Need some ideas on lap steel tuning

[Frank Parish]

I'm playing lap steel one day a week and it's about half traditional country and half rock and blues so I'm thinking maybe an E7 or E6 tuning would be good for this. I use the cat can guitar from Duane Marrs on a lot of this stuff in the G tuning but want something a little fatter and more suited for the rock and blues tunes we do. What I need is some six string tunings for E6 and E7 and the string gauges. Any help would be appreciated!

[Jay Fagerlie]

Try this, the "James" tuning:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... mes+tuning

Lots of fun, great voicings, and easy to pick up.

[Chuck Christensen]

Frank, For 6 string E7th you can tune top to bottom E-B-G#-E-D-B In the 20's & 30's Dick McIntire changed the bottom 3 strings to D-B-E. For E6th 6 string I would use top to bottom E-C#-B-G#-E-C#.

[Frank Parish]

Jay I'm familiar with the Diatonic tuning and I would not attempt that one! That is great for Hawaiian stuff but I'm looking for something in the country, rock and blue modes. My old friend John Bechtel used the C Diatonic on his middle neck on his T-8 Fender for the Byrd stuff and it amazing but I don't want to learn an all new tuning like that and I don't think it would fit either.

[Mike Neer]

Frank, you can't go wrong with C6/A7. You can play anything on it.

[Frank Parish]

That's one John used to use too. I never understood that tuning but can you play rock and blues with it?

[Edward Meisse]

Frank, you can't go wrong with C6/A7. You can play anything on it.

Yes, Frank. ANYTHING!! It is an amazingly versatile tuning. The blues has definitely been done very well with it. But there are many styles of blues.