The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm a newbie, God such a newbie. I'm tryng to tune my ten string non pedal in Remington's A6, F# A C# E F# A C# E. Aside from what to do about the two lowest strings, I am completly befuddled. I keep popping strings when I try to tune strings an octave from each other. It seems that when I tune the top string to E and then go an octave lower for the 5th sting E, either the 5th string is too darn low, or the 1st string is so high it pops. Am I making myself clear? Seems theres no happy medium and I keep busting strings and keep Bobby Lee busy ordering more. I know I'm missing something here. I've ordered the gauges that were suggested as correct for Remington style tuningand I'm using a chromatic tuner. Can someone help me out here.

Hi Warren,
Try this 10 string A6 tuning with these gauges:
E - .015
C# - .018
A - .022
F# - .026
E - .030
C# - .034
A - .042
F# - .056
D - .060
A - .070



I don't know why you're breaking strings.
What kind of guitar is it, and what is the scale length?
Do they always break at the nut, or at the bridge?

My 10 string "Herbie" A6 pedal steel(a 24" Remington Sustainmaster) set up is very similar to the guages Rick showed. On the lower octave, I go just a teeny bit heavier. Here's mine(note that I use an E on #9 instead of D, but I use the same guage string. I also use these gauges on my T8 26" Stringmaster on the A6 neck and I've never had a broken string.

E .014
C# .018
A .022
F# .026
E .032
C# .038
A .044
F# .054
E .060
A .070

The D on the 9th string is optional - E would be the correct pitch for a true A6 tuning,
but the D gives you a big Maj7 chord and more harmonic possibilities.
You can easily use both.

On my top neck I use an E6 tuning with an A on the bottom, which is relatively the same thing.
Sometimes I raise it to B, it just depends.

Why not add two "chromatics" (inside out add-on strings) on top instead the two bottom notes. A6th can be somewhat muddy anyways as JB's C6th top three string intervals are set back a minor third.

Check out pedal E9th and Maurice Anderson's C6th "chromatic".

... J-D.

When I want to use that approach, I just use the E9th neck. To each his own, but I just prefer to keep the A6th and C6th tunigs pretty much standard.

I wish I knew what the problem was, but I'll try the larger gauge strings and hope that solves it.

Warren

Warren,welcome,try what Rick said,You are proberly breaking strings because you don't have the right gauges.DYKBC.

Warren Morrisett wrote:I keep popping strings when I try to tune strings an octave from each other.

It seems that when I tune the top string to E and then go an octave lower for the 5th sting E, either the 5th string is too darn low, or the 1st string is so high it pops.

Am I making myself clear?

I'm using a chromatic tuner.

Can someone help me out here.

I wish I knew what the problem was, but I'll try the larger gauge strings and hope that solves it.

Sounds like you are having issues with the correct octaves each string should be tuned to ...

Try using this site ...

http://www.get-tuned.com/guitar_tuner.php

It allows you to choose the appropriate notes (click on the little circles) ... in the correct octaves ...

Then it will play that note ... so you can match it up with your steel/chromatic tuner.

From high to low ... using the designations on that site*

E is E5 ... (same as a high E on a regular guitar)

C# is C#5

A is A4

F# is F#4

E is E4 ...

C# is C#4

A is A3 ... (same as the A string on a regular guitar)

F# is F#3

E is E3 ... (same as low E on a regular guitar)

A is A2 ...

Once you get this done ... I.E. tuning up using Equal Temperament ... and are not snapping any more strings ...

We can discuss tuning w/o that tuner (or MIDI generator that I linked to) ... but first things first

* Disclaimer:

I used the designations for the octaves ... E5, A4, etc ... that the above online tuner used.

In physics texts:

C4 (middle C) is 261.626 Hz
E4 (the high E string on a guitar) is 329.628 Hz
A4 is 440 Hz
E5 is 659.255 Hz
Etc ...