New Player

[Dennis Hamblin]

I just bought a lap steel, a Gretsch G5715 Electromatic. My musical history. Played guitar for nearly 50 years now, bass guitar more recently and piano. Wanted to learn the lap steel and got this guitar rather cheaply. I bought the Hal Leonard Johnny Helm's book just to get started with the basics. I do have some questions before this instrument arrives on Monday:

1. I play both the guitar and bass without a pick. I like feeling the strings and it just feels so much more comfortable to me. I don't like the fingerpicks I bought with the bar. Feels rather weird to me. Any negatives to playing this way?

2. I play on and off with a band. They play country/Americana type stuff. I have heard two things about tuning. Some said for "Classic Country" to go with C6 tuning but others have said E, G or A would work better for the modern stuff. For me, open E would seem the easiest since I played guitar in standard tuning. Would like a bit of input on that.

3. Any recommendation on some sites online that would work for my goals. I do know a guy here in town who teaches the lap steele should I want more specific instruction. But, I'd like to try things on my own first, given I'm not new to music.

Thanks in advance:

Dennis

[Eric Gross]

Hi Dennis, I finger-picked electric guitar for many years, then picked up lap steel. I tried to use fingerpicks for a few months, but just couldn't get comfortable -- using my fingers comes pretty natural. I ended up using G tuning because it was easy transition from standard tuning, the E tuning would also have the same advantage. Over the course of many years I also used G6, C6, and A6 tunings. But G is still my go-to tuning, I don't need to think about it anymore, and can just play.

I learned a lot from this forum, have fun and enjoy!

[Dennis Hamblin]

Hi Dennis, I finger-picked electric guitar for many years, then picked up lap steel. I tried to use fingerpicks for a few months, but just couldn't get comfortable -- using my fingers comes pretty natural. I ended up using G tuning because it was easy transition from standard tuning, the E tuning would also have the same advantage. Over the course of many years I also used G6, C6, and A6 tunings. But G is still my go-to tuning, I don't need to think about it anymore, and can just play.

I learned a lot from this forum, have fun and enjoy!

Thanks for that. I'll look into G tuning as well. I know it is the first one used in the book.

[Gene Wilcox]

Dennis
I would say there is no hard and fast rule about using fingertips or picks. Whatever is comfortable and works.

I have played guitar for about 50 years and I know that my technique has changed over that time. Never could get used to finger picks. I play a lot of slide, and sometimes I will palm the flat pick so I can block extra strings from ringing
out.
That made for an easy transition to lap steel, and I use my nubs only, no picks.

[David M Brown]

2. I play on and off with a band. They play country/Americana type stuff. I have heard two things about tuning. Some said for "Classic Country" to go with C6 tuning but others have said E, G or A would work better for the modern stuff.

I guess it depends on how much old-school Country music y'all play and how much of the repertoire is more modern rootsy stuff.

If you play a lot of older music, C6 is ideal, and a C6 set can be retuned to A6 for Western Swing.

C6 - C E G A C E

A6 - C# E F# A C# E

Using a set with heavier gauge low strings -

If you play more "modern' stuff, you could use the same set of strings for:

E - E B E G# B E

A low bass - E A E A C# E (the oldest steel tuning BTW)

Plus a few tweaks and you could have E6 aka C#m7:

E B E G# C# E

and F#9

F# A# E G# C# E

Also, the modern stuff might be better in Dobro G tuning:

G B D G B D

[Brad Richard]

Dennis - Finger picks or not is just personal preference. I play both, but do prefer bare fingers on a weissenborn (acoustic with nylon strings). On an electric, you can get all the volume you want without picks, but picks are nice if you want more "bite".
C6 is a great tuning to start with (especially for old country and Hawaiian music). Lot's of chords are readily accessible with a round nose (bullet) bar. Stick with one tuning until you're really good at it before trying others. It just gets too confusing and my poor, old bean can't handle it (maybe yours can).
Finally, if you're serious about lap steel, be sure to be proactive and line up mental health assistance before hand

Above all, have fun!!!

Brad

[David Irving]

I've never been able to get used to finger picks, but I got sick of my nails fraying away whenever I play. That's got worse as I've got older.

I find semi-regular visits to the local nail bar are pretty effective.

[Kully Stiles]

Make a list of your top 5 favorite steel players, and check to see if they used fingerpicks. If the answer is yes and you would like to sound like them, consider getting used to fingerpicks.
You can play and sound great without em, but if your hero happens to be Joaquin Murphey, Buddy Emmons or really anyone who plays fast single note lines, you'll be facing some serious plateaus down the road. It's worthwhile to take a lesson from someone who can show you how to bend/shape the picks correctly around your fingers so they will feel comfortable and accurate.

[John Viterito]

Dennis.......give open D a shot (DADF#AD), low to high). Same as E, one whole pitch lower. Troy Brenningmeyer has an excellent ten minute video on the versatility of this tuning on YouTube. In addition, he's got a whole course on open d for lap steel and another for Weissenborn.

[John Viterito]

Brad.......which nylon strings do you use on your Weissenborn?