The first time I heard this term I thought it was great and have been using it ever since. For those of you who still have your copies of the old Steel Guitar World Magazine, go back to Issue #14, from April of 1994. On page 10 there is an article by Helmut Gragger, from Austria. In the section on tuning he talks about the merits of tuning ET or "straight to 440 on the tuner". He goes on to say, "Devotees of the 'plus minus so-and-so from 440 method' will have their hair raised in horror now. In misunderstanding (or, in fact, ignorance) of the theory they call their method "tempered', but, to have this crystal clear, it can be called 'tampered' at best. It is an inbetween mixture of both worlds that obeys to no other proven law than fiddling, getting away with blue murder."

I think "blue murder" is a bit harsh, but I do believe that "tampered" tuning is a great way to describe the method by which many of us tune our guitars.

I doubt that a true ET or JI exists on steel. Or anywhere else. David Doggett's take is that everybody starts with one or the other and tampers with it.
I've tampered with the equal temperament on pianos, so it's really not quite equal anymore, but to me, better (favors strong 5ths; musicians like that). When it comes to thirds, what's a tuppence among friends?

No fresh stick here, but everybody's looking for a fresh schtick.
Nothing new under the sun, just refinement.

[This message was edited by Charlie McDonald on 31 July 2005 at 03:25 AM.]

I can't reveal my secret solution without the danger of setting off YET ANOTHER FRIGGING TUNING ARGUMENT, but suffice it to say I have modified the "Meantone Temperament Tuning" into the "Really, Really Foul-Tempered Tuning."

(Eric - why would you want to roast a hornet's nest? They're not like marshmallows, you know.)

[This message was edited by David Mason on 31 July 2005 at 05:33 AM.]

These are not to be confused with steel guitar tunings that can be played in all keys.
The current path suggests a compromise between ET and JI. Once you get into arcane methods, you can drive yourself bonkers. No matter what the instrument.

quote:

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"He who knows does not speak,
He who speaks does not know,
And I go round in circles" - George Harrison (Circles)

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quote:

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"He who knows does not speak,
He who speaks does not know." --Lao Tzu

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

That would be teeyumperd.

Three syllables.

I realize that I could do a search, but it's not that big of a deal to me. Thanks to anyone who answers without saying, "do a search."

[This message was edited by Tom Olson on 31 July 2005 at 10:59 AM.]

That is why I find tampered a very useful term when discussing the tuning of pedal steel, a unique case among instruments.

To reiterate David's point, and make it a question, is there anyone who tunes strictly JI or ET, without tampering?

That said, I think I'll follow Joey, George Harrison, and Lao Tzu's observation, and bow out, as I don't know, but I'm learning.

[This message was edited by Charlie McDonald on 31 July 2005 at 02:35 PM.]

The use of chimes or harmonics to tune a steel seems to be just a part of tuning by ear. Ear tuning is the traditional way to tune a steel guitar, and derives from the time before there were handheld chromatic tuners. Ear tuning is probably usually close to JI. But many ear tuners have recognized problems with pure JI (although they may not have called it that) and so have tempered somewhere away from pure JI, but only they know where. So just watching someone tune by ear, with or without harmonics, does not tell one exactly how they are tuning. Some people can even tune almost pure ET by ear. Some of the very top steelers tune by ear (probably close to JI), and other very top steelers tune almost pure ET. So just watching how someone tunes tells one nothing about how good they will play.