How Many Steelers Are Capable On C6th?

Dave A. Burley · From: Franklin, In. USA

Back in the mid-seventies when we were involved with promoting the steel guitar, not too many of the steelers were playing the C6th neck a lot. I mean stuff like.....Lady Is A Tramp, Foggy Day, Take The A Train, Perdido, Deep Purple and so on in the jazz field. Has the steel guitar finally gotten to where you can find many jazz steel players in the clubs and do most of you play C6th? I really love the C6th but when I played I played a Fender 400 with 4 floor pedals. Not too much C6th there. I truly love the E9th but also love the C6th.
Thanks,
Dave Burley

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

I thought that was the "spare parts" neck...

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Carroll Hale · From: EastTexas, USA

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

John McGlothlin · Posted 14 Nov 2008 7:43 am

I can't see how anyone playing steel guitar would not take interest in the C6th tuning but of course I'm an old man and I don't put the steel guitar just in Nashville Tennessee like a lot of those new players do. First of all...the steel is not just country.

Roger Edgington · From: San Antonio, Texas USA

I'm not much of a jazz player but I do love the C6 neck and often play a non pedal 10 string as well as my normal D10. I can't imagine giving up either neck. I really enjoy them both. I learned a lot on my dads 6 string C6 before I got my first Fender 400.

We have a CD release party tonight that is a tribute to Tommy Duncan and all I played on it was non pedal C6 , mostly on a Stringmaster.

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Can someone explain to ME, why there is so much mystery about the C6th tuning? Why so many are comfortable in using the C6th neck just to 'rest' on?

Some refer to it as if it was a bastard child of music....that someday, they will examine it in more detail and really dig into it.

WHAT's there to dig in to? It's a straight forward tuning with lots of fine points. It's been used for decades by virtually every early day steel player.....in the biz. Many who started with E maj., C#min., A6th and others along the way, arrived at and settled on C6th.

Just interested in WHY, you might be shying away from this wonderful, wholesome tuning. I'm not suggesting by way of this question, that it would have to be your primary tuning...........

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

It's an easy answer, as Doug says

E9th gets you to Kroger

C6th gets you an invite to St Louis

For me personally it's more of a time thing, I enjoy studying and playing on the Lower Ten but simple fact of the matter is I play in two bands that are E9th dominant, I practice new tunes for shows that the bands are going to play and there is only so much time in the day. I could spend 50/50 practicing the Upper Ten and Lower Ten but reality says I need to spend my time playing what is best suited for the gigs I am playing.

It would make no sense for me to practice 4 Wheel Drive or Watch What Happens over and over when the band requires a smooth Farewell Party !

Don Drummer · From: West Virginia, USA

Ther are many c6th players. The obvious reason they are not the majority is the fact that this neck is the Jazz neck. While exceptions to this statement can be found and some players can play country, iconic phrases one the C neck; usually to prove it is possible, like say Gary Gimble, most all Jazz, Jazz standards, and Be-Bop is played on the C neck. It is just a better set up for those voicings and phrases. If you don't care for Jazz or it's country cousins then you will be content to as Bobbe Seymour once said "Keep on mashing those A and B pedals" Don D.

Jeff Colson · From: Rockford Illinois, USA

Before I had a double neck guitar I used to play a lot of C6thish stuff on the E9th. But with a double neck guitar I find it's easier to play C6th stuff on the C6th neck ! Seriously that neck has so much color built into it I just love the sound of it and all those big chords that are available. I mostly play Instrumentals on it, but now the guys I'm playing with are going to start to do a bunch of Bubbles in my Beer and Swing stuff so I'm looking forward to bouncing all over that neck in some Swing songs. We book as a retro
Country Band and we decided that Western Swing needs to go right along with retro Country.

Jeff

John McGlothlin · Posted 14 Nov 2008 10:35 am

To me, a pedal steel guitar without a C6 tuning is like a bowl of Rice Krispies without it don't got no SNAP CRACKLE and POP.

Terry Winter · From: Saskatchewan, Canada

I have played S10 E9th for years. Just last year purchased a D10 and just love the C6th. I'm really not into Jazz but those big big chords sound so good and the tuning makes a lot of sense so I'm using a lot of two step country tunes in my set list.

