Tuning for Old Nick Manoloff Book

Paul Honeycutt · Post by **Paul Honeycutt** » 5 Feb 2006 11:08 am

I have an old book called "Album of Favorite Hawaiian Guitar Solos (Cole Edition)" with arrangements by Nick Manoloff. Unfortunately, it starts on page three so there's no title page or any explainations. From looking at the tab and comparing it to the written music, the tuning used appears to be "A" (From low to high):
E A E A C# E

Was it a common tuning in the pre-WW II days? It seems odd that there's no 6th or 7th note used. There's a lot of tunes, so I thought I'd learn a few.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 5 Feb 2006 11:16 am

I have Manoloff's "Electric Hawaiian guitar Method" from '39, and that is in highbass-A (A C# E A C# E, low to high).

Steinar

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Scott Thomas · Post by **Scott Thomas** » 5 Feb 2006 11:19 am

Paul,
Yeah, you have that tuning right. It's called low bass A and I believe it was the precursor to the high bass A tuning of
AC#EAC#E (low to high)You will find that perhaps most of the instructional material from that era is written in the low bass A tuning for beginners.

Junior King · Post by **Junior King** » 5 Feb 2006 11:22 am

low bass A or Hawaiian A: http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/tuning.html

Paul Honeycutt · Post by **Paul Honeycutt** » 5 Feb 2006 11:27 am

Thanks, guys! I'll retune the National and give it a go.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 5 Feb 2006 8:14 pm

I think that you'll also find that the pre-war instructional books listed the tunings from HIGH to LOW, as is still the normal way (With Lap Steel)
I also think the logic of 1st in the order = 1st string etc. was applied.

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Steel players do it without fretting

Paul Honeycutt · Post by **Paul Honeycutt** » 6 Feb 2006 2:18 pm

I've never understood why guitar strings go from high to low. Shouldn't the lowest string be the first string? Doesn't music go from left to right, from low to high? Pianos go from left to right, low to high.
Just something I've never understood.

Paul Honeycutt · Post by **Paul Honeycutt** » 6 Feb 2006 2:31 pm

Jeeze, I just noticed the locked post about Low to High vs. High to Low. Forget everything in my last post after "hello." Nothing to see here. Move along!

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 8 Feb 2006 4:28 pm

Why do some people write the date as day-month-year and others write it month-day-year?????

I could never understand why string identification wasn't standardized, or, why somebody un-standardized it.

Paul, that low or high bass tuning is still popular with some old gezzers like me. You realize that the G tuning is the same as the A High Bass, only two notes down!!!!

Geo

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 8 Feb 2006 4:59 pm

I believe you can trace one's tendancy to write down the dates as DAY, Month, Year, back to the military; similarly the way they used the 24 hour clock for telling time.

As stated elsewhere, guitar string packages used to label the strings 1st "E"; 2nd "B", etc. (top to bottom)

Notice they also identified the printing material as "Hawaiian Electric Guitar" or whatever? (Not Tele or whatever)

It was of course, the late comers, that set about wanting to change all of the rules that once assured uniformity and not the other way around. It's evident from posts herein, that they still want to do it their way instead of the long tradionally held, aceepted way. (Top to bottom)

Tradional steel guitar playing definitely played a solid role in the music field. Creative playing is another element but, when the audience doesn't want to hear it nor the band leader doesn't want to hire you, then perhaps it's another example of a wanna-be musician choosing to play what HE wants rather than what the PUBLIC wants to hear. Who is paying the ticket price?

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 8 Feb 2006 10:48 pm

I would echo what Ray says. Maybe it's because I'm in the geezer time frame.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 9 Feb 2006 11:43 am

Bill.........one of the first important WARNINGS I was given by an older musician friend was:
"It doesn't make any differece how much you like it, if the customer/leader doesn't, you're gonna be out of a job".
It's sorta been my guiding light since the beginning of time. I've seen lots of really talented pickers join me on the bandstand only to be gone within a week or two as a result of what they played, when they played it, etc. I think it was good advice.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 9 Feb 2006 12:45 pm

Steinar, that was my first tuning, 42 years ago, A C# E A C# E, low to high. I wondered why that Manoloff name sounded familiar. I still have the Leeds book but also had the Manoloff book which was unfortunately lost a long time ago.[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 09 February 2006 at 12:54 PM.]

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 9 Feb 2006 12:56 pm

Let me know if you want it,- I just bought it out of curiousity, real cheap on eBay. I'll post it to you if you want it.

Steinar

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