The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm a long time open D player. I've been looking at learning C6 tuning, but wondered if I should drop down a whole step and learn D6 instead? I'm thinking root position would transfer from open D to D6 a little easier for me? Any opinions on this?

After a little research this would be my string gauges:
F#/Gb .012 to .013 .013
D .015 to .017 .016
B .017 to .019 .018
A .020* to .022* .021
F#/Gb .024w to .026w .026w
D .032w to .036w .034w

Well my first comment is those string gauges look awful light, no matter what tuning you use. I use open D and open G (dobro tuning) but I also get a wonderful sound while in open G by tuning the 4th D string from D to E thus getting a very useful G6 tuning.

Also D6, low to high: D-A-D-F#-B-D with heavy bottom "dobro" set is an option.

Since you're only spanning an octave and a third, the strings *will* get lighter... I think you've got the right idea with the gauges you've selected. E will be a convenient 2 frets up... G and A will fall right in. Hardest key will be C, of course!

That said... the close 6 tunings use a lot less ringing open strings... more of a steel guitar style than dobro or blues. You might find yourself not playing in D very much, is what I'm saying.

And many folks (me included) already find C a little 'shrill'... A6 is a popular key, going up from C to D will get more shrill. Heck, try it and see.

I played a Hank Williams Tribute show with that D6th tuning. It was good for both Don Helms and Jerry Byrd parts, as it was midway between their tunings.

My 8-string is tuned the same, with a low B and low G for the 7th and 8th strings. See b0b.com/wp/?page_id=3936 for string gauges.

Apologies for waking this zombie thread from last year, but today I tried tuning my Open D string 2 from A up to B, and holy cow! Everything just kinda fell into place for blues jamming in major and minor keys.

DADF#BD

Had so much fun with it this afternoon. Until today the only tuning that really felt “natural” to me was standard open D. I liked the D7 tunings too, but they didn’t help with minor keys.

I wonder if this D6 tuning will be the one that finally “sticks” with me?

https://youtu.be/qlPRUt6KneE

I really enjoyed that Greg.

And you also demonstrate some of the advantages of this tuning, like access to that bottom end when you want to throw in a little bit of bass flavour. And that 6 note at string 2 is easy to skip when you don’t want it, and easy to nail when you do.

Jody Perritt wrote:I'm a long time open D player. I've been looking at learning C6 tuning, but wondered if I should drop down a whole step and learn D6 instead? I'm thinking root position would transfer from open D to D6 a little easier for me? Any opinions on this?

I prefer a 6th tuning. It's versatility is a real plus. On my 6-string lap steels, I favor the common 1-3-5-6-1-3 (low to high); I have instruments set up with string gauges appropriate for both C6 and E6. On my 7-string instruments, I favor 1-3-5-6-1-3-5, and tune to A6. I prefer to have the root note on the bottom string.

Individual string gauges will vary proportionally to the scale length and the pitch desired.

There's certainly nothing wrong with a D6 tuning, but I would likely recommend C6 as a starting point, for no other reason than the availability of tutorials and tabs available in that very popular tuning.

Today I tried tuning a full step higher, to E6 / C#m7

Advantages include smoother slide on the higher tension strings, and having the same root positions on strings 1 & 6 as standard guitar. For those who like having print resources available, C#m7 is one of the original early tunings, whereas there is basically nothing out there for the matching D6 tuning. Of course, except for note names, the same patterns would apply.

Main disadvantage is losing the low D on string 6.

The tuning works nicely for some western swing and Hawaiian tunes like Hula Blues but surprisingly, it can also work for other genres - like 80s pop/rock. Here's how I arranged a few years ago (with a huge nod to Andy McKee's arrangement) Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" in D6th.

https://soundcloud.com/andrew-volk-1170 ... 6th-tuning

Andy Volk wrote:The tuning works nicely for some western swing and Hawaiian tunes like Hula Blues but surprisingly, it can also work for other genres - like 80s pop/rock. Here's how I arranged a few years ago (with a huge nod to Andy McKee's arrangement) Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" in D6th.

https://soundcloud.com/andrew-volk-1170 ... 6th-tuning

That was pretty cool Andy.

I’ve been using this tuning for blues improvisation, with blues backing tracks.
It’s perfect for blues in minor keys. For major keys, the 6 sounds a bit blah in full chords strums, but it sounds really cool for single note picking. Adds a nice flavour picking 6-1, and also sounds nice on two note 1-6 up-strums from string 1 to 2.

Today I tried a variation of D6 for my 7 string lap steeles, DADF#ABD and quite liked it. It’s nice to have the minor and minor 7 chords along with the big phat majors. I play mostly blues so having a minor 7 under the bar is nice. The 6 sounds “not so nice” when strummed but sounds great as a passing note when picking. It’s easy enough to avoid the 2nd string when strumming major chords.

The 6 string version is also nice. I definitely prefer the 6 on string 2 rather than on string 5, even though minor chords are more strummable with the low root.