Wanted To Buy” topic: https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewforum.php?f=1. I’m sure you’ll get many recommendations. They are inexpensive and easy to read. For instance, the Korg CA-50 (usually under $30.00), is quite adequate for the procedures described in this discussion. That tuner and similar ones with VU meters, have needle-markers that don’t jump all over the place during the tuning process.
Plug-in & Light
Tuners that plug directly into your guitar are preferred. If you then back off your volume pedal, the sound to your amp can be silenced. But your tuner will still recognize the sound of your guitar. With a chart, you’ll not need to hear your guitar to tune it. You can see what the tuner registers for the pitch of each individual string by viewing the results in the VU meter’s window. Even tuning in the dark is possible, since many have built-in lights for reading the VU meter’s screen!
A “Freebie”
There is a free tuner for folks who own Smartphones and maybe even “dumb” phones too: Pano Tuner –ChromaticTuner – Apps on Google Play. Once installed, you can simply rest your phone somewhere on your guitar and tune to your heart’s delight. It shows the Hertz numbers for all pitches. I love that! I feel that all tuners should reveal Hertz numbers, but few provide that information. It is accurate, but does have a couple of annoyances: A small turn of a string’s tuning key will move the tuner’s pitch marker quickly out of view. It also picks up ambient noises: radios, talking, dogs barking, etc. But check it out anyway. Hey, you can’t lose; it’s a freebie.
Peterson Tuners
Another source and a major player in tuners is Peterson tuners. They were the first manufacturer of these handy gadgets, beginning in 1948. They subsequently got on to the fact that pedal steel players were looking for tuning-help, so have been showing up at some steel shows for the past 20+ years. After listening to players express their needs, Peterson took the forefront in trying to accommodate them. They also have a tuning app for Smart phones (for a small fee). See Peterson’s additional resources available at the end of this paper.
Tuner Programming
Tuners are typically programmed to achieve Equal-Temperament pitch (like the piano I discussed). What you and other steel players prefer are the pitch tones needed for a Just-tuned steel. So I’ll repeat, if you tuned each string’s required pitch to a tuner’s “440” grid mark, every note on your guitar would be tuned nearly as a piano is tuned. Few steelers will live with that, but you are welcome to try it and discover if you could, “live with it!” A Just-intonation pitch is surely what you will opt to have, thus personalizing your tuning to what suits you. And, I’m convinced you will!
Some Technical Points
Manufacturers of tuners use the 440Hz number-base for all of their Equal Temperament scale tones. I wish tuner manufacturers would have programmed each note of every chromatic scale into their tuners. Had they, such numbers could be read in legitimate Hertz values, rather than confuse the user with their ever-present 440 (or zero) reference-number for pitches in an Equal Temperament chromatic scale. But we’re stuck with talking (and charting) “offsets.” The offsets are either right or left (plus or minus) of a tuner’s 440Hz mark, and typically designated with a zero (0) on most tuners’ VU meters. When setting offsets, you are tuning to what pleases you, which are nothing more than Just-temperament settings. Sorry for my perpetual repeats, but learning involves repetition! Incidentally, the cent-deviations between the notes in a chromatic scale are divided into 100 cents on a tuner. Thus, one Hertz equals roughly 4 cents. Perhaps that’s a “so what?” But at this point in the discussion, when making your chart, “cents” are what you record as + or – for the offsets you select.
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Charting
Charts
I’ve created many charts for the steels I’ve restored. I’ve never come up with a chart that was ideal for another guitar. On occasion I’ve made up a chart one day, only to discover that it didn’t seem accurate a few days later. The problem was usually a change in my hearing, my mood, maybe the temperature, or new strings settling in. I give an example of this from Bud Carter’s topic, “And About Those Nights” at the end of this paper.
Usually though, when a tuning chart is selected that works for your pedal steel, it can be used for a long time. Get another instrument and you’ll need to create a new chart. Don’t let others recommend their charts. As I’ve repeatedly said in this tirade, all players’ ears interpret sound differently and every pedal steel is different.
Benefits
Once satisfied with your tuning effort (as will be soon explained), you can observe; yes see, each tuned string’s offsets from the 440 pitch-mark on the tuner’s VU meter. If you log those offsets (+ or -) onto a chart, thereafter you only need to refer to your chart to tune each string. Simple, huh? And if you follow the chart that is specific to your guitar, you’ll have no need to spend the rest of your joyous playing life trying to find your “perfect” in-tune sound each time you tune up. Quite soon you will memorize the settings and likely not need to refer to your chart very often. Hey, I’ve seen it happen!
Detuning Aggravation
Remember my detuning axiom: “Every pedal steel detunes in some manner;” yes, every mother’s son of them. As I’ve mentioned countless times, the term most commonly heard to describe this is “cabinet-drop.” As is well known, all steel’s cabinets are under a lot of stress because of the tension of their complement of strings pulling from one cabinet-end to the other. Often you can observe the result of this tension by simply placing a straight-edge (perhaps a yard stick) across the front top-edge of your guitar’s cabinet. If the cabinet can’t handle the stress, you’ll likely discover space under the center of that straight-edge. Also, just pick one string and then press down at that cabinet’s center-spot and listen as that string’s pitch flatten. Interesting, huh?
Heat Aggravation
Also, remember temperature, and to drive home a point, do this: place a cloth between your index and thumb fingers of an unwound string. Press the cloth tightly around the string and run it quickly back and forth several times along that string’s full length. Pull the cloth away from the string and quickly pluck it. You will hear its pitch rise to its previously in-tune pitch as it cools. Granted, this isn’t a flaw in the guitar or the string, it just reveals how temperature impacts the pitch of all the strings: the hotter a string gets the lower its pitch goes, because metal expands when heated. Play outside in the sun or under stage lights and you’ll probably have to re-tune a few times during a gig. Even the warmth of your hands on the strings will slightly alter your tuning! I make it sound like we’re doomed, don’t I? Don’t mean to, so chill out. But then, sufferin’ succotash, there’s “hysteresis.” That frustrating condition can create a psychiatric emergency for us. But not now.
Jeff Newman’s Contributions
To record history and give one of the greatest players and steel guitar teachers of all time his deserved recognition, I’m providing what is said to be Jeff Newman’s final tuning chart that he published in his periodic “Pedal Rod” newsletters. [Unfortunately, we lost Jeff in 2004 to an accident in his self-built Ultralight copter.] The following example is of Jeff’s 10-string E9th copedent. I’m aware that he was playing a 12-string E9th/B6th Universal tuning before his passing, but such guitars and their copedents are still rare, so I’ll stick with his 10-stringer. You’re welcome to use his recommended offsets, but only as an example and as a starting point. Do remember that what you will settle on will surely be different for your guitar. When making your chart, a more basic design is all you need for documenting your offsets, not cluttered with all the additional information I’ve included in Jeff’s example.
Break Time: Hey, before trying to figure out Jeff’s chart, let’s take a musical break and have Jeff entertain us while we do. Besides being the greatest teacher of his generation, Jeff was a fantastic player as you will soon recognize here. While you’re looking at Jeff’s chart on the next page, listen to one of his all-time great steel guitar instrumentals. It is his rendition of one of the finest examples of Western Swing. You may be too young to remember when Western Swing was king, but Jeff obviously does with this recording. It’s a cut from Jeff’s “Once In A Lifetime” album. To listen, click below:
“I Don’t Believe I’ll Fall In Love Today” by Jeff Newman
Digression No. 3: My Friendly Chat With Jeff
Back when Jeff was publishing his tuning charts, I kept wondering why he changed the recommendations for the offsets he provided in subsequent issues of his “Pedal Rod” newsletters. I finally believed that I had it figured out: he kept changing guitars! I then felt compelled to “educate” him, so gave him a call about it. He agreed that manufacturers kept giving him guitars, and with each new one, he believed he had erred on his previous chart. I then explained to him that I had discovered that all guitars required their own tuning chart (for the reasons I spoke of here). Jeff was unimpressed with what my swelling ego was begging me to brag about: that I had made a monumental discovery! But, he quickly showed disinterest in the subject and began talking about something else. I was crushed, but still kept loving the guy and what he was doing for the steel guitar community.