Terry : Very Happy

Mike Archer · From: church hill tn

I been playing c6th a good while
about 2 years after I started e9th
ive been on steel for 25 years
but lately im gotten more into it
now that Ive got my set up the way it works good for me
lots of good things on c6th
lots of good c6th type stuff on e9th too Winking

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

My Dekley D-10 has the C6th neck, and I've had it for about three years now. The C6th tuning is a whole new world of light bulbs that have to go off over my head.

With the vast, wild, uncharted territory to the right of the C pedal, a RKR that needs to be "tested until it makes sense", a pedal 5 that does weird things to a lot of strings at once, and a set of strings that I can make sound real purty once in a while by accident, the C6th neck slowly becomes something more productive than a "wrist rest".

Jody Sanders · From: Magnolia,Texas, R.I.P.

Maybe we should ask : If your E9th neck "cratered", could you finish the gig on C6th? Jody.

chas smith R.I.P. · From: Encino, CA, USA

Les Green · From: Jefferson City, MO, R.I.P.

Although I very seldom get to use it with the bands I play with, I can't do without it! I took my S10 on a couple of jobs and it just didn't seem right for some reason.
_________________
Les Green
73 MSA D10 8&4, 74 MSA S10 3&5, Legrande II 8&9, Fender Squier 6 string, Genesis III, Peavey 1000

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

I use C6th a lot. There are some tunes that almost require an E9th tuning; however, I think any of us steelers could do almost as much with C6th as with E9th if some extra time were spent on learning how to manouver around a C6th.

Hey, that was one of the many benifits of learning on a D8-nonpedal. This is one of the reasons that I usually recommend that a beginner steel player ignore the pedals and learn to use the bar to find all those supposedely non-reachable chords if you don't have pedals and levers.

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

Alan Harrison · From: Murfreesboro Tennessee, USA

I love the C6th, but its hard to find musicians that can back the old songs like "What A Difference A Day Makes, Misty, There I Said It Again, Jersey Bounce or Wichcraft etc. When my mind needs a rest, the above listed is the type of music I love to play when its myself and Mr. Mullen.

And yes, I love E9th and play some swing stuff on this neck also, but Country Music is my favorite and will always be.

I'm lucky, the band I play with in the four months I spend in South Texas during the winter, plays a bit of everything. I get to work both necks.

I keep thinking about buying an S-10 just for the weight but I'm afraid it would be like trying to chew a piece of steak without any teeth on one side of your mouth, I sure would miss the teeth on the other side.
_________________
Mullen (Black) Pre G-2 9x7, B.L. 705 PUP's, Evans SE 200 Telonics NEO 15-4, BJS Bar, Peterson Strobo Flip, Steelers Choice Seat, Folgers Coffee and Hilton Pedals.

"I Steel Without Remorse"

David Doggett · Posted 14 Nov 2008 7:55 pm

As an E9/B6 uni player, I always have it all on a single neck. When I first started on uni I would think about which mode to play a song in; and I would force myself to stay in B6 mode in order to learn it. But the longer I play uni, the less I think like that. The entire 6th neck is just another position within E9, just like A6 and C#m are. And the entire E9 is just another position within B6. I can change from one "neck" to the other from chord to chord. Plus, I have extra low strings on E9, and extra high strings in B6 mode, including the equivalent of both the D and G on top. I wouldn't be a whiz at it, but if I had to I could play whole songs sticking to the B6 mode - but I never have to.

Not trying to hijack the thread into a uni vs. D10 discussion, but just pointing out that there is another approach that has the best of both worlds without forcing one to choose between the two necks, or requiring one to carry around a whole other neck that may be rarely used. I think I play more 6th neck on a uni than I would on a D10, just because it is always there right beneath my fingers.

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

YOU CAN FIND A MAJOR AND E MAJOR CHORD GRIPS on the C 6 neck so you can start there and work up, there are some real nice fills on C6, this was one of the main tunings we used back then, C#min Emin Emaj, and tuned back and forth at dances for different sounds and songs.
When I was 16 and playing dances C6 was a main stay for us, and the crowd liked it.

ernie

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

C6 is my main neck. If E9 was intended as the main neck why is it further away ? Very Happy

There's something about the sound of running a steel up a C6 neck which doesn't sound the same in any other tuning.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I can get around the C neck halfway decently. No matter what band I am playing with, I always make the opportunity to play the C6th at least a few times. You can play some good stuff there on straight country songs. Just don't use a lot of big expanded chords (of course you do need to sneak a few in Devil

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