E13 Tuning

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 11 Feb 2012 8:58 am

How many use E13 instead of C6 or E9 ? Share your copedants too if you don't mind. The thread about Johnny Cox and his triple neck Zum search got me to thinking about the E13.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Tony

Stan Schober · Post by **Stan Schober** » 11 Feb 2012 11:21 am

Very interested in this myself, as I'm currently switching my S-8 Emmons P/P over to a possible E13 tuning.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 12 Feb 2012 5:36 am

Forumite Billy Tonneson uses a double neck Sierra which has a 12 string E13 on the outside and a 10 string 6th tuning on the inside. He can do E9 licks and you can't tell that C# string's in the tuning unless he wants you to.........

The late Red Rhodes used a form of E13 tuned down to Eb13 for most of his career and it was very country sounding except when he didn't want to....

Also, you could check out Zane King's set up. It's got just about everything in it........JH in Va.

Dan Burnham · Post by **Dan Burnham** » 12 Feb 2012 10:54 am

Zane Beck used e13 as well as Julian Tharpe.

Dan

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 12 Feb 2012 11:23 am

I use an E13th tuning instead of the E9th on my Emmons and Sho-Bud d-10s. I will e-mail you my chopedant. (Hard to upload a file)

This is my E 13th I developed in '69 for my first pedal steel. Prior to that I had played an 8 string version for many years on my Fender T-8.

Thanx,
Jim

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 12 Feb 2012 11:52 am

Thanks Jim . Right about Zane Beck and Zane King. Zane King just blows me away with his pickin'.

Tony

Jay Jessup · Post by **Jay Jessup** » 12 Feb 2012 6:17 pm

I started on standard E9/C6 for many years then switched to a universal tuned open to B6, then quit playing for a bunch of years and started back on standard E9/C6. I have now switched to the E6/9 (or call it E13) Zane Beck tuning with a few very minor tweaks and am absolutely sold on it for me and my way of playing. I use the Zane Beck tuning as it appears on Dan's BMI website with the addition of an extra RKL that lowers the middle B to Bb. I wouldn't recommend trying this switch if you are currently comfortable with E9/C6 or a universal and playing regularly but if you want to try something different and have some time to get comfortable with it off the stage then I think there is quite a lot to offer with this approach.

Jay Jessup · Post by **Jay Jessup** » 12 Feb 2012 6:19 pm

Geez my comment wasn't worth posting it twice, wonder what I did wrong??

Zane King · Post by **Zane King** » 14 Feb 2012 12:41 pm

Thanks Tony! I call mine E 6/9. The open tuning is indeed a 6/9 chord as defined by what I understand of music theory. The reason I prefer this is two fold: 1) since I do not use a 7th note in my open tuning I feel it is better defined as a 6/9 chord rather than an E13th. 2) Marketing - for me it just seems to be a great way of combining the C6/E9 concepts. So for me it is just too cool for school! E 6/9 RULES!!!!

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 14 Feb 2012 1:39 pm

Zane, your tuning sounds good and do you use alot of forward rolls from string 12 to 1 ?

Tony

Zane King · Post by **Zane King** » 14 Feb 2012 1:52 pm

Tony, I know God gave me a gift to play these musical bicycles! I'm thankful! Speed picking has always come easy for me. Now that said, I'm quite confident that my tuning setup has given me space that otherwise is not on a lot of tuning setups. I call it an advantage. I've been trying to share these secrets for a couple of years now. There have been a few folks who have started using this complete tuning setup of mine. Particularly I had a fellow who had tried to play for several years on standard E9. He wrote and told me that he had almost quit trying and then tried my setup. He said it was like turning a light on in a dark room. He said his playing has completely come to life. I guess it will work for some. It sure does for me! I appreciate you brother!

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 14 Feb 2012 1:58 pm

Zane, I appreciate you and all that you're doing for the Lord and all of us steel players.

Tony

Zane King · Post by **Zane King** » 14 Feb 2012 2:00 pm

Check out the preview I put up today in Steel On The Web. It's a tune from my new cd called THey'll Never Take Her Love From Me.

Kind regards,
Zane

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 14 Feb 2012 6:40 pm

I did Zane, as I stated on that thread, country as cornbread. Great stuff.

Tony

Don Zeitler · Post by **Don Zeitler** » 14 Feb 2012 9:16 pm

Howdy, I don't post very often but I sure do learn a lot from this forum. I've been contemplating changing one of my steels to E13. I use it for lap steel and dobro all the time and I think it might be a nicer tuning for me as far as pedal steel goes. I would be very interested in other peoples copedent on this. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank,s Ziggie

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 17 Feb 2012 9:55 am

The E 13th I use on my T-8 Fender (since 1954) is:

h-l E C# B G# F#(or E) D(or C#) B E

Depending on the song or tune, I would change D down to C# (ex. Canadian Sunset), F# down to E (most Hawaiian).

There are several versions of the "E 13th" tuning. Experiment till you find your own.

Thanx,
Jim

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 17 Feb 2012 9:57 am

PS - for pedal steel, my 10 string version is:
l-h G# E C# B G# F# E D B E

Thanx,
Jim

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 17 Feb 2012 9:58 am

pps- that is supposed to be "h-l"

As they say in Texas: "OOPS!"

Thanx,
JIm

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 17 Feb 2012 12:34 pm

Could by tuning be classified as an E9/6 or E13th? From the top down its:

F#
C#
G#
E
B
G#
F#
E
C#
B
G#
E

.....................JH in Va.

Landon Roberson · Post by **Landon Roberson** » 17 Feb 2012 1:09 pm

Zane or Tony would this tuning be better for me at church than the standard E9 tuning I am using now and how hard would it be for me to change and learn it? Thanks, Landon.

Zane King · Post by **Zane King** » 17 Feb 2012 3:56 pm

Landon,

I believe in it. I hope you get to try it out and some point. I've got a good number of videos on the subject. Once you have a guitar with my setup on it, a private lesson or two would be the best way to get started.

Zane

Hans Penner · Post by **Hans Penner** » 17 Feb 2012 3:58 pm

Zane, will you be at the Dallas Convention.
I'd love see you and your guitar in person.

Zane King · Post by **Zane King** » 17 Feb 2012 4:00 pm

Hans,

I will be there and my guitar too! You'll get to see us both! Looking forward to it.

ZK

Alfred Ewell · Post by **Alfred Ewell** » 17 Feb 2012 5:12 pm

Jerry Hayes wrote:Could by tuning be classified as an E9/6 or E13th? From the top down its:

F#
C#
G#
E
B
B#
F#
E
C#
B
G#
E

.....................JH in Va.

Nobody has argued with you, JH. I'm restoring Julian Tharpe's S20, and I've found where he said it was E9E6 and many have said E13 was E9C6, etc. Life is short and I'll have to settle on a target. This fine steel has seen some hard time and I'm bringing it back.
From across the bay - in Cape Charles.

Don Zeitler · Post by **Don Zeitler** » 17 Feb 2012 9:36 pm

Jim I would be interested in knowing what your pedals are doing on your tuning. It looks interesting to me. I have a student GFI and a ShoBud single kneck. I wold have to figure out what I would want my pedals to do. I use E13 on lap steel and dobro with 6 stings and love the versatility I have with this tuning. Lo to hi.
DEG#BC#E
Thanks, Ziggie