I later decided to post an inquiry on the Steel Guitar Forum, attempting to locate readers who used Jeff’s 442.5Hz setting for their 4th string on their E9th tuning. Check out my post at: Jeff Newman’s Last Tuning Chart? : The Steel Guitar Forum. I also contacted a number of professional players, asking them how they tuned. Most said they arbitrarily tuned their E’s a bit sharp at the outset of their tuning process, but not necessarily to 442.5 (as Jeff had recommended). A few told me that raising the pitch of their guitar’s basic tuning simply seemed to get a better in-tune sound when playing with groups; better than tuning to a standard 440Hz level, but they didn’t know why. Others recognized their guitar’s detuning, and concluded that it was their guitar that required that adjustment, so they calculated-in the amount, and tuned their 4th string (E) to a higher pitch. That solved their problem. Now to Jeff’s chart.
Jeff Newman’s Chart of Recommended Offsets for Tuning the E9th Copedent
MY
RECOMMENDED STRING
GAUGES | E 9th | LKL | Vertical | LKR | 1 or A | 2 or B | 3 or C | RKL | RKR |
|---|
| 1 – .013 | F#
441.5
+6 cents | +G
441.5
+6 cents | | | | | | | |
| 2 – .017p | D#
439
-4 cents | | | -D/-C#
439/
438.5
-4 & -6 cents | | | | | |
| 3 – .011 | G#
439
-4 cents | | | | | +A
441
+4 cents | | | |
| 4 – .013 | E
442.5
+10
cents | | | | | | +F#
439.5
-2
cents | -D#
440.5
+2
cents | +F
435.5
-18
cents |
| 5 – .017p | B
442
+8 cents | | A#
442.5
+10 cents | | +C#
438.5
+6 cents | | +C#
438.5
+6 cents | | |
| 6 – .022p | G#
439
-4 cents | | | | | +A
441
+4cents | | | |
| 7 – .026w | F#
441.5
+6 cents | +G
441.5
+6 cents | | | | | | | |
| 8 – .030w | E
442.5
+10
cents | | | | | | | -D#
440.5
+2
cents | +F
435.5
-18
cents |
| 9 – .036w | D
441.5
+6 cents | | | -C#
438.5
-6cents | | | | | |
| 10- .038w | B
442
+8 cents | | -A#
442.5
+10 cents | | +C#
438.5
-6 cents | | | | |
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Harmonic Tune-Up
Harmonics
If I’ve managed to capture your attention (except for those who took the early option to “Escape,” maybe you will let me continue with the “gut” topic of this diatribe. For some reason, and above my pay grade, if a small portion of the human anatomy (like the tip end of a finger most often) is lightly touched at special frets along the length of a guitar’s string, a distinctive sound is produced that has been dubbed a “harmonic.” At particular frets, the harmonic is typically an octave or two higher than its fret location. That effect and its tone will somewhat sound like a ringing bell. Perhaps that’s why its sound has been called a “chime.” Do it in succession and you will be accused of “chiming”! [Note: On the pedal steel, a chime is not lost on a string if its resonating pitch is subsequently changed by pedal action or the movement of a tone bar on the harmonicked string.] Try that on any other stringed instrument! Maybe it’s another first for our instrument. However, this unique sound was likely only discovered when metal strings came into being. Gut strings are hardly audible alone, unless a sound box is positioned close to them. Even with that sound boost, a harmonic tone can hardly be heard from them, thus making them useless for chiming as compared to metal strings.
The Harmonic Frets
Because of the laws of physics and the way metal strings vibrate when plucked at various frets a harmonic is produced. I refer to those frets as “harmonic hot spots.” The most audible is at the guitar’s 12th fret. Other hot spots (frets 3, 4, 7, 9, 12 and compensatory frets beyond the 12th fret) create harmonics, but are not as loud when created. In particular, a Major 3rd tone (for each string’s tuned pitch) can be created at the 4th or 9th frets of any string. The other harmonic hot spots beyond the 12th fret don’t provide the volume or sustain needed for tuning the E9th tuning. What am I talking about? Read on.
Getting The Good Sound
Please recall what I said many pages back, about the true “Good Sound” being the use of the harmonic tuning method. I’ll soon describe it in my usual tiresome detail. Do try it out and see if you get the same offsets as on the chart that I earlier said was just an example. I’ll bet your selections will be slightly different, and more accurate than what your previous efforts produced. Remember how I bored you with the subject of “beats.” By tuning harmonically, you can more easily remove the dissonant “beats” between voicing strings that are so annoying. I claim that the result will be the closest to “a perfectly-tuned” steel as you may ever get. And now you’re asking yourself, “Why did Tom waste all those words before getting me to perfection? To which I reply: “Hey, the remaining words may be tedious, but I think I saved the best for last!”
Harmonics By The Master
I suspect that you know how to create a harmonic tone on a string, but it actually takes skill to create just fairly good harmonics, and even more skill to create great harmonics. Listening to recordings by Jerry Byrd should reveal to you how beautiful harmonics can sound when created by the hands of one of the most talented, and legendary steel guitarists of all time. Try duplicating his harmonics…good luck. And on this subject, take a moment to listen to that brilliant player demonstrate those harmonics on “Bells of Saint Mary’s.”
“Bells of Saint Mary’s” by Jerry Byrd
Nearly all of Jerry’s playing on this tune is performed using harmonics. Jerry employed various fingers of both hands for his harmonics, as well as his knuckles, and the edges of his palms. His talent also included harmonics that he executed flawlessly while also barring his strings. Listen closely and you can occasionally detect one string being chimed, while one or more of the others are being voiced normally (no chiming). However, I’ll not be asking you to do any of that. Play harmonics any way that works for you, but for now, all you need is your guitar’s open E9th neck and the tip-end of your ring finger of your left hand. Lightly touch that finger-tip to the designated strings at the identified frets. When you quickly remove your finger following the instant you pick the string, you should hear a harmonic tone. Follow that immediately by picking and harmonicking the string you wish to tune. It will take some practice to get it right, so you may have to work on it for a time before achieving the desired effect; but don’t give up. It’s just another part of learning to play this exasperating instrument!
I’ll only be asking you to harmonic open (unbarred) strings at the 4th, 5th, 7th and occasionally the 12th frets. You can create harmonics at other places (mainly at the 19th and 24th frets), but they aren’t always as audible.
Those “beats” Are Gone
When tuning harmonically, most all of the sound beats can be eliminated. Then, all the string tones will blend with each other, resulting in a harmonized and a truly in-tune Just-tuned sound.
The following chart tends to look overwhelming. I’m confident that you will understand it if you just stay with me for a while. Begin by reading the definitions of each of the shaded columns listed. Please don’t read beyond this graphic until you understand what I’m telling you in the definitions! But first, … it’s….
Break Time Again: I wrote in 1984, “If anyone ever recorded a thumb-style steel album, the “benchmark” player to judge it by would be Bobby Garrett.” This Texas steel player gained recognition for this talent when he wrote and recorded “Rose City Chimes.” He had two more albums after that single was released. One was “Thumbs Up,” which was given to me by the original producer. I had Bobby record some extra tunes for it. Here is a tune from that album that blends his thumb-style with his playing style. Give a listen to Bobby’s ”I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
“I’ll See You in My Dreams” by Bobby Garrett
And while listening, memorize the following graph! …….…Just kidding!
