Fred Treece wrote:Questions from the peanut gallery. Why the difference in the 2 F# strings? If you raise E’s to F#, which F# do you try to match? Are these questions nullified by compensators?
A good question. And the answer is a mouthful. There are at least
three F# notes on a typical E9 copedent, and it's common for them to be tuned differently (at least in any tuning system
other than ET, which not many steelers use). This is based on usage: each is tuned to work well with the most common
other strings they are played against... because they aren't all used the same way. For example, when is the last time you hit, say, the 1st string and sustained it against the 7th string? They can be tuned differently, and that's not only OK, it can help get you more in tune using the 'real world' positions we play in (versus the
theoretical world where it would be clean and easy on paper if they were all tuned the same).
Complicated issue? A little.
1) The C-pedal's F# is the easiest one to deal with. It needs to
most work with the other note raised by that pedal (the C# note on string 5). The standard in the tuning system discussed in this thread is that roots and fifths match. So, in this system, the F# you get on the C-pedal should be
-16 to match the C#.
Yes, this will put it 'out' if played against the other F#'s, but you have to prioritize, and those others are less-used in real-world playing, at least when 4C is ringing. One exception to note is that the 'out' unison lick you might get on 4C against 1 still works OK when the F#s are tuned differently... a little outage there isn't usually a problem and lets you really
hear there are 2 strings in play. As always, compromises can usually be fixed with a small bar slant if you
don't like what you hear.
2) The 7th string is the most finicky one to deal with. It's the trickiest because 1) it's often sustained in chords, where tuning 'outages' can be heard and 2) it's incorporated in
three important chord positions, one of which requires something really different for the 7th string:
* F# minor (where it's the root note. Ideally: -16, at least in the system under discussion here)
* D Major (where it's the third. Ideally -13.5... but can still work as sharp as +0)
* B Major (where it's the fifth). Ideally +0)
Compensators exist so that that string can be +0 when that's what's needed... and then -16 when
that's needed when you go to the pedals-down world. Since most guitars don't have compensators -- even though they are cheap and easy to install and fix a lot-- you have to make a compromise setting on string 7. Looking at the three chords above, the range you're dealing with is from +0, down to -16. No matter what you choose, some position is thrown under the bus.
My recommendation for string 7 (and only in this
particular tuning system): set it to
+0.
The logic: this works very well with two of those three chord positions. And the third chord is fixable with a slant:
* B Major - +0 is ideal
* D Major - it's Equal Temperament. Not ideal (not sweetened), but same as the guitar player is putting out, and even better than that if you have a few cents cabinet drop. Totally useable. Meanwhile, the +2 listed in this system may not work as well with this chord if there's little cabinet drop on the guitar - and you can't 'slant your way out of it' since it's the
middle one out of three strings in the basic triad. That's why I recommend +0 as a slightly better choice.
* The position thrown under the bus is the F#m. For this, you do a slight forward bar slant when using that position. It's ridiculously easy to nail it 'in tune' after 10 minutes of practice.
3) The 1st string is the least problematic string since it's so often used in
single-note runs, which are more forgiving to wher
ever you tune it. As far as problematic
intervals with other strings, in the open position, we're most interested in how it works with string 2 and string 5. In this example, a setting of +0 would work... but in the pedals-down world, you would want it to match string 5A at -16 (for those times you sustain string 5a against 1).
So, as with string 7, you have a range of +0 to -16 where you can tune the 1st string. Most people 'split the difference' on this one. I like
-5 for this, as listed in the tuning being discussed here. You're dealing with a slight forward bar slant with B Major, and a back-slant when playing 5A against 1.
. 
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