The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm kind of having an existential issue with choosing a tuning. Do you think its better to restring a tricone to C6 or to keep it in G6 (which I can pretty easily wingback into Low and High G) and transpose?

Thanks in advance for your sage advice.....

I'm no expert on tricones, but it seems to me that the heavier gauge strings of the G6 tuning would produce a better tone and more volume than the C6 gauges.

Yup.

I went round and round with this too, and my solution was to tune the tricone to A6, which means you can keep your regular high-G resonator strings. Low to high A C# E F# A C.

I'll try A6, Moving up 3 frets is easier than moving up 5 (especially in my head!)

Most folks will tell you that G6 is the way to go on a tricone as it holds better tension against the cones. They're right. That being said, I play mine in C6 because that's the tuning I know really well. It sounds just fine, but probably not as beefy as it would in a lower tuning. I use heavier gauges than electric C6, so that helps make it sound not so anemic.

Patrick, what are the gauges you use?

I go with C6 also. 14, 18, 24,26, 32, 38.