The E9th Tuning’s Harmonic Root Tones and “Hot Spots”
| These pitched notes produce harmonic tones at frets 4, 5, 7, 9, 12,17, 19 and 24. Read the explanation that follows below this chart. | Frets 4 and 9 make pure audible Major 3rd tones when a harmonic is created there. | Frets 5 and 17 make harmonic tones another octave higher than at the12th fret. | Frets 7 and 19 make pure and audible Major 5th tone when a harmonic is created there. | Frets 12 and 24 make pure audible tones one and two octave tones higher of their rooted tones when a harmonic is created there. |
|---|
| 1-F# (As the root tone) | A# | F# | C# | F# |
| 2-D# (As the root tone) | G | D# | A# | D# |
| 3-G# (As the root tone) | C | G# | D# | G# |
| 4–E (As the root tone) | G# | E (E)* | B (A)* | E |
| 5-B (As the root tone) | D# | B | F# (G#)* | B |
| 6-G# (As the root tone) | C | G# | D# (A)* | G# |
| 7-F# (As the root tone) | A# | F# | C# | F# |
| 8-E (As the root tone) | G# (A)* | E | B | E |
| 9-D (As the root tone) | F# | D | A | D |
| 10-B (As the root tone) | D# | B | F# | B |
Explanation
This chart is to educate, not to tune by. I will get you to that procedure soon, so just read this now. I call all the red notes hot spots. Observe in Column No. 1 that I list the E9th tuning as the beginning reference point for each string to be tuned. In the following columns are listed the strings (when harmonicked at the proper red frets), they will provide the pure Just-tuned notes for all the remaining pitched strings. (I’ll soon cover the tuning sequence required to assure that the basic E9th tuning is perfectly tuned before beginning to tune the pedal changes).
For now, just notice (in red) how many strings can be perfectly tuned if Column No. 2’s Major 3rd tones are utilized. In Column No. 3, observe the 4th string’s E note. It must be perfectly pitched to begin the whole process (and I’ll cover that soon). Column No. 4 provides even more (in red) notes for tuning the pedal changes. Column No. 5 is little more than tuning notes and the 12th and 24th fret if needed for tuning harmonically lower pitched “sister” strings. I’ll soon guide you through that tuning process, using many of those hot spots. Quite simple, huh? Also identified with red asterisks, are the hot spots for tuning strings that are changed because of pedal action.
Other than the basic E9th tuning of the A, B and C pedals, I’ll not include all the knee- lever changes. Those are best left to your determination (by ear). Several of the required pitch changes do not have harmonic hot spots, but this sermon has been long enough. So, let’s get started.
Harmonically Tuning The E9th’s Basic Tuning and Pedal Changes
If you are arriving here from the “Escape” page, I strongly recommend that you back up to “Harmonic Tune-Up”, then read up to here. Those previous prep-pages are important. But if you must “get going,” I’ll repeat, “This won’t be easy,” as I said at the beginning of this rant. You will find the procedure tedious, boring, and may even voice other colorful words for it. Do remember, if you force yourself to do it just once, while logging the results on a chart, you’ll never have to do it again! So please endure the tedium I also felt while writing this paper for you. And, if you want my hearty applause, commit yourself to eventually memorizing all the locations of what I call the harmonic “hotspots.” If you do, over time you may use your chart only occasionally and without hooking up your tuner. I do it that way all the time, but I’ve been doing it for over 50 years! And since you have read this treatise thus far, I have faith that you will learn them as I have, but not over 50 years!
Turn your volume up a bit so you can better hear the sound-beats that I’ll want you to eliminate (and new strings reveal those beats better than old ones). The beats become more closely spaced and faster as they near their true in-tune Just-pitch. And with a little more turning at your tuning keys, or at the changer for the pedal pitch-changes, they fade into oblivion. Then, sing “Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful ‘sound’” from the musical, “Oklahoma.”
Compensating For Detuning
Your tone bar is not needed for this procedure. Do begin by getting your guitar fairly close to being in tune. Depress your A and B pedals and tune the fourth string’s E to 440 (or zero on your tuner). This is to compensate for the detuning your guitar has, and discussed previously. Release the pedals. Note that your E-string will then surely register above the 440-grid mark on your tuner. That is fine, so write its deviation on your chart.
Keep in mind that your goal is to remove the beats between the strings being tuned. You will then use the designated string’s hot spots (as I previously identified) as your harmonic pitch-tones to finalize each string’s proper pitch.
Now, take a deep breath and begin the harmonic tuning process that follows (and in its listed order!). Remember, if you do it right, and in sequence, your first effort should be your last one! As you eliminate the beats between the tuned strings, you will recognize that your usual (by ear) tuning procedure didn’t always tune your steel accurately.
Let’s Get Started: Make certain that the 4th string (E) is at the proper pitch, as I explained a moment ago.
- Tuning the 8th string: Depress your A and B pedals and tune the 8th string (E) to the 440-grid mark on your tuner. But, to be certain the 4th and 8th string’s pitches match, harmonic the 4th string at the 12th fret, then harmonic the 8th string at the 5th fret. Match these two identical pitches by tuning the 8th string to the 4th string’s audible harmonic tone. If you hear any beats, keep tuning the 8th string until the beats are eliminated. Enter the 8th string’s offset on your chart, as shown on your tuner.
- Tuning the 5th string: Harmonic the 4th string at the 7th fret. Harmonic the 5th string at the 5th fret. Tune the 5th string to the 4th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 10th string: Harmonic the 5th string at the 12th fret. Harmonic the 10th string at the 5th fret. Tune the 10th string to the 5th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 3rd string: Harmonic the 4th string at its 4th fret. Harmonic the 3rd string at its 5th fret. Tune the 3rd string to the 4th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 6th string: Harmonic the 3rd string at the 12th fret. Harmonic the 6th string at the 5th fret. Tune the 6th string to the 3rd string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 2nd string: Harmonic the 3rd string at the 7th fret. Harmonic the 2nd string at the 5th fret. Tune the 2nd string to the 3rd string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 9th string: Harmonic the 5th string at the 7th fret. Harmonic the 9th string at the 4th fret. Tune the 9th string to the 5th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Note: Next to be tuned are the F# strings. They seem to always sound out of tune even when they are in tune. The ideal F# pitch for an E9th chord (pedals up) and the ideal F# pitch for an A6th chord (pedals down) aren’t the same. So, you have to choose which is more important to be in tune for you. You can use the harmonic tuning method to tune the F#’s to favor the E9th chord (pedals up), then tune them by ear for the A6th chord (A & B pedals down), or by ear for a compromise. Most steelers tend to favor making them sound good with the pedals down for the A6th mode. Here is the harmonic tuning procedure for that method.
- Tuning the 1st string: Harmonic the 5th string at the 7th fret. Harmonic the 1st string at the 12th fret. Tune the 1st string to the 5th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
- Tuning the 7th string: Harmonic the 5th string at the 7th fret. Harmonic the 7th string at the 5th fret. Tune the 7th string to the 5th string’s harmonic tone. Chart the offset!
When finished, it is wise to check all the tuned strings against their lower-octave “sisters.”
Do this by picking the higher-pitched strings, then harmonicking their lower-pitched string at their 12th frets. If you discover any beats between any of the voicing string-pairs, your ears deceived you during the previous tuning process. Sorry, but you may choose to repeat the process for the strings with beats, to determine where you went wrong, or simply tune the lower stings to match the octave of the higher-pitched tone, thus eliminating any audible beats. But don’t ever change the pitch of the 4th and 8th strings unless that 8th string reveals beats with its 4th string counterpart. If needed, adjust the 8th string to match the unchanged 4th string.
