The Steel Guitar Forum

does anybody know what tuning Junior uses on the steel neck of his guit-steel, or, if he uses different tunings, what tuning he uses in the song Bridge Washed Out? His version of that song and the (guit)steel work just blows me away. Notice the tube "bloom" during the interlude...sweet!
I gave up on the steel, at least for this lifetime. But I was wondering about maybe messing around with an inexpensive lap steel........

Last time I looked, he was using this tuning:

1. G
2. E
3. C
4. A
5. G
6. E
7. C
8. Bb

If you want your own Guit-Steel, click here.

I think Junior uses a C13 tuning on his 8 string guit-steel. Low to high Bb-C-E-G-A-C-E-G
I know you were looking for an inexpensive lap steel but just in case you want a custom guit steel just like Junior's check out Michael Stevens website www.stevensguitars.com ....looks like the current price is $10,500

Jeff,

Great minds think alike! Your response is almost exactly what I wrote, but phrased differently.

At least we both came up with good info (I think!), Brad. You must have beat me to the post because I lost a few minutes checking out the price of the guit-steel and don't know how long I was passed out for! Have a great day out there on the West Coast. Jeff

The great Gurf Morlix showed me that tuning back in 1986 or so before I ever heard of Junior Brown. I've been using that on one neck of my Stringmaster ever since. Ralph Kolsiana told me he thought Junior Brown picked it up while he was living in Hawaii and that he (Ralph) first heard Barney Issacs use it a long time ago. I have that tuning on my CruzTone now except I tune it down to A for more ballz. Some say that if you're gonna have a 5th on top, it works better in A. Check it out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqYJKYWtbVw

You can get a lot of nice things by having that 7th on the bottom like that. It has some of the sophistication of a full 13th tuning or something like Joaquins tuning while still retaining the core straight ahead simplicity of a plain vanilla C6.

That tuning has been floating around Austin since John Ely brought it back from Hawaii in the early 80's...

John tuned one of his necks (low to hi) C Bb C E G A C E and referred to it as the "Hawaiian C13."

Junior omitted the low C (s.10 on a pedal guitar) and added the high G on s.1.

I could have memory failure here, but I believe John tuned his triple neck to that C13, A6/B11, and McAuliffe E13.

BTW, McAuliffe E13 is (l to h) E G# D F# G# B C# E.

Great playing Michael!
The Cruztone sounds sweet.

I love all of Junior's stuff, that last album and many of his tunes are on his pedal steel. He's just as good on pedal, but he doesn't play a lot of those songs live I think because he only takes his guit-steel on the road. On that song I believe it's E9th, but he plays it like a lap steel with a bunch of bar action... you know what, I might be wrong on that song, it may be c6 with slants, he's so good on lap steel it's hard to tell sometimes. I know for sure that some of my favorites of his like "Still Life with Rose" is pedal steel and I've never heard it live so... I heard a blurb from him a few years ago that they were working on a pedal guit-steel, but they probably gave up on it, I can't figure out how you'd press pedals and a volume pedal and knee levers while standing, if he sat down it could work fine. sorry for the long message.

When I listened to Junior it sure sounded like C6th to me, or C13th with the High G and Bb. C6th has been around a long time and still is a very versatile all-around tuning, and is a good tuning for beginners as opposed to the ancient A major.

On a bit of a tangent, what string gauges would you guys likely use for that tuning (the 'Junior Brown' C6th) with a 22.5"scale? I'm thinking I want to use heavier strings than the ones my builder (probably at my suggestion) put on my 8-string lap.

G - .012
E - .014
C - .017
A - .020
G - .022p
E - .030w
C - .036w
Bb - .040

I just asked Scotty this the other day and this is the light gauge recommendation for C6/C13 on a 22.5" scale, but he didn't know what Junior actually uses. If your guitar is longer scale I wouldn't bump up the gauges too much. We also figure you can use a c6 pedal steel set and just leave off the lower strings... Your low G would probably go up to a wound .024 by the way.

Also, I don't mean that his whole last album was pedal, but he seems to do about half and half guit-steel and pedal steel. My post wasn't very clear, sorry.

Thanks David, those gauges make a lot of sense to me and I'm certain they are heavier than what I have. I'll give them a whirl.

Michael, Very good playing! I really enjoyed that a lot. I play and eight string B13th that has a Maj 7 on top and that works well too. Low to Hi... A, C, Eb, F#,G#, B, Eb, Bb. The bottom four strings make a diminished chord which is very useful. The Bb on top gives you many cool chords too. Check it out. Don

Does anyone know whats going on here around the input jack on Big Red? They look like toggle switches that are recessed into the body. What is their function?