The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm still confused. I think two different things are being described here:-

Thing 1:- the steel player tunes down a half step to bring E to the first fret and avoid the twelfth. This is personal and no-one else needs to know.

Thing 2:- the whole band tunes down to get a different sound and maybe help the vocalist. The open chord is still called E by all the band but the singer and the audience get E flat.

If you tune down a half step without changing string gages, your pedal/lever action will feel really nice (smooth and easy to engage pedals/levers) but tuning-stability might be a little unstable (you would have to try it and see/feel/hear).
MSA makes a Bb6th 12-string set of strings. You could check out thier string gages, or come up with your own by trial and error.

I played that tuning for years and used it the whole time I was working for Dottie West and also when doing club work and session work in Little Rock. I went to E 9th when I bought my Emmons all pull back in late 90's. I liked the deeper low end and more mellow sound of the mid to upper strings and less string breakage also with the Eb 9th
. Rudy

Pete - don't use trial or error - use this!

http://hikkyz.net/misc/stringassembler/