Tuning the A and B Pedals
During this process, tune all the required string-changes at the end plate while depressing and holding down both your A and B pedals. You will discover that once these two pedals are depressed, the harmonic hot spots will change for the pitches required for bringing them into perfect harmony (no “beats”) among the remaining strings.
- Tuning the 3rd string: Harmonic the 4th string at the 5th fret. Harmonic the 3rd string at the 7th fret. Tune the 3rd string to the 4th string’s harmonic tone. Chart it!
- Tuning the 6th string: Harmonic the 8th string at the 5th fret. Harmonic the 6th string at the 7th fret. Tune the 6th string to the 8th string’s harmonic tone. Chart it!
- Tuning the 5th string: Harmonic the 8th string at the 4th fret. Harmonic the 5th string at the 7th fret. Tune the 5th string to the 8th string’s harmonic tone. Chart it!
- Tuning the 10th string: Harmonic the 5th string at the 12th fret. Harmonic the 10th string at the 5th fret. Tune the 10th string to the 5th string’s harmonic tone. Chart it!
When finished and to double-check, depress your A and B pedals, then harmonic all those 4 strings against their lower strings’ octave sisters. Whenever you hear any beats between these octave-voicing string-pairs, tune (at the end plate) the higher-pitched strings to the lower pitched strings and log the results on your chart. Although this task is boring enough to drive you to perpetual sobriety, do remember that once completed accurately, and logged on your chart, you will never have to do it again (unless you lose your chart). Realize that the chart has become your steel tuner’s bible!
Tuning the B and C Pedals
Depress and hold your B & C pedals throughout this tuning process. Tune the identified strings at the guitar’s end plate.
- Tuning the 3rd and 6th strings: You shouldn’t have to tune these strings since you already tuned them when you tuned the A and B pedals.
- Tuning the 4th string: You should be able to tune the 4th string by simply matching its pitch to the first string. If you discover that the first string detunes slightly more because of the engagement of the B and C pedals, live with it and bring the 4th string’s pitch to that of the 1st string (unless you like the pitch of the 4th string better than what you hear from your 1st string). Your bar-positioning will bring it to proper pitch (remember, I lled it “cheating”). Chart!
- Tuning the 5th string: Match the pitch you selected for that string with the pitch selected for it when you tuned the A pedal. Just depress the A pedal with your left foot, then depress your C pedal with your right foot. The 5th string’s pitch should be tuned to the same pitch as that of the A pedal. Chart it and read on.
The 6th String Detuning Problem Re-Visited
- When depressing the B and C pedals in combination, the 6th (G# to A) string’s pitch quite often will flatten slightly (another example of that annoying detuning problem previously described). That will have to be tolerated unless a compensator is added to the C pedal to bring that 6th string’s pitch back to an in-pitch level. Sorry ‘bout that, but no one but you will ever hear it! Do keep in mind that if a compensator is added to the C pedal, if engaged alone, the 6th string will be raised in pitch slightly. That may prove annoying when voicing the C pedal alone. But consider how long a C pedal’s voicing is sustained. Usually, the C pedal is depressed quickly, and then muted promptly following that action. Who can hear its slight out-of-tune pitch? Probably no one but you. That’s why I recommend living with it (without the compensator).
Re-Tuning the Open F# Strings
- Before releasing either the A and B or the B and C pedal combinations, strum the strings (except the 2nd and the 9th). You’ll discover that the 1st and 7th strings (F#s) are not in tune with the rest of the strings. Their out-of-tune condition was explained earlier in this paper. But to refresh your memory and humor me, I explained that they are 9th tones in the E9th chord, but become 6th tones in the A6th chord (even when the B and C pedals are engaged). As such, they require a slightly different pitch in order to blend with the different chords being voiced. Therefore, you will need to choose in which chord you want them to blend with the rest of the strings. I strongly suggest that you opt for the A6th side of the tuning.
Break Time: Let’s take a break and get ready for a list of topics all steelers should know about, beginning with Hysteresis. It is a problem you may have never heard of, but can drive you crazy. So sit back and enjoy another one of my favorite tunes from one of the foremost players among us, Jay Dee Maness, as he plays his creation:
“Fat ‘n’ Sassy” by Jay Dee Maness
Now… Surprise & Congrats: You’re Done Learning to Tune Harmonically!
Let’s Celebrate: If you’re happy with the results, and you didn’t adhere to my previous demand to “Chart it,” pull out your tuner if you have one and chart all the offsets you created for your guitar’s tuning. Naturally, from that time forward, tune to those settings. If your hearing changes over time, simply make the pitch changes as needed and correct your chart. Otherwise, you should be able to say to that fellow who asks to sit behind your steel, “Hey, my guitar is perfectly tuned for me, so, don’t mess with it.” Hopefully, he will comply.
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Supplemental Topics
Hysteresis
Definition & Problem
This is a topic is related and important. The word hysteresis (pronounced histəˈrēsis) sounds like a disease, doesn’t it? It’s a word lifted from the vocabulary of metallurgy. With metal, it relates to its property to establish a slightly different density or dimension if heated, frozen, stretched or compressed. This condition isn’t a problem with the stretching of guitar strings on a pedal steel as it might seem. In pedal steel lingo, the word identifies an annoying problem of a string failing to return to its previous in-tune pitch after being raised and then lowered (or vice versa) by pedal or knee lever action. This result led builders to reason that it was “hysteresis.” Not so, but that’s as good of a title as any to identify the problem.
Almost every pedal steel has this “affliction,” but fortunately, most have so little of it as to go unnoticed. But if your guitar has this problem in excess, it is frustrating. But first, and if you wish to learn the degree of your guitar’s hysteresis, read on:
Determining Your Guitar’s Hysteresis
If you haven’t experienced hysteresis with your guitar, no problem exists for you. As mentioned, it probably does exist slightly, but fortunately not significant enough to even concern you. Just for the joy of knowing however, you can check its existence with a tuner. And because the problem for steelers seems to only be of concern with the 4th string raise, when followed by that string being lowered, I’d suggest that you test that string first. In truth, however, the bass strings on C6th copedents has this problem with many of those pitch changes, but goes unnoticed because of their low-registry voicings that don’t audibly register in pitch to most people.
To begin, observe (and log) the position of the 4th string’s pitch level when in its at-rest position (on your tuner). Follow that by engaging your C pedal or better yet, if you have the knee lever that commonly raises the 4th string a half step, engage it. Then release it and check its in-tune sound and position on your tuner (and log it). If it isn’t the same, true it by increasing its tension by adjusting the tuning key on your guitar. Next, lower the string the typical ½-tone change using your knee lever (log it too). Following this lowering process, the string may return sharp of its in-tune pitch. If it did, you need to decide if it is a problem for you or isn’t. If you were never aware of that string’s slight difference in pitch, relax and consider yourself blessed by such luck! But if you deem the problem intolerable, and have wondered what to do about it, continue reading:
To my amazement, no player has ever complained to me about having a hysteresis problem with strings other than the 4th that is raised and then lowered (or vice versa). Even the occasional lowering’s of strings 2, 5, 6 and 7, have rarely received complaints from players. It seems to be just that 4th string. Steeler’s usual response to this problem (if it exists on that string) has been to “slap” that 4th string’s knee lever (the one that raises the pitch) with their knee, which strangely enough brings it back to its proper pitch. It’s an annoyance that drives players to drink (hopefully a soft one).
