The Steel Guitar Forum

latest build is a small lightweight 8 string lap steel. im surprised how much sustain it has, but the maple and walnut its made of is probably 30 years old so it has good tone built in! the tune was made popular by benny goodman back in the day with the pioneer charlie christian on guitar. the guitar is for sale in the forum steel guitars for sale section.

the tuning....i was tinkering around and came up with a cool tuning that works well with this style. somebody let me know if i actually came up with it or if it is a tuning that i didnt know about.

from low to high F Bb C# F G Bb C Eb. the lowest 4 strings are a nice minor chord and the top 4 have a 6th.

lap guitar is direct, a drum loop and elec bass.

here are two links.

https://soundcloud.com/bill-hatcher/sof ... p-steel-02

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qqz98ro2 ... 2.mp3/file

Sweet track Bill. Such tasty comping and I love the rich tone you’re getting. I know this number well from Kenny Burrell’s Night at the Vanguard LP -great in-the-pocket blues! Neat tuning - it’s like having 2 necks in 1!

And your build looks and sounds great. It really works for the tune you showcased and I’m sure it goes around the block handily with other lap styles too. Congrats!

Nice guitar and playing Bill!

Your tuning is very close to the Vance Terry version of E13th, just a semi-tone lower.

His from bottom up was:
3, 5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 13, 1
Yours has the 2 as the bottom note instead.
Cool variation.

That’s really nice Bill!
The instrument AND the playing,

Beautiful work, as always.

I spent a couple of hours the other day searching thru your forum posts to download all the tracks you've posted!

I suggest you create a "Bill Hatcher Songs" thread, post all your old tracks (if you have the energy to find them all!), and then update that thread with new songs as you record them. That way there's a "one stop shop" to hear your playing and see your lovely guitars.

BTW, Bohemian Rhapsody was just insane!

Travis Brown wrote:Beautiful work, as always.

I spent a couple of hours the other day searching thru your forum posts to download all the tracks you've posted!

I suggest you create a "Bill Hatcher Songs" thread, post all your old tracks (if you have the energy to find them all!), and then update that thread with new songs as you record them. That way there's a "one stop shop" to hear your playing and see your lovely guitars.

BTW, Bohemian Rhapsody was just insane!

thanks trav. i have in the past rounded up what i could find and made a post of just links to tunes i have recorded and shared on the forum again. new people come in and maybe they have not heard some of them. its nice to hear the playing of folks here. thanks for your interest and looking up past stuff. the queen tune was a challenge for sure, but i got through it.

Nice playing Bill! The steel sounds really good too.

Fine looking See Bill!!
Joe Elk Central Ohio

Rob Fenton wrote:Nice guitar and playing Bill!

Your tuning is very close to the Vance Terry version of E13th, just a semi-tone lower.

His from bottom up was:
3, 5, 7, 9, 3, 5, 13, 1
Yours has the 2 as the bottom note instead.
Cool variation.

rob. what if you think of the tuning in Bb? i wanted this song to be in the key of Bb so i was centering my tonality on the 7th string which is Bb. the reason i tuned the low 8th string to F was to give me the 5th in the key of Bb. thinking in Bb, the G gives the 6th, the C gives a Bb2 and the Eb gives a Bbsus4. the Bb F Bb gives a nice set of 5ths etc. i was able to find a lot of chords tuned like this.

so what would you call this tuning using Bb as the tonal reference? the top 4 strings are an Eb6 chord and the four lower strings are a Bb minor.

btw, i almost dropped it all down 1/2 step to think in the key of A, which i will probably try another time. i used Bb just because its a "horn" key and also so much of the steel guitar repertoire is in guitar friendly keys. i wanted a different key than that.

thanks for your input.

I guess you could use Bbm13(add4) which is pretty awkward IMO.

Personally I prefer Bbm/Cm7

Travis Brown wrote:I guess you could use Bbm13(add4) which is pretty awkward IMO.

Personally I prefer Bbm/Cm7

how about "prefering" Bbm/Eb6. thats not so scary.

In the key of Bb I'd probably call it Bb Dorian?
It comprises a Bbm13 chord without the 7th Ab.
Hmmmm, you could maybe also call it Bbm 6/9? That makes no mention of the 11th though.

I think Eb6 over Bbm as you have described it is as good a description as any.

Whatever you call it, it sounds great!
I like how these tunings give you a m7(b5) in the middle. Very handy. I have just figured out You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To in essentially the same tuning, but I haven't been using the lowest string. Perhaps I'll try tuning that one down to match yours.

Bill Hatcher wrote:

Travis Brown wrote:I guess you could use Bbm13(add4) which is pretty awkward IMO.

Personally I prefer Bbm/Cm7

how about "prefering" Bbm/Eb6. thats not so scary.

That works, too, though I think Bbm/Cm7 captures the Dorian quality of the tuning that Rob alludes to.