The Steel Guitar Forum

I've been reading your forum for the past 2 months and really enjoy it. I've played a little guitar and piano all of my life, but recently bought a Goldtone lap steel and have been trying to teach myself to play it. For the money, it has a good sound. It came tuned in open D and I tried to learn a few licks and practice my slants in that tuning. But, being a Hank Williams fan I changed the strings and tuned it to Don Helms' E13 for the 6 string with the G# as the highest string.
This is a high tuning and the strings don't seem to resonate as well as they did with a lower tuning. Nevertheless, that "sound" is there. I noticed Don doesn't have any slants in his book. Does anyone know the history behind this tuning ? It seems like this changed the steel guitar from sounding "Hawaiian" to the unique "High lonesome" sound of the country pedal steel.

I don't know what the problem could be with your tone quality. I know that generally speaking, though, a shorter scale guitar is better for lighter gauged strings and high tunings. The problem may be a mismatch of guitar and tuning. Bobbe Seymore's C6 tuning ECAGECAF (hi-lo) is the same intervals at a lower pitch and will get you that sound. If you've been following the Forum recently you will have heard him at the Grand Ol' Opry behind HankIII. You might try Bobbe's websight as well for what I've heard are some excellent instruction videos. For history I don't know for sure. There may be a bibliography in Andy Volk's Lap Steel Book that would be a good place to start.

I hadn't thought about the long scale vs short, but that makes sense as the Goldtone is long scale. Its mainly the G# string with is a.012 gauge. Maybe I should try a .010.
Anyway, I love the nostalgia and challenge of the lap steel and hope to one day get good enough to play and own a twin neck console.
Thanks