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Topic: Regular G tuning |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 12:36 pm |
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The tuning most used for Dobros takes the regular guitar chord of G. We raised the fifth string by a tone, to move it from A to B, and we moved the sixth string up from E to G. We could have moved the 1st string up from E to G, but it would in most cases have broken under pressure, so we lowered it from E to D.
So we arrived at the current Dobro tuning of GBEGBD. Some people tune the 1st string to G, which is stretching the limit of how high a string can be tensioned.
Has anyone worked with the tuning GBEGACG ? |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 1:05 pm
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I always thought the most common Dobro tuning was (low to high) GBDGBD.
You know the last tuning you listed is 7 strings? |
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Stephen Abruzzo
From:
Philly, PA
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 1:17 pm
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| Alan, it has been mentioned around the SGF more than a few times that the "original" steel tuning was Open A (lo-to-hi...A-C#-E-A-C#-E). Then, the bluegrass guys got hold of the Dobro and since they did a majority of their songs in G, they just lowered the tuning by one whole step to Open G. |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 2:25 pm
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| Stephen Abruzzo wrote: |
| Alan, it has been mentioned around the SGF more than a few times that the "original" steel tuning was Open A (lo-to-hi...A-C#-E-A-C#-E). Then, the bluegrass guys got hold of the Dobro and since they did a majority of their songs in G, they just lowered the tuning by one whole step to Open G. |
I was taught as a kid in the '60s taking steel guitar lessons, and this is the tuning I started out on, the original A tuning for 6 string Hawaiian steel guitar - low bass A:
low-to hi: E A E A C# E
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Mark |
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Steve Green
From:
Gulfport, MS, USA
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 2:25 pm
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| Stephen Abruzzo wrote: |
| Alan, it has been mentioned around the SGF more than a few times that the "original" steel tuning was Open A (lo-to-hi...A-C#-E-A-C#-E). Then, the bluegrass guys got hold of the Dobro and since they did a majority of their songs in G, they just lowered the tuning by one whole step to Open G. |
I heard that it was Josh Graves who first lowered his Dobro to G chord (from the standard A chord) in order to match Earl Scruggs' banjo.
I also heard that Brother Oswald never changed to G, and kept his Dobro in the traditional A tuning.
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Some songs I've written |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 3:12 pm
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Right - Oswald stayed with A, but he didn't play the low bass A which I posted about above, so the question is what is more "traditional," and I think that would be the low bass A and there are documents of the tuning being used in the late 1800's.
As far as Josh Graves and G, I think it's become sort of an assumption that he was the guy that started it on the dobro - but I don't know if that has really ever been substantiated. I was going to check out my copy of his autobiography from four years ago to see it there is any mention, but it isn't where I saw it last. We've been doing a lot of moving stuff around in my house lately and my many books are in multiple locations around here right now.
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Mark
Last edited by Mark Eaton on 1 Jul 2016 4:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blake Hawkins
From:
Florida
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Posted 1 Jul 2016 4:15 pm
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The original steel guitar books I had from the
1930s started out with the A Major Low Bass tuning.
Later advanced lessons moved to the A Major High
Bass Tuning which was also referred to as the "Orchestra Tuning." |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 2 Jul 2016 10:15 am
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| Jeff Mead wrote: |
| ...You know the last tuning you listed is 7 strings? |
Yes, I have an 8-string resonator guitar. It's that one I was thinking of trying it out on. I currently have C6 on it. |
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