The First Attempt at Correction
If your guitar does have hysteresis to the extent of being an intolerable annoyance, there are a few things you can try to correct it. The first correction effort was recommended by noted guitar builder, Paul Franklin Sr. (of Franklin Pedal Steels, but no longer in production). I was alerted to this option by Jerry Fessendon (of Fessendon Pedal Steels) and noted steelers Buck Reid and Cody Witherell, all of whom learned it from Paul Sr. Buck provided the clearest wording for the corrective process: “Always make sure your guitar is in tune in the open position. Then, simply add another rod (called a compensator) into a vacant hole of the changer that also “lowers” the offending string. Attach it to another connecting point of the same bell crank used by the main lowering rod. When activating that lower with a knee lever and discovering that the string is returning sharp of pitch, turn the added compensator’s nylon tuning nut clockwise a little at a time until the string returns to its in-tune pitch. You may have to re-tune the string at its tuning key and re-adjust the main lowering rod after the adjustment to the compensator’s rod, but you will likely succeed and it will probably stay in tune thereafter.” It is not known if this simple solution always works for every guitar brand, but it is certainly worth trying for yours!
On your guitar, another good idea is to color all of the compensator’s nylon ends with black or another paint color, so as to not accidentally adjust them, rather than the ones that actually makes adjustments to other strings’ pitch changes. Now, please read on if the initial solution to your hysteresis problem fails to correct the problem.
- I have always suspected that the cause of the problem was the lowering changer lever was somehow “dragging” the raise lever with it when the lowering process was in movement. I had once witnessed this happening, but I figured out a way to keep that raise lever from moving. If true for the hysteresis, the guitar can then be turned upside down for a close examination of that changer lever. Inserting a flat-edge screwdriver against the offending changer’s raise lever and pushing it back against its permanent stop will reveal the problem. Then, if the guitar is then returned to its upright position, the pitch of the 4th string could then be checked. If it was then found to be in its proper pitch, the cause for the hysteresis problem would then be known. Unfortunately, installing a spring to that changer lever, to give it the added pull-back, becomes a difficult problem to solve. I’ve had to do that, but oddly, never because of the hysteresis matter being discussed here.
- String misgauging could be the cause. If a higher gauge other than a .013 is used for that 4th string (E), there is a tendency for hysteresis to present itself. Why? It beats me; but true; something I discovered by accident. So, do check the 4th string’s gauge and swap it for a .013 as a test. Do this even if the string is already a .013 gauge. Some strings are fickle and don’t always return to their true pitch, perhaps because of rust accumulation or inconsistent manufacturing.
- Install precision ball-bearing nut rollers. Also an expensive option (and discussed in a separate topic that follows).
- The obvious thought comes to mind: thoroughly clean and lubricate the nut rollers. That may help, and by sheer luck might solve the problem, but not likely. If your guitar has the hysteresis problem, you’ve probably already tried that. If not, and if you ever do try to correct the problem, never put WD-40 or any other common lubricating oil on nut rollers. All such lubricants attract lint and dust, and likely exacerbate the hysteresis problem in time. WD-40 also penetrates and stains aluminum so severely that I’ve had to grind it off to remove the discoloring it causes. For lubricating, use a Teflon-based lubricant such as Tri-Flo (available at most hardware stores). In fact, Tri-Flo is good for all moving parts on your steel, since it appears to evaporate where it isn’t needed, thus not attracting dust. And finally:
Buy a keyless steel. Keyless steels limit the string length between their nut rollers and each string’s tie-off at their hold-down points (typically by an Allen-head set screw that locks the string in place). By eliminating the length of the string between the nut-roller and its tie-down, the problem is eliminated proportionately. Buying a keyless steel is an expensive solution. And for those who might be enduring hysteresis with their steels and want to consider purchasing a keyless steel, I’ve located a few builders. Check the listing of keyless guitar builders at the end of this paper.
The Technical Aspects of Hysteresis
Just for those who might want to know more about hysteresis, here goes. There are three points of tension along the length of a guitar string. They are:
- Where it is held at the changer-head (the bridge),
- Where it rides over the nut-roller, and
- Where it is attached to the shaft of a tuning-key.
When the pitch of a string is raised, the string stretches more between the changer- head and the nut-roller than between the nut roller and a tuning-key’s tie-off shaft. The strong contact between the string and the nut-roller creates resistance to the roller and the axle it turns on. That resistance slightly restricts its return to its original position. Obviously, the result will be an out-of-tune string if that roller doesn’t return to its original resting position. Polishing the axle’s shaft may also solve the problem, but not likely.
Having nut rollers that are large (about ½”) in diameter, and with their axle’s diameters being 1/16” or less, are preferred. These dimensions decrease the nut-roller-to-axle contact surface, thus reducing (percentage-wise) the odds for turning-surface resistance between them. These dimensions seem to result in a nut roller’s more accurate return to its original position. Additionally and unfortunately, most nut rollers are made of stainless steel, being so hard as to permit string-slippage over them, rather than encouraging the roller’s movement. Perhaps these builders believed that the harder the surface of nut rollers, the more sustain of the strings. Be aware that nut-roller sustain is virtually negated once you place your tone bar on the strings. When nut rollers are made of brass or aluminum, being softer than stainless steel, a steel string passing over them will grip better, promoting better nut-to-roller bonding and better rotation.
All nut rollers are grooved for maintaining proper string-separation between them, as well as guiding the strings. I have observed stainless nut rollers with roughed up grooves, apparently done so as to enhance their adherence to the strings passing over them. I applaud those builders, but still wish they had made their rollers out of brass or aluminum. Other than a builder’s intended “chafing” of the grooves, nut rollers should have axle rods made of polished stainless steel to reduce friction and drag between their contact-surfaces and the rollers themselves. Needless to say, the milled slots in their holders (called nut-blocks) should have very close clearances while still permitting their free rotation, and be so precise as to prevent lateral vibration, one of the main causes of string “buzz” (covered later). Rollers with gauged grooves (to match a string’s gauge) will also enhance more accurate rotation, but few manufacturers provide them, because if a string gauge is changed, its proper groove-fit is defeated.
Some builders believe that aluminum nut rollers reduce string-sustain. It made sense to me once, so I replaced all the aluminum rollers with ones made of steel, and nicely grooved to maintain proper separation. Unfortunately, it changed the guitar’s tone and reduced string-sustain dramatically. I put the original aluminum rollers back on and my steel’s good tone and sustain returned. This experience doesn’t prove that I’m right, but I thought I’d share it.
Ball Bearing Nut Rollers as a Solution
If you can find replacement ball bearing nut rollers for existing guitars, they will be very costly. They would need to have the proper width and diameter to fit your guitar and be grooved (for holding the string in place). The MSA Company found them too expensive to offer. Why? There are a couple of problems machining ball bearing nut rollers:
- When installing the bearings inside the rollers, a groove is required to be cut in the rollers’ outer round surface for guiding the string as it passes over each roller. Trying to mill that groove with a bearing inside it, typically results in destroying the bearing;
- Drilling a hole in the bearing to accept the axle to support it in the nut-block, too often also results in destroying the fragile bearing or the sleeve that holds the bearing. However, but amazingly, a noted repairman, Larry Petree, in Bakersfield, California managed to mill and install them on about a dozen steels, all with very positive results. Unfortunately, Larry passed away during the course of preparing this paper.
Break Time: Take a moment (but you can keep reading) while the great John Hughey entertains you with “Deep Water”.
“Deep Water” by John Hughey
A Steel That Didn’t Have Hysteresis
I once did some repairs on a Rus-Ler pedal steel. It was actually then that I discovered that ball bearing nut rollers corrected the hysteresis problem. I promptly called my friends at MSA and told them about my discovery. They proceeded to obtain some small precision bearings and managed to mill a string-guide groove in them. They installed them on a couple of their guitars. Those ball-bearing rollers eliminated the hysteresis. MSA later advised that providing those bearings on their guitars was simply cost-prohibitive, so that solution was shelved. Besides, only a very few of their guitars ever had hysteresis.
The following are a couple of pictures of one steel built by Harry Russell many years ago.
