The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello All,

I'm a fairly new member here and would like to ask a question that has probably been asked before but here it goes. I'm guessing from reading other posts that the C6 tuning is very popular with non-pedal players. But I don't see much on the High C6 tuning, with the G on the 1st string. I think a lot of you are pedal steel players as well that use the High C6 tuning. Why isn't this tuning used much on the non-pedal lap steel?

Thanks,
Miles

Most all of the early lap steel tunings had E on the 1st string. The C6th tuning was an outgrowth of the early tunings so it is just natural that the high string for C6th was an E.
In my youth, I played a triple neck Stringmaster and E was the high string on all three necks.

I use the high G tuning on my 8 string lap steel and on one neck of my Stringmaster T-8 and Gibson Console Grande.

I'm a hi C6 man myself--I started on dobro and I like the 5th on top. I think in terms of the intervals above the root or the tonic more than I think of the letter names of the notes.

With the high G you can avoid having to do a lot of reverse slants on the C and E strings. The common complaint about the high G is that it sounds thin. Lately I've been using a D, pitched between C and E as the top string. When I had the D I tended to play on the top three strings mostly. Having the E as the highest string seems to force me to get into lower part of the tuning. My reverse slants have gotten better too!

Miles:

The A6th is a common tuning that has a 5th on the 1st string; it is usually the same as C6(high) but 3 frets lower. You can get the A6th tuning by easily retuning 4 strings on C6th(low). It is really simple- you should be able to do that without having to use a tuner since it is 2 pair of octaves and those notes are some of the ones that you probably fine-tune by ear anyway.

So C6(low) is more popular, partly because the same strings will handle A6th as well. You can get notes 3 frets higher with C6(high), but if you already have one neck/steel tuned to E13th(high) you can access notes one fret higher than C6(high).

I learned all of that reading the posts in this forum both current and from the archives.

Steve Ahola

For a lot of swing stuff, the sound of the high 5 is pretty important. For most of what I play, I wouldn't want to do without it. Some players go with a B6 or A6 to get a beefier tone.
I've been liking an E13 with a 3 on top for the reason that Matthew mentions - that it forces me to find notes and licks lower in the scale and in positions other than the standard root positions. It still gives some issue with thin tone, but I just try to find ways to deal with it like tone and amp settings and pickup height plus a little attention to the volume pedal.

sorry--weird accidental double post--

I agree with Matthew about the high C6 tuning. It sounds to thin. The A6 tuning is 3 frets lower and you can really get a "fat" sound out of those Western Swing chords, kind of like the "Herb Remington Sound" I tried hard to get used to the high C6 tuning, mainly because I could retune to the Don Helms E13 and get the "Hank Williams honkey tonk" sound on the same neck by making a simple retuning of 3 strings.
Finally, I gave up and just could not live with the high C6 sound. I went back to the A6 tuning and I now play the Hank Williams stuff in C6 low tuning.

My number-one 8-string tuning is G6 (5 frets below c6, 2 frets lower than A6, with a hi 5th) because I learned Dobro first, and the G-B-D on top feels like "home". No thin-sounding first string with a 0.016 on top.

I was hanging around the first three strings too much, until I started practicing with a 6-string tuned to C6 with a hi-3rd, and found some new stuff on the lower strings.

This has worked so well that I'm also practicing with an abbreviated E6 tuning with the root on top (EC#BG#EC# top-to bottom). That's forcing me into even deeper pockets.

Thank You all for your input on this subject. You have helped me a lot.

Miles

When I went to my first Epiphone D-8, I used an A note on top of the G as I wanted to resolve that chord one more step higher. Still use it today on my S-14. My first string on my E9 tuning is a G# which corresponds to the high A when my Es are locked to Eb for the B6 tuning. That also gives me an extra E and A note in the C6 register. Works fine for me.
Bill Stafford

Matthew Dawson wrote:With the high G you can avoid having to do a lot of reverse slants on the C and E strings. The common complaint about the high G is that it sounds thin. Lately I've been using a D, pitched between C and E as the top string. When I had the D I tended to play on the top three strings mostly. Having the E as the highest string seems to force me to get into lower part of the tuning. My reverse slants have gotten better too!

After alot of experimentation, this is the tuning I have settled on. It is the best I've ever found for single string work. And it is also quite good for chordal work because it gives you the intervals of strings 4, 5 and 6 in a different position on strings 1,3 and 4. I wouldn't switch. For some instructional material get the Buddy Emmons pedal book, C6 basics and the Jeff Newman C6 courses off that website.