C6 CEGACE on Six Strings; Still Don’t Like it

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

After a few years of lap steeling I’ve finally reached a level where CEGACE C6 and the A string makes sense AND is very useful AND the A is not in the way. But I still don’t really like it.

I now have all my 7 string lap steels tuned C6 with a low G string, GCEGACE, and I like it a lot. But on 6 strings, I feel like the tuning with C on the bottom has “no balls”. I can live with GCEACE on my 6 string lap steels for now too.

The beauty of the standard C6 tuning isn’t lost on me, I just feel like it doesn’t really shine until you can fatten up the bottom with another string or two.

Anyone else moved away from CEGACE for this reason?
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G6 – e G D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D

https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database

Carl McLaughlin · From: St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can

That A string still gets in my way a lot,I may finally give something else a try?
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I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G

D Schubert · From: Columbia, MO, USA

Before I had any 8-string guitars, I would use this G6 that could be easily retuned to E7. Low to high

BDEGBD
BDEG#BE

If I recall, forumite Jerry Hayes was a fan of this two-way tuning. Especially for guitar players that double on steel for a few tunes.

I bought a Certano bender last year, and played around further with that six-string E7th tuning, raising the 2nd and third strings to pull the E chord up to A. Lowered the 5th string from D to C#, and ended up with a useful E6 pedal tuning.

Carl McLaughlin · From: St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can

Thanks, I may try that.
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I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Carl McLaughlin · From: St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can

Thanks Allan, you have steered me in the right direction i think, just have to work on the C6 harder.

Carl Smile

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I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

I like this 6 strings tuning : BbEGACE

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Travis Brown · From: Florida, USA

Carl McLaughlin · From: St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can

Thanks to all for your suggestions,I have decided to stick with CEGACE,at least for now. Smile

Carl
_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G

David M Brown · From: California, USA

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I think you have to decide what type of playing you want to do on a particular tuning. If you are looking at a dead-thumb type Delta Blues, obviously C6 is not going to cut it unless you have 8 strings. C6 is great for melodic playing with harmony, improvising, playing fills. It is not great for accompaniment unless you master it by learning how to slant everywhere (on all strings), and even then you'll need someone to cover the bass notes.

It takes a lot to master this tuning but it is worth it. It is not limited to any particular style of music. I have pretty much moved on from playing any traditional music and am now focusing on electronic and avant-garde type things. It is a very tweakable tuning that yields very interesting results.

Joe Cook · From: Lake Osoyoos, WA

I like C6 tuning on my 6 and 8 strings because I can quickly retune to A6, C13, and my new favorite A7/C6. I find these tunings the easiest to wrap my mind around. I agree with Mr. Neer that it's worth it to learn C6. Plus, I love working on my slants! Very Happy

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

I always pay close attention to what Mike Neer posts. I play blues and experimental/art music. I really like my seven string version of C6 for both of these genres. Adding the low G to the “normal” 6 string C6 of CEGACE to get GCEGACE has made a huge difference for playing blues.

These days my 6 strings are just used for idle fun at home, so my low G version of GCEACE is just fine. I understand that it would probably make more sense to stick to the usual C6 on six strings, but I find my tuning to be more fun.

I definitely plan on whipping my 7-string C6 into shape to take part in blues jams and eventually find my way into another blues band. I’ve played blues harp in blues bands for many years, and want to add lap steel to my repertoire too.
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G6 – e G D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D

https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

If I played in a blues band with a Chicago Blues or blues rock style I would use open G or E7. If it’s a Jump Blues, jazz blues, west coast blues or any swing type blues I would use C13 or A6.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Mike A Holland · From: United Kingdom

I have tried a few tunings and got quite deep into some of them. I also play mainly six string guitars. What I have observed is the following. The major tunings G,A and D etc sound great and have the benefit of being able to play with the dead thumb style of rhythm which means they are eminently suited to solo work and acoustic music. However, and this maybe just me but these tunings are very key sensitive. Try play something in F# in G tuning or C# in D tuning and the sweat will become noticeable very quickly. I also can sound quite similar when I play in these keys. Using the open strings to get certain licks which sound great but not for everything.
With a 6th tuning, for me C6 because I have worked on this tuning there are much more harmonic choices to choose from. I never found this tuning intuitive and had to work very hard to try and understand its best uses. The A or sixth tuning is placed in the middle of the string set which at first troubled me but after a while I understood the advantage of this with both single string runs and more harmonic type music. You are freed from open strings being necessary in your scale runs as major and minor scales are completely under the bar and can be moved up and down the neck to suit whatever key the music requires. Also most of the common chords including augmented and diminished can be played with C6 tuning.
Another down side is that you only have 1.5 octaves over the six string bar. This is certainly where an 8 string instrument would give you an advantage. However, I do not think of the C6 tuning as a solo instrument so I will nearly always have a rhythm instrument and a bass guitar to play along with so this can mitigate the lack of extended notes. Slants and grip choices are essential to get the best from this tuning so a great deal of work is required to master the full technical requirements to play this instrument well. For me this is work in progress and I only have to listen to the players who have mastered this instrument to understand it is a lifetimes work.
I think most tunings can benefit from a little tweak to help play certain pieces of music and C6 is no different. I prefer to tune the 6th string to C# to play 7 chords rather the tuning to Bb. But that is my personal choice.
I do not think this is an easy intuitive tuning but if you work at it and dig deep into the tuning you will find a lot of gold nuggets in this tuning.
We have quite a lot to thank Jerry Byrd for in the lap steel world and one of these is the introduction of C6 tuning!

Carl McLaughlin · From: St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can

Thanks Mike for your inspiration,i do find that there are some tunes that just need the C6.

KEEP STEELIN Smile

_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G

Tom Keller · From: Greeneville, TN, USA

I've used this 6 string tuning for many years "low to hi (EBDGBD).

Paul Arntson · From: Washington, USA

After struggling with C6 CEGACE for a number of years, I moved to the EBDGBD tuning that Tom listed.
I also started experimenting with EGBDGBDE on 8 string so I can easily reach the blues trope of GB_E on the top three strings.
It's just easier for my aging blues infused and dobro addled brain.
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Excel D10 8&4, Supro 8, Regal resonator, Peavey Powerslide, homemade lap 12(a work in progress)

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

Maybe you should try C#m7.

low to high

E B E G# C# E

You get the major/minor and the big E power chord.

I use an 8 strings E6 tuning recently and really like it.

G# E C# B G# E D E

A great 7 strings version would be:

E C# B G# E D E

Same interval as C13

Steve Cunningham · From: Atlanta, GA

Jean-Sebastien Gauthier · From: Quebec, Canada

Duane Becker · From: Elk,Wa 99009 USA

Allan, yep me too. For years my dad played the 6 string lap, but I could not get into it, after hearing the Hawaii Calls players get those fat low notes on the 7th and 8th strings, that did it for me. I just had to have an 8 string. After my dad set up his Stringmaster D-8 for me, I was in heaven. I kept the ole 6 string that my dad played until a couple of years ago when I finally sold it, even in the last 20 years or so, I just couldn't get into it. Nothing against the 6 string players out there, you all sound great, but its just not for me.

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