Tuning to Open E without changing the strings

Roland Mathew · From: North Carolina, USA

I'm new to playing Lap Steel or Slide Guitar, but a long time lead guitar player. I'm interested in buying a Lap Steel Guitar (looking at the 6 String Gold Tone, but I'm open to any suggestions in the $700.00 to $1,000.00 range approximately). The Gold Tone comes setup with D Tuning (DADF#AD) but I'd like to start with Open E tuning. I've heard that Open E is a good place to start. Can I re-tune (to get to Open E) or do I have to change the strings first. Thanks for any help I can get about this or any other questions I may have as I go through this process. I'm a new member here, it's a very impressive site with amazing amounts of knowledge.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 10 Sep 2022 8:23 am

Open D and Open E have the same interval relationship. Most of the strings should be able to handle being tuned up two frets from D to E but it depends on how much slack you like in your strings. Some folks like more slack so they can do behind the bar string pulls easier.

I'd consider just keeping it in D tuning. If you need to play in E, just start on second fret as your root. That way you can always have the flat 7 on the open strings. David Lindley did a lot of great work in open D.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Short answer… no need to change strings.

Longer answer… like Bill said. But try both. Some people prefer a slack tuning. Some prefer tight strings.

Gold Tone instruments are good quality.
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D Schubert · From: Columbia, MO, USA

If you were a lead guitar player for all those years, you may have dabbled with a bottleneck slide. If so, then you probably tuned up to E when using your electric guitar with light gage strings. And tuned down to D when it was your acoustic guitar with heavier strings. Lap steel logic is about the same.
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Mike Auman · From: North Texas, USA

Ian · From: San Francisco, CA

Roland,

I'm with Bill on this one - open D is where you want to be. Check it out.

All the best,

Ian

Lloyd Walsh · From: San Antonio, Texas, USA

Roland, i have this Asher for sale on the forum:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=382561&highlight=

It has benders and is tuned to C6 now but i can restring it with the proper gauges and switch it over to D or E and retune the benders before shipping, if you’re interested. Of course in shipping the stings need to be loosened but the benders should at least be in the ballpark when you retune to the different setup (it’s very easy to do on the Hipshot system). Anyway, as the others have mentioned open D is a really nice tuning but I completely understand why you’d want E, coming in new from a guitar background especially.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

To the first question - as stated by others, for learning purposes, Open D is equivalent to Open E, except for string tension and tonality. The intervals relative to the tuning root are 1 5 1 3 5 1 for both. There is no real need to change from Open D to Open E to learn on.

To the second question about going from Open D to Open E with the same string set - I don't think this is simple at all. If you don't want to think too much about this, feel free to skip. But if you want to think about this for a minute:

IMO, it depends on what strings are on the guitar and what one finds to be a reasonable set of string tensions. I personally find that if a string is already pretty tight (to me, around 30 pounds or greater), I am not gonna be happy with a whole tone raise on a lap steel or slide guitar. This is because, other variables remaining the same, string tension is proportional to the square of the frequency of the open string pitch. A whole tone pitch increase corresponds to a frequency increase of about 12.36%. So the tension corresponding to that pitch increase for 30 pounds tension is about (1.1236^2)*30 or about 38 pounds per string. I think most decent lap steels can tolerate that kind of tension without causing problems, but I generally find more than 35 pounds on a string too heavy for me.

To quantify this for a string set, I use this string tension guide - https://tension.stringjoy.com/ - noting that string tension varies somewhat with different materials and string winding techniques, I still find that using this calculator gets me well-balanced string sets of appropriate tension with very little work.

Looking at the Goldtone LS-6 web page here - https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/instruments/ls-6 - you can see that the scale length is 25" and the string gauges are, lo-hi, .056w, .044w, .034w, .026w, .018p, .014p, and I'm pretty confident the wounds are nickel-plated steel. This corresponds to Open D string tensions of around 21, 29, 32, 31, 25, 27 pounds, respectively, or around 27-28 pounds/string average or 165 pounds total. That is reasonably stiff but not unreasonable, IMO. Actually, I find that 6th string tension a bit low for my tastes. But the others seem reasonable to me.

But going up a whole tone to Open E gives string tensions of 26, 37, 41, 38, 31, 34 pounds, respectively, or around 34-35 pounds/string average or 207 pounds total. I could live with strings 6, 2, and 1, but I would drop the gauges on strings 5, 4, and 3.

As alluded to above, I find the bottom string tensions on a lot of steels and slide guitars guitars too low, and some of the middle ones too high. For example, 21 pounds is on the order of the string tension on a set of fairly slinky 11-48 electric guitar strings on a Strat. Great for a Strat, but for me, not so great on a steel. YMMV.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 11 Sep 2022 4:35 pm

That is a very cool link Dave. That got book marked.

Roland Mathew · From: North Carolina, USA

Thanks to all of you that have been helping me out; your information has been appreciated very much. Please keep your advice coming about any and all areas that could help me out...
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Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

Would it not be better starting off with a cheap £90 Chinese lap steel and get the skills in your fingers and hands before spending 700. Along the way you will learn a lot about strings, bars, tunings, fingerpicks, bridge, saddle, pickups, tone and volume knobs, volume pedals that will put you in the position to make a better informed decision later cause to be honest both guitars and most you will find are not really up to scratch unless you know what to look for. The lap steel world and journey is entirely different to your guitar journey. It will excite and amaze you how far you will come and how much you will learn here in 5 years.
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Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
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Stefan Robertson · From: Hertfordshire, UK

BTW I remember playing the gold tone lap steel many years ago and it darn sure wasn’t worth even £150 back then in that music store some years later I saw the same crappy gold tone for £500. It was crap in comparison to what is actually out there. So giving you friendly advice. Be patient you will learn so much but it takes time. Very Happy

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Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
E13#9/F secrets: https://thelapsteelguitarist.wordpress.com

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