I've been using this tuning ever since I started playing steel last year. While playing with the Playboys, I would always listen to Tom closely, and decided I wanted to learn to play just like him (Or as close as I could get. The guy is untouchable, really). So one day I went over and mesured his guitar and got the tuning from him and built my own.
E D E F# G# B C# E F# G#
While I love this tuning, I find that I never use the lowest string (big fat E string). I've heard Tom use it on occasion. I can think of one recording he does it on one time, and that's about it. For a little while, I even removed the low E because it rang when I played.
So I restrung my steel the other day and when I got to that big E, I thought "Hmm. What if it wasn't an E. What if it was something like another B or a C even. So I tried both. B was alright. Got some funny sounding chords with that. Then I cranked it all the way up to C. I think I'm going to keep it this way. With the C as the low note, you can play the C string and the E and G# on the lower octave for a fat sounding augmented chord. It's great! Playing that low C with the higher E ang G# works well, too. Move it up by fifths and you get a good aug. run. Move it up by whole steps and it works well for whole tone scale runs.
You can also easily grab that quick passing 5#Aug before the 1 chord. Just play your augmented a fret below the 1 and slide right on up. I play it somewhat like this (We'll be in the key of A)
G#---------------------------------------
F#---------------------------------------
E -----------------------------------------
C#---------------------4------5----------
B ----------------4------------5----------
G#----------------------------------------
F#---------4------------------5-----------
E -----------------------------------------
C ----4------------------------M----------
Play each note of the augmented 5# sepeartely, then slide up a fret to the 1 and mute the C string. You can even catch the high E on your way up to 1 to get the 6 in there.
So now, there is a handy Augmented chord for the Morrell tuning. It compliments the diminished voicing that you can get from the lower strings well. (In case you don't know about that one, it's like this)
G#------
F#------
E -------
C#-----0-
B ------0-
G#------
F#------
E ------0--
C ------
Which is the same as your seventh chord (Tom uses that one a lot), but move it up by fourths and you get the diminished run.
Let me know what you think if you get a chance to play around with it any.
Kyle
[This message was edited by Kyle Aaron on 03 January 2006 at 10:49 PM.]
I don't have a ten string steel, but if I did, I'd try this tuning. Tom sure gets a lot out of it.
