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Topic: 6 string C6/Am7 and/or C6/A7 |
Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2013 6:51 pm |
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Curious as to whether you guys stick to one or the other tuning or do both, and your reasons for doing so.
If you do both do you have dedicated steels for each tuning or do you just tune the 6th string back and forth?
If you use one steel for both do you use a tuner or ear tune?
-Thanks |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2013 10:10 pm Re: 6 string C6/Am7 and/or C6/A7
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| Scott Hemleben wrote: |
If you do both do you have dedicated steels for each tuning or do you just tune the 6th string back and forth?
If you use one steel for both do you use a tuner or ear tune? |
I'm no expert but my preference is to leave that string (~0.38") at C# most of the time, and sometimes retune to C natural. Sometimes I retune other strings such as high C (~.017") to B for a while. It is quick and easy to do by ear.
Jerry Byrd could re-tune his strings really fast, but he often used both C and C# strings a half step apart anyway. |
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Loyal McAvoy
From:
California, USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2013 11:45 pm Re: 6 string C6/Am7 and/or C6/A7
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If you do both do you have dedicated steels for each tuning or do you just tune the 6th string back and forth?
I feel that the cycle of fifths (fourths) is so prevalent in music that one needs a well defined dominant chord on the lap steel. They also functions as tri-tone subs (substituting by flatted fifth, for people of my age.) It just makes things much easier in my opinion. That being said, I also think that if a player chooses any tuning, practices, and sticks with it religiously, eventually they will be able to play anything they want to play within the physical limitations of the instrument.
Loyal |
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Loyal McAvoy
From:
California, USA
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Posted 28 Aug 2013 11:46 pm Re: 6 string C6/Am7 and/or C6/A7
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If you do both do you have dedicated steels for each tuning or do you just tune the 6th string back and forth?
I feel that the cycle of fifths (fourths) is so prevalent in music that one needs a well defined dominant chord on the lap steel. They also functions as tri-tone subs (substituting by flatted fifth, for people of my age.) It just makes things much easier in my opinion. That being said, I also think that if a player chooses any tuning, practices, and sticks with it religiously, eventually they will be able to play anything they want to play within the physical limitations of the instrument.
Loyal |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 6:21 am
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It's easy enough to raise the sixth string to C# when required (or to lower it to C when required). I've played around with the C# but not enough to affect my playing.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Paul DiMaggio
From:
Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 7:31 am
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| I just tune the C up and back also. I use a clip on tuner parked as close to the string as is possible. They seem to be more accurate that way. |
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 3:53 pm
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Loyal: "I feel that the cycle of fifths (fourths) is so prevalent in music that one needs a well defined dominant chord on the lap steel."
I agree. And though the dom7 voicings are there in the standard C6, they don't seem to be as fat and complete as with what you can get when you sharp the 6th string.
But on the other hand when I'm in C6/A7 I get to missing the natural on the low C.
Maybe what I really want is a 7 or 8 string so I can get the best of both worlds?  |
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 4:25 pm
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Paul DiMaggio: "I just tune the C up and back also. I use a clip on tuner parked as close to the string as is possible. They seem to be more accurate that way."
Yeah that's what I've been doing too. I park my Snark on the headstock. It works out pretty well. What I like with my steel (as opposed to one of my guitars) is that swapping up and down doesn't make the other strings go out of tune. |
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 4:54 pm
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Earnest Bovine: "I'm no expert but my preference is to leave that string (~0.38") at C# most of the time, and sometimes retune to C natural. Sometimes I retune other strings such as high C (~.017") to B for a while. It is quick and easy to do by ear."
I tried that high C to B re-tune and it sounds pretty cool.
Do you know if there is a resource of alternate tunings for the basic C6? Like alterations you could do without having to change any of the strings? |
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William Lake
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 6:07 pm
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Scott....look into the Leavitt tuning. A search will find lots. It uses standard C6 strings.
It's what I use 90% of the time now.
_________________
Bill |
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 6:29 pm
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| Thanks William. I've heard a few things about the Leavitt. I didn't know you could do it with regular C6 strings. |
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William Lake
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 29 Aug 2013 7:32 pm
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Scott...only 3 strings are altered from C6 and not by much.
The bottom C to C#, The A to Bb and the top E to D.
Dim on the bottom four, Dom7 on the middle 4.
You have every chord you can think of. mi7b5, Ma7, Dom7b5 and so on.
_________________
Bill |
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2013 7:19 pm
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Thanks for all the help guys 
I think after trying C6/A7 and Leavitt I'm going to go back and stick with the basic C6 tuning.
Maybe I'm simple-minded, but I really prefer the stripped down versions of the dominant chords. They sound more crisp and uncluttered. Just my opinion. |
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Michael James
From:
La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
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Scott Hemleben
From:
Louisiana, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2013 8:06 pm
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| It sounds interesting Michael. Do you have any other song demos (not lessons) besides Summertime? If I missed them I'm sorry. |
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