Harry is said to have worked at Zane Beck’s shop for a time before he chose to embark on building his own instruments. That likely explains why his guitars were patterned after the ZB brand. He only made a few guitars during his building career. The pictures provided here are of one of his constructions, and it appears to be to be more dramatic in its design than were Zane’s instruments. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to obtain a photo of the guitar’s underside.
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String Buzz
This is another topic I feel a need to discuss, “string buzz.” Its sound leads you to believe that something is caught under a string at the bridge or nut that is causing a strange vibration. I’ve occasionally discovered it to be the presence of a small burr or groove on the changer’s aluminum bridge-piece. The groove is typically created by the string’s movement during the changer’s slight rotation at the bridge. If you’ve had this occur, the easiest fix if you’re lucky, is to loosen the string a bit and rub it side-to-side over the burr or groove. This abrasive movement will resurface the top of the changer’s bridge piece (if aluminum) and possibly eliminate the buzz. You can also do it properly however, by moving the string out of the way, then use 400-grit (or finer) sandpaper to further smooth the surface. Either approach succeeds sometimes. However, at other times the buzz is caused by one of a number of things. Here are some, with suggested solutions in the order of the causes I’ve discovered when repairing steels:
- Do try moving the string side to side over the bridge as I just mentioned, even if you don’t see a burr or a groove.
- Decide to replace the string with a new one (strings are not always consistent in their diameter throughout their length between the nut roller and the bridge). Simply replacing the offending string has oftentimes solved the problem.
- Press the sharp edge of a very thin-bladed knife between the nut-roller and its mounting- slot. Pick the string. If the buzz is eliminated, it means that there is excessive space between the nut-roller and its milled side-supports. That excessive width permits the roller to vibrate side-to-side when the string is picked. One way (and the cheapest) for reducing that space is to use a pointed set-punch to slightly dent (and thus expand) the shoulder of the tuner-block’s milled slot that holds the nut-roller. In doing so, my usual bad luck has been to expand those side supports too much and the roller will then not rotate at all. That requires the removal of the nut-roller and file down those expanded metal shoulders that I hit to hard with the punch. If you are as unlucky as I’ve been, you will have filed too much, have to re-punch it (again too much, likely) and learn the sad meaning of ad infinitum. Granted, this can become a seemingly never-ending and frustrating procedure. But, if you’re lucky and don’t over-expand the shoulder, you will succeed. But, discovering that the culprit is the excessive spacing of the slots of the nut roller’s block, you have at least identified the problem’s cause. In my case, I always continued the process and eventually succeeded in eliminating the buzz.
- Some players have reported using a simple drop of lubricant on both sides of the offending nut roller, but that doesn’t usually work (and you know my opposition to using oil on a pedal steel)! And don’t forget to keep the nut rollers clean. Time and usage may have resulted in the accumulation of dust that will impede the required movements. Also, always cover your guitar when not playing it, which reduces the dust accumulation! And, rub the perspiration salt off the strings that you left on them while playing! Once its nickel plating is gone, a string begins to rust.
- Loosen the string at the tuning-key, sufficiently to rotate the nut roller several times while making certain that the roller does not return to the same spot where it was in the beginning. Return the string to pitch. This sounds absurd I know, but sometimes it works!
- Observe the pattern of the string’s windings on the tuning-key’s shaft. Loosen the string to the point that it is about to come off of the tuning-key’s shaft, then rewind it to the string’s proper pitch, but wind it in a different pattern. You might want to combine the nut rotation with this procedure. Hey, what do you have to lose?
- Unwind the string and then rewind it in the opposite direction (going under the tuning key shaft rather than over the top of its shaft). This procedure will provide additional downward pressure on the nut roller, causing more pressure and adherence of the string to its grooved surface. It just might work, but it means always turning that tuning key in the opposite direction. Sometimes that solution is more annoying than the problem!
- I once repaired a Fender 400 with nearly every string having the buzz. After trying all of the afore-mentioned “solutions,” replacement of the roller nut and nut block was tried. I was able to secure a replacement that was of a later vintage than the one on the guitar I was repairing. The later model was identical in its dimensions, except the rollers were made of “raw” steel with beveled side-edges. The earlier model rollers were chrome-plated and with right-angled sides. I concluded that Fender had likely discovered that their earlier chrome-plated rollers created the buzz, so replaced them with plain steel. The roller’s edges were likely beveled to reduce the side-to-side friction against the nut block’s vertical sides, thus impeding the roller’s movements. The later model nut roller corrected the problem.
- You’re probably wondering, “Why not just insert a small washer between the offending rollers on the side of its holding-cradle if the problem is a vibrating roller?” Good luck; try to find a washer with the proper diameter, being thin enough to slip between the roller and the too-wide slot where the rollers rest. Such washers don’t seem to exist, and if you found something close to fitting, you would probably have to file the nut block’s side-supports anyway to get it inserted. Plus, you would likely over-file! That could then result in the “ad infinitum” situation previously mentioned. You would likely give up and deliver the Hindenburg blimp reporter’s crash disaster scream, “Oh the humanity!” Never heard of this? Google it!
If all of my suggestions fail and you ultimately discover causes other than those that I’ve mentioned, and hopefully solutions, please share them with me and I’ll add them here.
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That Irritating Amp Hum
Here is another added topic that I’ll probably never discuss unless I do it here. The problem is often referred to as “AC hum,” “white noise,” “capacitor hum” or more likely, “lack-of-ground” hum. There are several approaches to discovering its origin. Here are some solutions that might eliminate the problem for you. Sometimes each action succeeds and at other times none will, thus requiring the services of an amp repairman (probably to replace aging capacitors). But try these:
- Plug another instrument into your amp. If the hum isn’t present, you know it is one or the other of the following:
- Turn the volume up high on your guitar and lightly touch as many of the metal parts at their different locations. If you get a static “ticking” sound from your amp at any of those places, it means that that metal part isn’t grounded. This is usually an easy fix if you can figure out a way to connect that ticking metal piece to another metal part that is grounded. This is often achieved by linking a piece of wire from the ungrounded part to the grounded one. Hopefully you can hide that wire. If not, it becomes an eyesore.
- Be sure to also touch the pickup itself (on the exposed magnets if they are present) or other metal covering if present). If you get that “ticking” noise there, try unsoldering the wires from it and reversing them on the guitar’s output jack. If one wire has been designated as the ground lead, it will usually have a braided wire for soldering it to the ground lug on your guitar’s output jack. However, it usually doesn’t matter which pickup wire is selected as the ground wire. Either wire coming from a pickup works just as well as the other one for the ground or the lead.
- Some pickups receive a final metal foil-wrap upon the completion of the winding process. It’s unlikely that you pickup has that wrap, but if so, it may not be properly shielded because the foil shield has broken the connection between it and the pickup’s coil, or it has no connection at all! You have no way of knowing that, so the only way to find out may be to replace the pickup. But do try everything else before doing that (unless you never liked its tone anyway)!
- Plug your guitar directly into your amp (thus bypassing your foot volume pedal). If that eliminates the hum, your problem is likely something not grounded inside your volume pedal. If so, and with the volume fully on, you should get a “ticking” noise when you touch the volume pedal’s metal frame (or metal shell). Determine where the break is between one or both input and output jacks and the pedal’s frame, then re-solder it.
- Maybe it’s your strip cord. Use the longest strip cord you can find and bypass the foot pedal, then move your guitar as far away from your amp as possible. If that works (or doesn’t!) it could still be your strip cord. The one you’ve been using may not be shielded properly and you need to try a different cable. A braided (woven) shield-wire is best when selecting a cable. However, one tiny thread of wire from a braided shield-wire might be touching the positive electrode of the cord’s plug. It can be enough contact to cause the hum, but not enough to ground-out the signal. I discovered that once, so it is a very rare occurrence.
