The Steel Guitar Forum

I'd appreciate your opinions on this idea. After 20+ years of collecting lap steel info I have gathered a slew of useful info about steel guitar tunings. I was thinking of producing a 9" x 5" "Guitar Case Guide" to non-pedal tunings. This slim softbound book would fit into a steel guitar case so players would have all the info needed re tunings & string gauges at hand. I'd essentially be compiling info from many sources into one handy guide. I'll probably also throw in some history and anecdotes. Please let me know if this would be of interest via the poll below.

Hmmm. Can't get the poll option to display. Please just post a reply. Thanks!

I voted "Yes, that's a good idea (as long as there's a photo of me in it)" in The Invisible Poll.

Great idea Andy!

Steinar

Good idea Andy! The gauges will really help. As will both six and eight string tunings. Also identify the tunings. By that I mean something like: "this is the popular C6th tuning", etc. Don't forget a lot of G tunings!!!

Great idea, Andy. That would be a very useful guide. I agree with Charles about the string gauges, or maybe just a string gauge Chart showing the entire range of notes/gauges for non-pedal steel.

It might also be useful to list which tunings are available Without Changing Strings... what tunings a player can access from a given tuning. For example, one grouping of tunings could include: C6, B11, Leavitt, etc. because they share common string gauges, and can be accessed without changing strings. Another group might be the E tunings (E, E7, E13) which use thicker strings.

That'll have to be a pretty thick book to beat the collection of tunings I've got stored away. But there might be one I don't have, so go for it!

It would be important to focus on the practical tunings and their variations and not include every single possible tuning. In my view, only about 5-10% of the tunings listed in Paul Bigsby's famous "60 Modern Tunings" book were actually being used by working pros. That said, some of these tunings will be eventually lost to history if they aren't formally documented and only exist in someone's file drawer ... "Grampa had all this steel guitar stuff in his files but what do we do with it now that he's gone" ?

I vote "yes." The history and applications of the various tunings would be interesting even to those of us still struggling to learn one tuning.

Andy, that's an excellent idea.
I'll definitely take an autographed copy!


BTW - don't forget this one: G6 - hi2lo E B G D G D
That's a good transitional tuning for a guitar player getting started on steel.
The top 4 strings are the same as a guitar, you have a major triad and a minor triad with a straight bar, and a big 5151 power chord on the bottom 4.
And when you lower the E to D you get low bass G.
When I got my first lap steel many years ago I tuned it like that.
Then I played it at the gig the same night without getting fired . .

Add me to the "yes" votes.

I like Doug Beaumier's two suggestions:
Groups of convertible tunings.
A single chart of notes and gauges.
To add to the gauge chart, I would like to see scale length considerations for gauges.

Groups of convertible tunings is a very good suggestion.
I've done that to some extent on this TUNINGS page.
The gauge chart would also be an important feature - one of the most commonly asked questions is: "what gauges should I use?"

I vote YES

A great idea. I'd buy one.

John Ely's string guage chart is interesting because it suggests different guages for the same note depending on the scale length of the guitar. That'd be a good feature. Also, I've found that even though resonator guitarists have long scale guitars, they tend to use the string guages that John suggests for short scale guitars. Something to mention?
I'd certainly buy the book even though at this stage I'm a one tuning player. You never know. And besides, it's just one of those subjects that ya just can't let go of.

I wouldn't recommend it for every tuning, because then it could turn into dictionary thickness, but I think a nice feature would be some fold-out pages of perhaps the most popular six to eight tunings with the fretboard diagrams of the all the notes on each fret up to the 12th fret.

...is that they are merely physical guides at best, and not definitive.
Everyone has their personal style and sounds that depict what they want from their strings. Some like very heavy strings, other's - whatever. I go for fairly to extremely light on some (but still retaining tonal integrity), way out of the norm from what can be found in any listings. You'll never find a chart that OKs using 16 gauge on the top 4 strings of an 8 str. tuning, but it works superbly for me, and others have used it similarly to their great benefit.

I'm a go!
It could be handy to have fretboard charts for the different tunings too, just a thought.

Very good idea! I'm fairly new to steel guitar and this would be a great help. I've kind of started my own in a small spiral notebook I can toss in a case. I'd buy one in a hearbeat.

Great idea. Thats a YES

That's a yes vote from me too.

Tunings that are possible on the same set of strings is definately a good idea, and fretboard maps too.

Count me in for a copy!

...only about 5-10% of the tunings listed in Paul Bigsby's famous "60 Modern Tunings" book were actually being used by working pros.

I agree, Andy. There were some odd tunings in that booklet!

I wonder... how many "popular and useable" non-pedal tunings should be included in a small, concise "Guitar Case Guide"? That's a tough call. I can think of at least a dozen often used tunings... and I'm sure there are more. Sometimes having 'too many options' confuses the user.

Andy, it might also be a good idea to list the most common usage of the tunings, i.e. C#m7 "Hawaiian", E "rock/blues", Leavitt "jazz, standards", G "bluegrass", etc. Not to say that a tuning is limited to one style, but it would point beginners in the right direction.

Such a Guide would be very handy! I often meet "newbie" 20-something lap steel players in our store. Two came in just this week. The most common question is... "how should I tune it?"

Thanks, everyone; very useful feedback and good ideas for making it useful to players.

Yes from me and because I live in Cook County, Illinois, that counts as 2 votes\\

G

Hi Andy,

Great idea. And I know you will do a fine job.

Best,

Bob