The Steel Guitar Forum

Do I even dare bring it up.

I think it has finally become a safe subject around here and I know there are 40 threads already about Robert and about 4 about his tuning but they all look to be from a couple years back.

Finding Robert's actual 13 string tuning is way more difficult than I ever thought. I visited b0b's page on it and it still isn't completely clear to me what the tuning is.

I have tuned my 10 string non-pedal neck to a E7 tuning without the double E's and the low B to get the 12 string tuning I saw on Carter's site for him to 10 strings.

Do I expect to recreate in one weekend what Robert has taken a lifetime to achieve? Of course not, but although the E7 tuning I am using makes since, I hear SO MUCH more dynamic playing that I am able to do with it when I break his recordings down. With E7, I can only seem to get away with playing at the root, and 2 frets down from the root. Robert is all over the place making it sound much more lively and not completely bluesish.

I almost think if I with C6 I could recreate it better as C6 seems to have more ability to move frets and still stay in key.

So, anybody actually find out what the actually tuning is yet? Or am I just in denial that it is truly a E7(ish) tuning?

I don't need the compedance because we all know he rarely uses the pedals anyway.

Heya Steve,
I'd suggest getting a copy of Chuck Cambell's DVD. Great insights into the world of Sacred Steel. Also, search the forum for Dan Tayack's Sacred Steel tuning.

To my ears, Robert seems to blend a lot of the bluesy elements with liberal sprinklings of major and minor pentatonics; I'm sure a result of his listening to a lot of Stevie Ray. As a lot of guys will say, most of it's there on the E9 neck, just a matter of finding it. Personally, I like the Universal tuning for this sort of stuff. I drop the low F# to E on a knee lever.

I'd have to disagree with the thought that he dosen't use pedals. I was at a recent show, and he used knee levers and pedal extensively.

I haven't seen him live yet so I will defer my thought on how he uses his pedals. Many others here said he doesn't use them much and on the crossroads DVD he didn't. But I have heard clips of him playing country riffs and know he knows how to use them well.

If he uses them a lot now then I guess it will be that much more difficult

Here's RR's 13-string copedant from the Sierra site:

<font face="monospace" size="3"><pre> LKL LKV LKR RKL RKR
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7
1 F#
2 D#
3 G# G A G
4 E D F F#
5 D D# C#
6 B Bb C# C#
7 G# Bb A G
8 E D F F#
9 E Eb D F
10 B Bb C#
11 G# Bb A G
12 E F# F# F
13 B Bb
</pre></font>

And here's Chuck Campbell's 12-string tuning. Chuck was RR's mentor, and plays this tuning as good or better.
<font face="monospace" size="3"><pre> LKL LKV LKR RKL RKR
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7
1 F#
2 E D
3 G# A G
4 E F# F
5 D D# C# C#
6 B Bb C#
7 G# Bb A G
8 E F# F
9 E D# D
10 B C# C#
11 E F# F# F# F
12 B C# C#
</pre></font>

They both approach blues-gospel as if playing a many stringed lap steel. They don't use pedals much for the fast pentatonic stuff, but they may be doing things with knee levers we don't see.

I was just sitting eating some super fine
11 hour cooked brisket this evening,
at 'Nigels' on the beach here.

And suddenly out of the
Sausolito music cafe next door
RR and the family band came littling,
at high speed, my way.

it was one of the fast numbers, and I heard it,
and at first it was mostly the lead lines,
and I was thinking gee I know this great tune...
then it dawned on me !!

It was just so unexpected here in Thailand.

Yesterday I saw RR playing in some TV football add. He's everywhere.

There are two big differences between the SS tunings and the Extended E9th:

1. the high D string between the B and E.
2. replacing the 3 midrange strings D E F# with two E strings (brilliant, IMHO!)

There are no inherent limitations in the SS tunings, compared to E9th. All of the standard E9th stuff is playable on SS. The main problem is the lack of teaching materials, especially at the beginner level.

I'm moving this to the Pedal Steel section from Steel Players.

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<font size="1"><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog </font>
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