The Steel Guitar Forum

I would say after 26 years of playing my 10th string gets used the least. However, if one string breaks I feel like I have lost a major part of playing. John, as time goes along you will find more use for the other strings and string combinations. 4,6 and 10 makes a nice combination as well as 4,5 and 9. I find personally that the 9th string gets used a lot in my playing just as the 1st and 2nd string do. I use 4,5 and 6 as my base strings for the E9th but there is so much that can be done. Just look at what Buddy Emmons has come up with on that tuning.

I remember playing a gig with Mark van Allen when we first started playing steel. A veteran steel guitarist walked up and told us that he knew we were new to steel guitar because we were only playing strings 3,4 and 5.

I never was a fan of the 3rd string. I only use it if I absolutely need it to work out an arrangement on a gospel song. I really favor the lower strings and, like was stated above, I usually work around the 4th, 5th and 6th string grips. I tried an extended E9th tuning at one time just to get the lower 2 strings. I do quite a bit with the 8th and 10th string combination and it would be neat to be able to grab that 12th string if it was there.
Erv