bed, get, men..

What's the correct pronunciation of /e/ in these words?

I'm confused, according to most dictionaries it's [e], to others it's [E], wich is what I think to hear when natives speak..

In standard British and American English, that vowel ranges from mid [e̞] to open-mid [ɛ]. Close-mid [e] is used in Australian English, and it's the traditional (i.e. old-fashioned) transcription for RP, but it would sound off to most British and Americans.

Thanks :)

I pronounce the first two as /E/ but the third as /I/.

<<I pronounce the first two as /E/ but the third as /I/. >>

Do you pronounce "men" the same as "pen" and perhaps even "pin"?

(to me the vowel in "men" is the same as in "met")

It's open E (think open Italian/French/Portuguese E) in California and Canada, it's even more open before dark L: myself, yellow (almost like:
mysalf, yallow).

There's a variant of GET spelled GIT:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/git

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
git (gĭt) Pronunciation Key
v. Chiefly New England, Midland U.S., & Southern U.S.
Variant of get.

n. Chiefly British Slang
Variant of get.

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Yes, I'm from Texas so I pronounce pin and pen the same way.

To me, 'men' is the same as the first syllable of 'minimum.' And 'get' has the same vowel sound. But 'bed' is different--same as 'bet' and 'let'.

That never seemed strange until now.

(I'm from coastal South Carolina, but don't really have a typical Southern or Charleston accent. Southerners say I have no accent and "ferners" say I sometimes have a slight twinge).

funny...
I pronounce them /bEd/ /gEt/ and /mEn/

I'm from North Carolina

to me, pen /pEn/ and pin /pIn/ do not rhyme!

Thom is right, I'm wrong. I pronounce "bed" with an /E/ and /I/ for "get" and "men."

Mine all have the same vowel [E]. It is the sound you would hear in the standard American pronunciation of the word "met".

I myself also have the same vowel phonemes in "bed" /bɜd/, "get" /gɜt/, and "men" /mɜn/, but I have clearly different vowels in realized "bed" [bɜ̟ːd̥], "get" [gɜ̟ʔ], and "men" [mɜ̟̃ːn]. Note that the vowels I have in such are more central than the classical case of such, due to such being centralized as a result of the NCVS.

<<I'm confused, according to most dictionaries it's [e], to others it's [E]>>

Dictionaries don't use accurate transcriptions.