The Steel Guitar Forum

I use open G for my first lap. Would like to have a good tuning for southern rock/Americana maybe even a little southern blues.

I assume 6 strings? Why not D tuning?

LOL....I just got my 2nd ric myself and once it is squared away I will be saying the same question too. I use open G too at the moment.

How many strings?
You'll find many proponents of C6 tuning here. Or you can go with an open E or D, if you want something more, I don't know, straight up? I think you'll get a bigger change of flavor with C6. I've read many players here offering up C6 as a good blues tuning, in addition to being great for Hawaiian & western swing.

Like you, I settled on open G (low D in bass) for my main lap tuning.

I think C6th is great all around. The open strings give you most of the notes in an A min pentatonic scale - essentially a blues scale. When played against a C root, the C6th notes give you a major pentatonic -- country and blues. Here's an example of blues using c6th: a little B min blues jam I put together against The Thrill is Gone backing track.

https://www.soundclick.com/html5/v4/pla ... D=13857839

If you want to play more “slide guitarish”, then yeah, open D or E. If you want to venture more into the steel guitar realm, then a C6, A6, E9 etc. is more in line. The steel gutar tunings have closer intervals, which, with enough practice, can make sounds available to you that you couldn’t get otherwise.

If it's a 6-string, I would install a string set gauged so you can mix it up with C6, A6, B11, D9, and many others.

If it's a 7-string, I'd use A6 with an E on top.

If it's an 8-string, I'd set it up for E13.

Thanks y'all for the suggestions.The person I'm taking lessons from is strictly bluegrass,country and gospel music. So I'm on my own for other types of music.I will try each one suggested and see which one I enjoy

Open E (low bass) for Rawk!

For what you want to play, southern rock and blues, D tuning is probably the best. Get a capo from Resophonic Outfitters and that D can become an E. Just going by what you say you want to play those are the best ones.