- If you are positioning your guitar under fluorescent lights, move the guitar and amp to another location. If the hum disappears, you then know the cause. If your home is located near radio towers and/or AC electric transmitting facilities, this may be a problem that you’ll have to endure. I also had amp hum when playing at military bases where massive radio waves are often produced. If so, just stop accepting gigs at that base. Sure!
- Try another amp with your guitar. If the hum is not present, you have an amp-grounding problem and will surely need an amp technician to determine the cause and eliminate it. Most often that technician will discover aged capacitors that have deteriorated over time. The tech will replace them (or find other causes).
- Your home (particularly older ones) may be ungrounded, or have some of their AC outlets wired incorrectly. For the latter, you can obtain a circuit tester at most hardware stores that will reveal if this is a problem. Just insert the tester into all of the electrical outlets. If any outlet is not properly wired, the tester will reveal it. For correcting this problem, unless you feel competent enough to do it, you’ll need a qualified electrician to confirm if that situation is the cause. However, it is a good idea to correct it anyway, regardless of your hum problem. Please let me know if there are other solutions. I’ll add them here.
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Additional Causes of Tuning Problems
In addition to cabinet-drop, during my years of repairing and restoring steels, I’ve also
discovered other subtle conditions that impact achieving an in-tune sound. They include, but not limited to these:
- If a changer’s fulcrum pieces are not individually supported, their axles will sway. Even if those axles are ½” in diameter and made of hardened tool-steel, when unsupported between each of the changer’s fulcrum pieces, they will sag in the middle due to the stress previously mentioned. Some changer head axles will sway so much that you can see this condition if you view it looking down the strings from the tuning key end of the cabinet.
- Nut rollers will often not rotate accurately if their diameters are too small (less than ⅜”), causing hysteresis. But then, too little tolerance between nut rollers and their milled supports will lead to their failure to rotate fully if just a small amount of dust invades their side supports. And furthermore, if the clearance is excessive, string-buzz may occur.
- Tuning keys can slip slightly with each pitch-change if they aren’t mounted solidly or their gears are worn. Granted, this is rare, but I’m suspicious when I discover a dead spot while turning a tuning key, when there is no tightening or loosening of the string. Note: Periodically check the small (top-side) screw that holds the key’s tuning handle in place. Keep that screw just taut, since if too tight the key becomes difficult to turn. But if too loose, another “dead spot” will be created when turning the tuning key’s handle.
- I can’t cover every potential problem. Even identical brands of pedal steels, machined to exacting specifications, and perhaps built back-to-back, will reveal stress in uniquely different ways.
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About Those Nights
Of interest, is a topic in an interview I did with Bud Carter (now deceased). Bud had many accomplishments in his long history with the steel guitar: Co-designer of MSA, MCI, EMCI and Carter pedal steels, and creator of the famous “Carter changer, and, a Hall of Famer.” His changer design has been copied by most modern pedal steel builders. Bud related doing an analysis of his “sucking-sound” nights. He recorded several of those back-to-back “good- and bad-playing gigs. Upon listening to them later, he concluded that there was no difference in his sound. He then chalked it up to the variables of how his mood and disposition happened to be on specific nights, as opposed to changes in his equipment. He was likely correct, but I prefer to blame it on “steel gremlins.” We all know how merciless they can be!
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A Word About New Strings
To avoid a lot of re-tuning after installing new strings, other than the E9th’s 1st, 3rd and 4th strings (which are too thin to risk breaking), pull on the other new strings to the point of nearly breaking them after you feel they are at their proper pitch. Do this several times. Retuning will surely be required on all of them, but you will eliminate a lot more re-tuning later on if you remove as much of their stretching at the outset. But do prepare yourself for retuning occasionally even after several aggressive hand-pulling exercises with them. And when tuning, always end up bringing a string “up” to its desired pitch, not “down” to pitch. Why? Tuning key gears have a tendency to “relax” if their proper pitch is stopped on the downturn, rather than on the up-turn and, it seems they tend to do their relaxing at the most inconvenient times when playing! But maybe it’s those blasted gremlins that I spoke of!
But wait; it’s time for another musical break. Continue reading, but give a listen to the great Curly Chalker play “Watch What Happens”.
“Watch What Happens” by Curly Chalker
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Neck Length, Strings, Pickups & Amplification
Neck Length: I just thought of this, so humor me with your patience. It’s a quick read:The neck length of all guitars and other stringed instruments is measured between their strings’ most important touching point (called the nut), with the other end being the bridge (typically the changer’s fulcrum head). Most pedal steels have neck lengths of 24 inches. Why? It beats me, but I suspect there is a good reason that most steel builders have chosen that length. Lap steels usually have neck lengths designed to facilitate bar slants, as mentioned, up to 26 inches or more. Also for those bar slants, lap steels have wider widths between strings and usually not diverging toward their nuts as pedal steels do.
Strings: And what about strings? Let me drone on (My last stupid pun, I promise.) In the days of yore, strings for the crude musical instruments created back then were made of dried animal guts (fortunately emptied!). In fact, that term is still referenced to this day, as in “gut” or “cat- gut” strings for acoustic guitars, primarily used by folk music groups. Fortunately, animal muscle sinew and gut tissue was replaced by synthetic materials (nylon, etc.) in 1951. That replacement material provided more consistent vibrations, but still with insufficient sustain similar to what animal guts provided. And, forget about creating harmonics from them.
Pickups: Finally, a special pickup (called a transducer) was created (1928) for acoustic guitars. It amplified the resonating sound from guitar cabinets (not the strings), such cabinets becoming known as “sound boxes,” a title still used today when referring to acoustic guitar cabinets.
Amplification: A far-bigger achievement was how some inventor(s) figured out a way to build an electronic device (dubbed an “amplifier”) that managed to capture and convert that electric current into sound waves, and then analyze those sound waves to produce the nearly identical sound that a musical instrument makes. Enormously amazing! However, that wasn’t all. Then someone had to figure out a way to accurately interpret those electric sound waves and direct them to a speaker, which, fortunately, had been invented in Germany in 1861. All of this is too complicated to even think about. But we gotta love the result.
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The Mystery Tunes & Stories
No. 1: Do you remember that I promised to tell the story of Buddy Charleton’s creation of his tune, “Almost To Tulsa?” In an interview I had with him in 1974 he said the melody came to him in a dream. I later read his more detailed recollection of it: “While travelling to a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours, our bus broke down, as it often did. We all had to divide up into several cars, with most of us sleeping. I was driving one of the cars and kept nodding off, leading to my belief that my mind was nearly in a dream state. To keep awake I began humming a tune that was rolling around in my head. Because the melody was so strange, it apparently kept me from completely falling asleep. I liked it, so I kept reworking it over and over in my mind, trying to be certain I could remember it. When we got back to Nashville I tried and succeeded in recreating it on my steel. Even though I felt I remembered it, it took several weeks to finish it to my satisfaction. It is ironic that other players mention this tune as being my defining instrumental contribution to the steel guitar.”
No. 2: Remember the untitled tune and its secret instrumentalist I mentioned on page 11? That was Tom Brumley performing our National Anthem. Who would have thunk it? If you still can’t believe it’s the “Star Spangled Banner,” click below for the full version. This example reveals what can be done by playing what you prefer within the chord pattern of a song, rather than playing the melody itself! Most will call it jazz. We used to call it “hokum.” Here is Tom’s full version.
“The Mystery Tune” by Tom Brumley
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Sign Off
That’s it. I commend you for your patience and perseverance in reading this. I hope I’ve succeeded in expanding your knowledge of the instrument and made the reading a bit less tiresome with my “pathetic attempts at humor” as mentioned in the paper’s Introduction. If you disagree or find errors with something I’ve written, please alert me so I can consider it, and probably correct what’s written. I also hope you will return to page 10 for the “fun-read” all the other topics you missed along the way back to here.
