source file: m1442.txt
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 08:18:50 -0700

Subject: 10:9 and 9:8 on pedal steel

From: "Bob Lee" <quasar@wco.com>

Paul Erlich wrote:
>I had no idea that the standard pedal steel guitar had pedals that
>lowered pitches by a comma.

It's not unusual at all to add "compensator" rods to tweak the tuning of
harmony strings.  Most players don't even mention these on their tuning
charts - only the change where the name of the note changes is charted.

The most common compensator on the E9th tuning lowers the F# from 9:8 to
10:9.  It's typically attached to the pedal that raises B to C# or the one
that raises G# to A.  Since there are two F# strings, some players
compensate the high F# on one pedal and the low F# on the other.

I take a different approach.  I started by tuning the F#'s to 10:9 and
raising them to 9:8 on the lever that lowers my E's to D#.  This flavored my
playing with more 10:9's than 9:8's.  In recent years I've tempered my
tuning to get a bit closer to ET, to the point where the compensator is now
only moving the pitch about 14 cents.

    -b0b-

http://wco.com/~quasar