| Author |
Topic: Low string on E13 tuning |
Webb Kline
From:
Orangeville, PA
|
Posted 12 Mar 2016 7:40 pm |
|
I've been shedding hard on 8 string E13 tuning for the last several months. I never realized how versatile it can be, and especially working it in conjunction with A or C 6 tuning on the other neck in context of the same song.
Using hi to lo - E C# B G# F# E D B, I can play over 20 chords on one fret, with only a couple of slants, I can play in something like 6 or 7 keys. It's really amazing.
Initially I had tried McAuliffe's tuning E C# B G# F# D B G# E, but the lo E seemed so gutteral that I didn't find much use for it.
So, in experimenting, I used the McAuliffe tuning, but raised my lo E an octave, so that it is actually a full tone above my 6th string D. I've been working out a lot with it and I'm really liking it a lot. I'm torn between that and having the E and D together. It has its advantages too, but the more I play with the raised E on the 8th string, the more I like it, and no longer seem to miss the E on the 6th string. When doing a pentatonic run down from the high E, it seems much easier to hit the E accurately on the 8th string than when it's on the 6th, and starting a banjo roll run up, beginning with 7, 6, 8, 5 works quite well too.
Now I am wondering, did Leon use a raised E on the 8th as well, and I just never understood that he did? It just seems a lot more useful to me. Any thoughts or knowledge on this? |
|
|
 |
Scott Thomas
|
Posted 12 Mar 2016 8:52 pm
|
|
I copied this photo from a recent auction picture of one of Leon McAuliffe's Fender quad Stringmasters. Here is his E13 presumably written in his own hand complete with string gauges (for a 24.5 guitar). It's a big fat low E:
 |
|
|
|
Webb Kline
From:
Orangeville, PA
|
Posted 12 Mar 2016 9:23 pm
|
|
Well, that settles it. Thanks for the info. Still doesn't make as much sense to me as an octave higher, can't hardly argue with Leon's results. 
It would seem that the Am9 tuning, if I am reading that correctly should have a G and a B in there somewhere though. |
|
|
|
Paul Seager
From:
Augsburg, Germany
|
Posted 13 Mar 2016 6:38 am
|
|
I am really appreciative of this post. I also strung my 2nd neck to Leon E13, pretty much because Cindy Cashdollar uses it and I generally find her advice worth following!
Whilst I cannot say I have made anything like your progress Webb, I was always puzzled by the low E. Fair to say that my Rickenbacker is 22.5" scale and that low E doesn't have much punch, even with a heavy gauge but still I was puzzled to its use.
As to the main question in your post, I wouldn't know. I've always read from others that Leon's E13 is chord rich but soloing and melodies are better on a 6th tuning and of course he played 3+ necks!
I've been considering changing the tuning to what you are using. Have you been taking notes on where all those chords are? Educational material on E13 seems to be in short supply so I am sure there is a demand for what you have learnt.
\ paul
_________________
\paul
Bayern Hawaiians: https://www.youtube.com/@diebayernhawaiians3062
Other stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@paulseager3796/videos |
|
|
|
Bob Watson
From:
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
|
Posted 13 Mar 2016 11:38 pm
|
|
| Webb, strings 3 to 8 of your tuning are the same as strings 5 to 10 on an E9 pedal steel. |
|
|
|
Webb Kline
From:
Orangeville, PA
|
Posted 14 Mar 2016 4:57 am
|
|
| Bob Watson wrote: |
| Webb, strings 3 to 8 of your tuning are the same as strings 5 to 10 on an E9 pedal steel. |
Bob, they are close E9 when I have the E and D together, although E13 has a B on 3rd string, which would be the same as a pedal E9 with your A or C pedal down. But Leon didn't have his E in sequence between F# and D, as it is on E9 or one of the other common E13 tuning, but had the low E on the bottom. That is the one that I switched to an octave higher. I'm still not settled on it, and I will continue to go back and forth for a while. I'm on more familiar turf with the E and D together, but really liking the results of having the 8th string E tuned a tone higher than the D.
Paul, I'll tell you what I did to learn my way around: I made an Exel chart of the neck so that I could have a visual on where the notes are. I cheated a bit by going to looknohands.com and making a custom tuning on the virtual guiitar, tuning it to E13. While it only shows 6 strings at a time, it saves a lot of time searching for various scales. You'd be surprised by how quickly you commit scales to memory with out even trying, and it also teaches you all the positions of those scales on the neck, so you can start ripping up and down the neck in relative short order with the advantage that the chart gives you.
You can go to the chord side and see where the chords are on those 6 strings as well, including slants that would work. Being a piano player as well, I'm more attuned to having a visual in my mind of notes in a chord, and that helps a lot. But once you have the Exel sheet in front of you, with the notes named on the chart, you can just look at it and see the chords. Like Bob Watson says, its close to an E9 pedal tuning, and if you're a pedal player, as I am, you can bring some of that knowledge over to E13.
I haven't had a pedal guitar for some time, but I'm getting another one shortly from a friend, and I'm chomping at the bit to get back on it, because playing non-pedal guitars has forced me to learn a lot of things about pedal guitar that I never knew. |
|
|
|