Now, continue reading and view the names of all those who helped in reviewing and critiquing this paper. And while you do, be entertained by Bobby Black’s rendition of Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom”.
“Philadelphia Freedom” by Bobby Black
Hey, don’t stop reading just yet. Review the credits and applaud the many notable steelers who helped me out with this paper, then listen (at the very end) to the amazing steeler who proved to the world that he and our instrument were capable of the rapid picking necessary for playing fiddle tunes. Doug Jernigan plays “Orange Blossom Special” to wrap up this whole dissertation.
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Musical Credits
Note: All of the recorded tunes mentioned in this paper are out of print, but can likely be found in used form by searching the Internet.
- “Almost To Tulsa” by Buddy Charleton, from the album by the same title. Steel Guitar Record Club #6.
- “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” by Sonny Garrish from the album “Country Soul Stew.” Steel Guitar Record Club No. 7.
- “Release Me” by Hal Rugg, from the album, “Finally” on Groovehouse Records.
- The “Mystery Tune,” The Star Spangled Banner, by Tom Brumley.
- “Steel Guitar Rag” by Buddy Charleton and Leon Rhodes, from the album titled, “Almost To Tulsa.” Steel Guitar Record Club #6.
- “Slowly,” by Webb Pierce, with steel backup by Bud Isaacs. Originally released on Decca Records, but available on numerous other album releases by Webb Pierce.
- “Sidewalkin’” by Sonny Garrish, from the album, Country Soul Stew.” Steel Guitar Record Club No. 7.
- “I Don’t Believe I’ll Fall in Love Today” by Jeff Newman. From the album titled “Once In a Lifetime.” Jeffran Music.
- “Bells of St. Mary’s” by Jerry Byrd, from the album “Satin Strings of Steel.” Monument Records SLP18033.
- “I’ll See You in My Dreams” by Bobby Garrett from the album “Thumbs Up.” PSG Products
- “Fat ‘n’ Sassy” by Jay Dee Manees, from the album titled “Pacific Steel Company.” Pacific Arts Records 111.
- “Deep Water” by John Hughey, from the album titled “On and Off Stage.” Midland Records MD-15.
- “Watch What Happens” by Curly Chalker. Steel Guitar Record Club #12
- “Star Spangled Banner” by Tom Brumley, from the album titled “The Light Crust Doughboys Sessions, Vol. 1, Instrumentals!
- “Philadelphia Freedom,” by Bobby Black, from the album “Honky Cat,” Steel Guitar Magazine’s only recording venture.
- “Orange Blossom Special” by Doug Jernigan, from the album Uptown to Country, Emmons Guitar Company, ELP 1002
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The Editing Team
The following steel guitarists edited this paper. These professionals were proficient in one or more of the following disciplines: a pro player, a recording artist, a builder, a writer, an amp repairman, an academician, a steel guitar instructor and/or a grammarian. All are more knowledgeable in their specialties than I’ll ever be. In this endeavor I asked them to be critical and challenge anything I wrote that they disagreed with. They proved to be what I was seeking, and provided focused input. Their thoughtful contributions cannot be overstated. Three need to be singled out for their endurance and contributions: Gene Vance, John McClung and Craig Confer. I can’t thank them enough and everyone else in this group. …Tom
Larry Addington – Ashland, Oregon
Ken Byng – Bitterne, Southampton, England
Al Brisco – Colborne, Ontario, Canada
Craig Confer – White Lake, Michigan
Guy Cundell PhD. – Wayville, South Australia
Ken Fox – Nashville, Georgia
Joe Goldmark – San Francisco, California
Jack Kane – Amboy, Washington
Bob Lee – Cloverdale, California
Brian Lee – Seattle, Washington
John McClung – Olympia, Washington
David Mudgett – State College, Pennsylvania
Roger Phelps –Piedmont, California
Casey Saulpaugh – Asheville, North Carolina
Herb Steiner – Spicewood, Texas
Gene Vance – Kerrville, Texas
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The Reviewers
Susan Alcorn – Albuquerque, New Mexico – Pro-Player – Recording Artist
George Biner – Los Angeles, California–Steel player – Electrical Engineer – Audio Technician
Bobby Black – Manteca, California – Pro- Player – Recording Artist – Hall of Famer
Marty Broussard – Broussard, Louisiana – Pro Player
Patrick Brenner – Antioch, Illinois – Pro Player – Instructor –Repair Tech
Carl Dixon – Berkeley Lake, Georgia – Player – Steel Historian
Jeff Ferrasci – Concord, California – Pro Player
Jerry Houston – Stockton, California – Pro Player
Sarah Jory – Nottingham, England – Pro Player – Recording Artist
Brian Lee – Seattle, Washington –Player – Proof Reader Extraordinaire
Ariel Agenor Lobos – Buenos Aires, Argentina –Pro Player – Recording Artist
Jay Dee Maness – North Hills, California – Pro Player – Recording Artist – Hall of Famer
John Norris – Executive, Peterson Strobe Tuners – Player
Larry Petree – Bakersfield, California – Repairman – Pro Player
Jerry Pike – Santa Cruz, California – Educator – Grammarian – Player
Francesco Porcu – Sorso, Italy – Player
Buck Reid – Nashville, Tennessee – Pro-player – Recording Artist
Jim Reynolds – Franklin, Pennsylvania – Player – Jeffran Course Preserver
Ross Shafer – Petaluma, California – Player – Builder (Sierra Steels)
Brian Spratt – Tulsa, Oklahoma – Player – “Computer Guru”
Tommy White – Hendersonville, Tennessee – Recording Artist – Hall of Famer
Greg Wood – El Cajon, California – Player
Jack Stoner – New Port Richey, Florida – Pro Player – Recording Engineer – Amp Tech
David Stroud – Canyon, Texas – Player
Doug Taylor – Player, Computer Tech – Shelbyville, Kentucky
Travis Toy – Nashville, Tennessee – Pro Player – Recording Artist – Touring Instructor
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Keyless Steel Manufacturers
BMI – 706 Rodeo Arena Rd., Scranton, AR72863 – don@beckmusicalinstruments.com
Excel – 8-80-13 Sunagowa-cho, Tachikawa-City, Tokyo 190-0013 – https://www.fuzzypsg.com – info@fuzzypsg.com
GFI –20 Green Ridge Loop, Marshfield, MO 65706 – https://www.gfimusicalproducts.com – info@gfirmusicalproducts.com
On-Trak – P.O. Box 398 (101 Rodney Avenue), Walnut, IL 61376 – prairiewindmusic@gmail.com
Schild Steel – Huseli 353A, Ch-3763 Darstetten, Switzerland – http://schildsteel.com – peter@schildsteel.com
Sierra – P. O. Box 681, Mollala, OR 97038 – http://sierrasteels.com – sierrasteelsinfo@gmail.com
WBS – Burgermeisterstrabe 4D-97848, Rechtenbach, Germany – https://www.wbssteelguitars.com – wbsteel@gmail.com
Williams – 20230 Vintage Drive, Oak Grove, MN 55303 – https://www.williamsguitarcompany.com –billrudolph@williamsguitarcompany.com
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Resources & References
Directions: For accessing the links to articles and websites, press and hold your computer keyboard’s control key (Ctrl), then place your mouse’s cursor over those listings, then click (press) the mouse’s left button selection.
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The End
But continue by celebrating a performance that no one could believe could be accomplished by a steel guitarist: Doug Jernigan plays the fiddle tune, “Orange Blossom Special”.
“Orange Blossom Special” by Doug Jerningan
And hey, look for more FREE topics on my website later on. I have many in the works. …Tom
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