The Steel Guitar Forum

Anyone else experimenting with diatonic tunings? I've been playing around with this 10-string tuning: low to high: C# E F G A B C D E F A sort of modified Byrd tuning. I'm finding it can handle voicings from just about any other sort of tuning: C6, Leavitt, B11, simple 1-3-5 tonic, etc. One example:...

Does anyone use plastic fingerpicks? Are there advantages/disadvantages compared with metal ones? How do you mold them into a usable shape? What brands do you like? I'm curious.

Thanks,
Carl

Thanks, everyone, for your helpful replies. I put a D above the E on my C6 to see what it would be like, and it was too weird - I had no idea what to do with it. Any specific examples of licks or chord voicings that make good use of the string? Thanks, C.

I notice on Bobby's tunings page that in his E13 tuning, he uses an F# string on top, above the G#, which means it is out of sequence, pitch-wise. I also recall seeing someone with a D string above the E on a C6 tuning - in imitation, I guess, of the pedal steelers who replace the high G with a D. I...

I'd like to get better at blocking. I'm curious what techniques others like to use. Do lap steelers pick block at all? How many picks do you wear? How about blocking with the left hand? Is there any good instructional material on blocking techniques? A lot of what I've seen seems to target pedal ste...

Mike, I've really enjoyed playing with the Leavitt tuning. What I'm wondering is if there are materials available specifically for gaining familiarity with scales, patterns, chord voicings, etc., in that tuning. I suppose if I learned enough of the songs I would pick that up eventually, but wondered...