The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey everybody, so I’ve been playing pedal steel for a few years now (thanks Johnny Cox for getting me up and running with my first steel and early advice/encouragement) but I was recently gifted a Fender Stringmaster D8 and I’m wanting to get into some non-pedal stuff. I really love Kayton’s C6/A7 tuning. But I do have a random question. What are the advantages of making the 8th string a bass A string on bottom versus Just a low C? I’m trying to find different voicings and chord options (of which this tuning provides many) but just wondering what the advantage of going from the 7th string A to the 8th string A an octave lower would provide versus just ending with a low C. I’m sure there are some obvious advantages and insights to this that me as a beginner can’t see so just wanting some tips on how to utilize that low string. Thanks everyone!

https://youtu.be/Lfh7BpN-OqM

Here’s a way to go…

Maybe Chris Scruggs will chime in on this…
If you watch some Kayton videos you’ll see him use that low A for some dom 7 chords that mimic the low “boowah” C6 pedal. It is almost a “special effects” string so it’s a personal decision on how useful it might be to you. You might find the D on top or Bb on bottom a better choice depending on your style.

Example-https://youtu.be/y9paq0kDBWY

Whenever I play in C6/A7, that's the tuning I use. I think JB may have kept a C# and a C string down low, but that requires very good picking discipline (and no strumming). Gave him more chordal options though, I guess.

But I go with the two low A's on my 8 string. It's an easy retune from my home base of C13. But the reason why, well, I would say the way I think of the "slash" tunings is you have one tuning bottom up, another tuning top down. B11 is that way, even though it technically is a B11 chord, functionally it is A6 on the top strings, and B9 (ok, sometimes 11th) up from the bottom strings. Same with C6/A7...from the top down for five strings you have normal C6. From the bottom up, you have A7 (functions very similarly to B11 in that you play your melodic stuff mostly on the higher 6th tuning section, and hit lower tuned 7th/9th chords in the 7th/9th section). So if I want to play a nice 7th chord in that tuning...having the root on the bottom, well, I tend to like that. More useful than a discordant low C that doesn't fit in an A7 chord anyway, especially if you strum a lot. Just me explaining my reasons, anyway...your mileage may vary!