Need a good blues Open E 8 string tuning. Any suggestions?

[Robbie Bossert]

Any suggestions....

[Mike Neer]

E9 is a great one.

1 E
2 B
3 G#
4 F#
5 D
6 B
7 G#
8 E

[HowardR]

I like Lonnie Bennett's Sacred Steel E7


1.....E
2.....D
3.....B
4.....G#
5.....E
6.....E
7.....B
8.....E

[Mike Neer]

Howard, should string 6 be D?

[HowardR]

Sometime ago I bought Lonnie's S8 SuperSlide and that's the way it was tuned......I liked it and so I left it on there.....I wonder if the 6th string was supposed to be a D?......I know that Sacred Steel tunings use double E's for "framming" although I suppose that's mostly for pedals.....

[HowardR]

I just looked at b0b's Sacred Steel tuning page and it lists an E7 eight string tuning with D as being the 6th string......

Thanks Mike.....


b0b's page is a good read.....

http://b0b.com/tunings/sacredsteel.html

[wt golden]

that is a pretty fun tuning with string 6 as a B as well. It gives you a power chord in the bottom for comping and all the strings up top for soloing. The unison Bs can make an interesting phase'y element for playing around with.

[Tom Gray]

A slight modification that I like a lot is a version of E13, still with the power chord on the bottom:

1. E
2. C#
3. B
4. G#
5. E
6. D
7. B
8. E

[Robbie Bossert]

Thanks guys. I'll give them all a shot. I was just going to try and extend the standard Duane,Trucks, Elmore James blues tuning and see where that went.......

RObbie

[Lonnie Bennett]

Howard you are correct. I use the double E's together even on my lap steel. gives a better power chord when stumming but also allows picking variations when leaving one of the E's ringing.

[Mike Neer]

Thanks guys. I'll give them all a shot. I was just going to try and extend the standard Duane,Trucks, Elmore James blues tuning and see where that went.......

RObbie

Robbie, you can do the Elmore James thing on the E9 tuning I mentioned--it actually works well for that--and then you have the benefit of having that big 9th chord in there. There is a lot of good stuff buried in strings 1-5 (especially using string 4 (F#)), you just have to dig around a bit.

[Hugh Holstein]

I will give E9th tuning a try as well, I'm so stuck on E7th, but I love ninth cords so it will be the first alternate when I get my second neck finished for my D8 FrankenStringmaster.

Thanks Mike!

[Mike Neer]

Here are the benefits--

On the bass strings, you have Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th--it is very easy to play riff-based stuff, especially Boogie and Rock and Roll kind of things. Think "Buddy's Boogie"

Strings 2, 3 and 4 have the same structure as the cluster of strings in C6 , just a 1/2 step down (for me strings 2,3 & 4, because I use an E first string).

There is a nice minor triad right smack in the middle--strings 4,5 & 6 give a Bmin chord. Strings 4, 5, 6 and 7 give an Abm7b5, or Bmin6.

There are many benefits to go with this tuning, but it's best if you discover them for yourself. I discovered this tuning when I was reading about Buddy Emmons' and Speedy's Bigsby tuning--they both used this E9, but had pedals. I just decided to use it without pedals.

[Robbie Bossert]

Thanks Mike. I have rehearsal on Monday. I'll give this one a shot first and let ya' know how it goes....

Thanks

[Robert Sands]

I do a lot of blues on my 8 string Super Slide and I've been using the E13 tuning already mentioned in this thread.

E
C#
B
G#
E
D
B
E

Love that 1/5 power chord on the bottom and having the seventh (D) comes in handy also.
This tuning was told to me by Steiner Gregertsen so special props to our brother for that.

[Robbie Bossert]

These sound great guys. Now, how about a good A tuning to compliment? I'm currently using Herb Remington's A6. Any other suggestions? Think Blues.......

Robbie

[Stephen Abruzzo]

Rob.....this is a great thread....I highly recommend that you make your 8 string A tuning a separate thread/topic.

[Robbie Bossert]

I have Andy Volk's Slide tuning book. I wanted to hear from a few player's that have experimented with a few of the open tunings in live blues situations. Any and all comments welcome.

Robbie

[Rick Abbott]

Well, I am having a double neck console steel built for me by a builder in Edmond, Oklahoma. After a couple years of thinking (while playing pedal steel) I think I'm going with a version of what I have with the A and B pedals down on my 12-string universal. Of course it's really the same as the AB pedals down on strings 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 of a standard PSG tuning. Fits me just fine, but is non-standard.

Low to high: C# E F# A C# E A F# on the front neck and G B D G B D on the back neck 'cause I do some dobro stuff too.

The back neck will have both electric pickup and piezo saddles for an acoustic tone with blend between the two.

[Steve Ahola]

Robbie, you can do the Elmore James thing on the E9 tuning I mentioned--it actually works well for that--and then you have the benefit of having that big 9th chord in there...

Mike:

With your E9th tuning you can always lower the F# 4th string to E to get all of the notes in the Elmore James Open E "bottleneck" tuning (and then some.) Or raise it back up to F# when you want the 9th in there for the richer harmonic possibilities. Kinda like using the middle E like training wheels on a bicycle.

After using your E9th tuning for 15 months now I decided that I needed another 8 string E tuning to fill some of the gaps. What I've come up with is a cross between the high E13th "Little Roy Wiggins" tuning and the Leon McAuliffe E13th tuning:

B-D-F#-G#-B-C#-E-G#

While I lose the two low notes of the E9th tuning, I do like having the B minor chord (B-D-F#) on the bottom strings (like I get with the 6 string version of your E9th tuning.) The intervals are almost identical to the C6th/13th tuning I've been using only raised up 4 frets (although the C13th has the root on the 4th string and my E13th doesn't.)

I first used that "hybrid" E13th tuning as the top 8 strings on my 1960 Valco Alkire 10 string and decided to give it a shot on 8 string. I never looked back- at least for me its a keeper.

But my primary E tuning is still the E9th from your tutorials. And top 6 strings of that (B-D-F#-G#-B-E) is my main E tuning on the 6 string for blues, rock, country- you name it.

Steve Ahola

[Steve Ahola]

After a couple years of thinking (while playing pedal steel) I think I'm going with a version of what I have with the A and B pedals down on my 12-string universal... Fits me just fine, but is non-standard.

Low to high: C# E F# A C# E A F# on the front neck...

Since that is an A6th chord you might want to consider adding an A on the bottom. Console steels are usually pitched lower than an E9th pedal steel (with the solid wood bodies those lower notes sound really great.) Although my current (final?) #3 8-string tuning is basically the E9th pedal steel tuning but without the 1st, 2nd, and 8th strings, and with the C# from the A pedal added as the 3rd string. Basically the same range as the tuning you spelled out so what the heck- go for it!

In any case one big advantage with lap and console steels is that they are so easy to retune compared to a pedal steel. (I couldn't begin to list all of the tunings I have gone through in the past two years on my 6, 8 and 10 string lap/console steels before finally- I hope!- settling on a few tunings that work really well for me.)

Steve Ahola