The Steel Guitar Forum

My daughter ( bless her heart ), bought me a Recording King lap steel for my retirement.
I'm wondering why when I look at string sets, the thicker ones say G tuning.
Couldn't I use them for Open E? Or am I missing something? I understand about string tension, but it's a lap steel, not a 6 string guitar.
thanks for any and all help.

You need to determine what tuning you want to put on that guitar and then buy the appropriate strings for that tuning.
You can get a good string gauge chart from here:
www.hawaiiansteel.com
Erv

It comes down to a couple of things: can you tune the string to the note without it breaking or flipping around, and does it feel right under your bar? The first question is easier to answer with the string gauge chart you can find through the forum (the one Erv mentioned). The second one is personal choice, and may vary from instrument to instrument (scale length being a big factor).

What a great daughter you have — have fun with your new steel!

Brian Stear wrote:My daughter ( bless her heart ), bought me a Recording King lap steel for my retirement.
I'm wondering why when I look at string sets, the thicker ones say G tuning.
Couldn't I use them for Open E? Or am I missing something? I understand about string tension, but it's a lap steel, not a 6 string guitar.
thanks for any and all help.

You are correct insofar as it is darn near impossible to damage your instrument with inappropriate string gauges. However, strings will break if they are too tight, and will be too floppy to play if too loose. Beyond that, playability will suffer if the tension is too different from string to string.

In a nutshell there are 3 main tuning “families”, and the same strings can comfortably be used within each
151351 Open D/E (Heavy bottom, 58-62) - also for guitar G, DGDGBD
135135 Open G/A (Medium bottom, 52-58)
135613 C6 (light bottom, around 36)

Most tunings seem to have a D or an E on top, usually a 14, 15, or 16.

A string set that goes from 16 to 58 can be used for most tunings besides the C6/A6 tunings. You can tweak them to taste later.

Thanks Erv, Peter, and Allan. That answered my question(s)!