6-string lap steel open E ?

James Turner · Post by **James Turner** » 12 Sep 2011 3:57 pm

I'm fixin' to start playing lap steel for an "old timey" style country band. They want that "Hank Sr." sound. I'm gonna use my National Dynamic tuned to open E. My question is... What gauge strings would work best to help me get that old Hank sound? Any and all input would be helpful.

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 12 Sep 2011 4:50 pm

Get a copy of "Your Cheatin' Heart", the Don Helms
book done by Scotty.
It has tabs for the most popular songs.
You can buy it here on the Forum.
Don's tuning and string gauges are given in the book:
1. G# .010
2. E .014
3. C# .017
4. B .020
5. G# .024
6. E .030
7. C# .038
8 A .042

Strings 6,7,8, are wound. The others are plain.
As far as I know (which may be incorrect) Don did not use the last two strings on the Hank Williams
recordings.
You only need six strings for "the sound."

James Turner · Post by **James Turner** » 13 Sep 2011 1:33 pm

thank you. I will try it.

jim

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 13 Sep 2011 9:22 pm

I just put that tuning on my 1948 Gibson Century 6 (which uses the same controls and a pickup similar to Don's Console Grande- I call mine the "Console Poquito"

It works great but I did use a wound .024 for the 5th string.

Steve Ahola

Ric Nelson · Post by **Ric Nelson** » 16 Sep 2011 7:08 pm

E .014
B .018
G# .024
E. 026
B .038
E .050

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 17 Sep 2011 12:25 pm

In another thread I found a scan of a note that Don wrote up in 2003 spelling out the tunings and gauges he used to play "with Hank Williams, Ray Price, Patsy Cline and everything that you heard me on.":

Code: Select all

E6th
--------
G#  .011
E   .015
C#  .018
B   .022
G#  .026
E   .034w
C#  .038w
A   .044W

B11th
----------
E   .015   11th
C#  .018   9th
A   .022   b7th 
F#  .030w  5th
D#  .034w  3rd
B   .040w  root
A   .044w  b7th
F#  .056w  5th

Don labeled the 2nd tuning as being B13th. There is no G# which would be the 6th or 13th so I retitled it "B11th". He also spelled the 5th string as being an Eb, which I changed to D# to match the B dominant scale.

Steve

Daniel Policarpo · Post by **Daniel Policarpo** » 24 Sep 2011 3:56 am

I use a C6 for the Hank Williams stuff, as well as amost everything else. I went through a few years of exploring and just settled on C6 since there are a lot more transcriptions of songs in this tuning(like Hank Sr. stuff) and it is pretty straight forward.

Steve Ahola · Post by **Steve Ahola** » 24 Sep 2011 5:56 pm

The E6th tuning that Don Helms used was essentially the same as C6th but moved up 4 frets (looking at the top 6 strings the intervals are exactly the same). So you might want to play some of the higher passages an octave lower if you are tuned to C6th.

For a 6 string lap steel I think the E6th tuning is pitched too high unless you are specifically trying to copy Don. IMO C6th is pitched in a more useful range. And there were other steel players on Hank's recordings, many who were using the C6th tuning.

Steve

Morgan Scoggins · Post by **Morgan Scoggins** » 24 Sep 2011 6:30 pm

I agree with Steve about the E6 tuning being too high pitched. The G# open first string has a high thin sound that is a little over the top for me. A few years ago, I learned some of Hank Sr's songs and I now play them all in B6 tuning (D# B G# F# D# B). The B6 tuning is a fifth lower than E6 so i can play all of Hank's tunes using the same fret positions as E6 only the key is changed and the overall sound is a lot more mellow and closer to the mid range of a piano keyboard.