The Steel Guitar Forum

Well I've joined this forum to share my secret tuning with the world as I'm over 60 now.... I believe I've solved the puzzle of how to tune one of these instruments in a way that will blow all previous tunings out of the water. I've looked at a list of about 75 tunings and I've never seen it anywhere so if anyone is interested I'll post it as soon as we get a couple of hits here. All I want is to be known as the guy who came up with this so I decided this is the place.
I'm currently using it on a 10 string Alshire Eharp no pedal guitar but it works for both pedal and non pedal guitars and solves a lot of problems about not having pedals. Obviously you can't get pedal pulls without them but you'll see what I'm hinting at here. Any one interested?
Juan Doggie [/b]

Sure...I need all the help I can get.

I can't wait... show us now!

Waiting with baited breath...

Waiting with baited breath...

Please don't let this end up like the supposed Robt. Randolph intro thread...

BREAK THE CODE DOG!

OK... this looks like a topic of some interest so here we go...
this is how I tune a ten string... I would like this to be known as "holy modal tuning" It's based on thirds which seems logical to me as guitars are basically tuned to 4ths and mandolins and violins to 5ths so why not 3rds? It gives me 2 1/2 octaves across the strings and allows some wonderful long harp like runs straight across with picking patterns. The more you play it the easier it is to sight chords as you have 4 major chords and 4 minor chords. On an 8 string I use the bottom 8. looking forward to your inputs... Juan Doggie... http://thedoggies.com or .net

B
G#
E
C#
A
F#
D
B
G
E ... reading from the bottom up you will notice all of the following chords are available open...

Emin Emin7 G Gmaj7 Bmin Bmin7 D Dmaj7 F#min F#min7 A Amaj7 C#min C#min7 & E maj ...
then if you claw say AEB or DAE you have your sus2nd and sus 4th chords... if you draw a fretboard you will find the whole major scale is easily played on 2 frets (shaped like a lightning bolt no less) I use an .008 on the top to get all the way up to high B.
I'm trying to figure out where to break the pattern of 3rds (

I used a very similar tuning and shared it with a few folks here--I don't remember exactly what it was, but the first few strings were the same.

The B and G# were pitched lower than the E--what I would do is grab both of those strings and pull them, resulting in an always perfect E triad to A triad raise, like pedals A and B. The key was to find exactly the right gauge strings for your guitar so that the pulls were almost fool-proof. It really had nothing to do with having a bunch of chords, though. I was more interested in being able to play some legit country pedal steel licks.

I'm going to look and see if I can find what the tuning was. I think it was, from the 1st string:
B G# E C#...the rest I don't remember.

The bottom 8 strings of your tuning are simply an A6 and a G6.

A new tuning always interests me but it is nice if
the author posts a clip (MP3) to demonstrate.
I do hope that happens at some point.
Good luck with it Don and thanks for sharing.

Roy

good luck with your tuning. when you join the forum and immediately announce your end of all tunings tuning and dont provide a sound sample..hmmmmmm??? just want to hear it i guess before i can get all warm and fuzzy.

in regards to the .008. good luck with that too. i have tried 008 and 009 and they both suck. they sound way too unbalanced and tinny with the rest of the larger strings. maybe if you had adjustable pole pieces on the PU, but still they are too small to play with the same intensity with the picks as the others.

better to add more strings on top and pitch down so you can keep the diameters larger for a better tone on them. plenty of neck to get high pitches on. just move the bar up the neck.

The problem I have with tunings like this where you are trying to cram as many triads as possible into the tuning is that you lose all of your inversions. I would rather be able to play 3 inversions of a C chord than to be able to play 1 inversion of 3 different triads, if that makes any sense. If I need to play the other chords, I will simply go to a position where I can find them. There really is no magic bullet--it's all about learning how to utilize what is available to you to the utmost.

Hey Don that's cool I will give it a try -- looking for something 'different' for the 2nd neck of my D8.

Thanks
Eric

Mike Neer wrote:The problem I have with tunings like this where you are trying to cram as many triads as possible into the tuning is that you lose all of your inversions. I would rather be able to play 3 inversions of a C chord than to be able to play 1 inversion of 3 different triads, if that makes any sense.

I agree with you, Mike. One thing that is missing is the whole step intervals which are very helpful for single note playing and for harmony work as well (something that you have pointed out here many times.) One other thing- I don't see any 6 fret tritones which are an important part of diminished and dominant chords (something else that you have taught us). To get a tritone you need two adjacent minor third intervals whereas the intervals here alternate between minor and major thirds. Starting at the low E there is a strict alteration of minor 7th and major 7th chords.

Don- If your tuning works for you, great! Different people are looking for different things in tunings, often based on their own picking style. One twist on your idea of adjacent thirds would be to follow the diatonic scale like this for C Major:

[tab] (triads and 4-note chords starting at low C and going up)
1 G
2 E m3
3 C M3
4 A m3 A minor 7 (or C6)
5 F M3 F Major 7
6 D m3 D minor 7 (or F6)
7 B m3 B half-diminished 7
8 G M3 G dominant 7
9 E m3 E minor 7 (or G6)
10 C M3 C Major 7
(That tuning doesn't have any whole step intervals, either. )[/tab]

That's my 2 cents, Don. I think it is great that you are forging ahead creating your own tuning and sharing it with us. (It is said that Speedy West would detune some of his strings whenever he'd leave the bandstand to mislead anyone trying to copy his tuning.)

Steve Ahola

Steve wrote: ''(It is said that Speedy West would detune some of his strings whenever he'd leave the bandstand to mislead anyone trying to copy his tuning.)''

And, also said of Joachim Murphey, I understand....................may be a few others as well?

I think it's an interesting tuning, at first glance, but if you use an 08 gauge on top, maybe you should lower the whole thing an octave,(although, it's not clear what gauge your bottom strings are).Seems like the dim chord is only a foward slant away.
Wouldn't worry too much about "pedal steel " sound, although sometimes it adds, but... This is a different instrument.
Rick