Best way to use low strings
Moderator: Brad Bechtel
Best way to use low strings
I'm a little perplexed about the best ways to put my lowest two strings of an A6 8 string to good use (tuned to F# A C# E F# A C# E). I'm finding that the woofy tone of them makes melody work not super pleasing, the same for chords. I'll occasionally use the 7th string, but almost never the 8th for anything except running scales or practicing grips. I'm happy with playing melody up top, but feel like I'm missing whatever rationale there is for having the extra notes.
Almost all the material I've been working with is geared towards 6 strings, so I'm struggling to find examples that smart players put them to use. I wonder if anyone here has any ideas about where I can start digging for answers.
Almost all the material I've been working with is geared towards 6 strings, so I'm struggling to find examples that smart players put them to use. I wonder if anyone here has any ideas about where I can start digging for answers.
- David Matzenik
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It's a good question. I always admire arrangements that bring in the lower strings, and there are some YT videos that show this. Generally, I tune the 8th string in A6th to a G for the flat 7, but only use it in the upper half of the neck. In other tunings I use the lower strings to fill our chords like Paradise Isle C#m7, or Rainbows Over Paradise in B11th.
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother.
- Allan Revich
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Have you considered a reentrant string for the. 8th string? Perhaps a Bb.
Current Tunings:
6 String | D – D A D F# A D
7 String | D/f – f D A D F# A D
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database
6 String | D – D A D F# A D
7 String | D/f – f D A D F# A D
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database
- David M Brown
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I know what you mean, it is tough to get these notes to ring. Sometimes I use the low strings while damping them like a percussive effect. 10 string C6 goes down to low C! I like Davids tuning with the low E for A6. You have an alternating bass with this one. I have a tendency, coming from guitar and playing mostly Travis style picking, to always want to add in bass notes as a kind of self accompaniment. I play solo mostly. It also works with C6 skipping the A. For playing with a band I don't see using them as much.
- David Matzenik
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Here's Doug Beaumier's "Walking After Midnight." Very tasty. At about 1:37 he gets some nice use out of the low strings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY7UehpsaFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY7UehpsaFQ
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother.
- Joe A. Roberts
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Try lighter gauge strings on the low strings, sometimes if they are heavy they can sound thuddy and wolfy.
Lighter gauge low strings can sometimes counter intuitively improve clarity, especially on higher frets.
Tuning up to a G on the lowest string is worth a shot if you want to experiment with more utility!
Mikiya Matsuda tunes to E C# A F# E C# Bb G (which, for reference, in C would be G E C A G E C# Bb). I think Billy Hew Len did too.
Those two changes would give you all sorts of new sounds to experiment with if you are looking for a change from those bottom two strings. The bottom 4 become a fat diminished, for instance.
Lighter gauge low strings can sometimes counter intuitively improve clarity, especially on higher frets.
Tuning up to a G on the lowest string is worth a shot if you want to experiment with more utility!
Mikiya Matsuda tunes to E C# A F# E C# Bb G (which, for reference, in C would be G E C A G E C# Bb). I think Billy Hew Len did too.
Those two changes would give you all sorts of new sounds to experiment with if you are looking for a change from those bottom two strings. The bottom 4 become a fat diminished, for instance.
- David M Brown
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- David Matzenik
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- Paul Seager
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I like and use the lower strings for funky minor chord stuff. Examples: 16 Tons, Green Onions, Cantaloupe Island.
I have occasionally tuned #8 to G for songs with a lot of dom7 chords, e.g., Limehouse Blues, but found that to be too muddy on the lower half of the neck.
I could imagine a low E would be good for power chords but I don't have a need for that kind of sound.
When, for portability reasons, I switch to a 6 string, I really, really miss the lower strings but my overriding preference is to have a 5th on the 1st string and just avoid chordal work on the low end.
I have occasionally tuned #8 to G for songs with a lot of dom7 chords, e.g., Limehouse Blues, but found that to be too muddy on the lower half of the neck.
I could imagine a low E would be good for power chords but I don't have a need for that kind of sound.
When, for portability reasons, I switch to a 6 string, I really, really miss the lower strings but my overriding preference is to have a 5th on the 1st string and just avoid chordal work on the low end.
\paul
Bayern Hawaiians: https://www.youtube.com/@diebayernhawaiians3062
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Bayern Hawaiians: https://www.youtube.com/@diebayernhawaiians3062
Other stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@paulseager3796/videos
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I have tinkered with this tuning and it really has a ton going for it, aside from the fact that I can't easily find any examples of people using it. I hear Billy Hew Len mentioned all the time in relation to A6 tuning, and I cannot really find much about him. Didn't he play pedal steel?? I am starting a new thread cause this is starting to drift.Joe A. Roberts wrote: Mikiya Matsuda tunes to E C# A F# E C# Bb G (which, for reference, in C would be G E C A G E C# Bb). I think Billy Hew Len did too.
- David Matzenik
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- Chris Templeton
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I first heard Billy at Jerry Byrd's Ho'olaulea.
For those of you that don't know about Billy, He was a promising guitar player in his youth, and while working on a car engine, it fell on his left hand.
He loved playing music so much and his doctor recognized that and went to a saddlery shop and had a leather a leather "hand" with a bar sewn in it made.
I recorded two years at Jerry's show, for Scotty, and he sold cassettes. Billy was on them.
If any of you have either of those, please PM me. I'd love to hear them.
Alan Akaka?, ("Aloha")
For those of you that don't know about Billy, He was a promising guitar player in his youth, and while working on a car engine, it fell on his left hand.
He loved playing music so much and his doctor recognized that and went to a saddlery shop and had a leather a leather "hand" with a bar sewn in it made.
I recorded two years at Jerry's show, for Scotty, and he sold cassettes. Billy was on them.
If any of you have either of those, please PM me. I'd love to hear them.
Alan Akaka?, ("Aloha")
Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
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