What do you lap cats think of this tuning?

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Just spotted this discussion over on the jazz guitar forum and a light bulb went on in me that maybe this would be a really useful lap steel tuning. It's created just by adding a b6 to a major scale. There's an amazing variety of chords you can get in any one position: Maj, maj7, m7, dim, m7b5, aug5, dom7, and more. Plus you can get scalar lines straight across without lots of bar movement that's needed in 3rds-based tunings. Not sure there's any lap steel tuning that is this versatile, is there? Can Leavitt tuning do this much? What do you folks think?

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Looks very nice, Jim. Besides counting 3-noe and 4-note chords, I think you can evaluate the practicality of a tuning by noting which intervals (2-note chords) are available. Those are more likely what you will grab in a real playing situation. And this tuning has every interval up to an octave, with one either string 1 or string 2 on top, so it's very useful.
Downsides of this tuning would be the limited range, and the arguable fact that strings higher than C sound better for melody, but you don't have any.

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

Personally I dont like this tuning. The interval are two close, like Earnest said you have a limited range.

To me its a big mistake to try to have full 4 notes or more chords in one straight position, I think the beauty of non pedal is to chase for 2 and 3 part harmony, tritone and chord substitution. Its a part of the fun and the sound to moving the bar and doing slant, in non pedal the left hand is very active and that give a feeling.

With a 13 tuning like C13 or E13 you can get all what you need.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I don't think it's a mistake at all to have chromatically tuned strings, if that's what one needs. We all have different conceptions of how we want to play. I was very close to doing something similar to this with my Clinesmith. I studied the Alkire tuning and devised my own, eliminating or changing what I thought would work for me.

I play C13 tuning, 10 strings, and no, I can't get everything I want--I make do with what I have. I'd rather get what I want. 1/2 steps are the only element of my guitar playing that I have not been able to transfer to steel. I need that in my chords. When I play a Maj7 chord, my favorite voicing is a derivation of the 3rd inversion, so it looks like this on guitar:

C Maj7
----3---------
----1---------
----4---------
----2---------
--------------
--------------

I do agree, though, having a lot of chords available without moving the bar is not really something that interests me, but having the ability to get all the extensions and inversions is important.
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Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

jim. tune a guitar to that and play something! all tunings are relevant!! takes an adventurous player to try a new tuning and see what happens. i have the leavitt extended out to 14 strings with some chromatics ala the alkire. i retune my two lowest string to whatever i need in the bass.

i see no sense in being constrained by standardization of tunings.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Like most diatonic tunings it would offer a lot of chords and beautiful sounds, but it wouldn't be easy to play, not for beginning players IMO. There wouldn't be much strumming, but a more careful, selective picking of certain strings and omitting other strings to avoid unwanted notes. Scale based tunings have been around for a long time: JB's C diatonic, extended Leavitt, the Alkire Eharp tuning, and recent tunings devised by Forum members here. I've experimented with C diatonic a bit, and there are some beautiful and interesting sounds in it, but for me it's mostly a hobby tuning that I play at home. I don't really need it for my band work. I can see how a jazz player would like this tuning though.
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Ian Kerr · From: Queensland, Australia

Not keen on it as a tuning for my lap steel as I do see some difficulties imposed for my style of playing with regard to picking,strums,sweeps,sliding,slants.Having said that,on the pedal steel [am I allowed to say that here]it's a different story as that movement [A to Ab]on a lever works so well with pedals 5 & 6 and you get the close voicing of B and C as in Mike Neer's Cmaj7 chord for standard guitar.

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