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Topic: Unusual 8 string lap set-up |
David Stilley
From:
Santa Cruz, California, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2012 3:36 pm |
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Hello everybody,
this is my first topic post/question. I just joined the site but I've been lurking and reading posts for some time now. My question is concerning an old National Special 8-string (like Freddie Roulette plays) that I got some time ago and never started using till recently. It has the heaviest string on 6th, while 7th and 8th strings are very thin gauge. It was set up this way by the previous owner or maybe even out of the factory as the grooves filed in the nut are very small on the 7th and 8th strings. I was going to restring it in a conventional low to high order when I noticed the nut slots would have to be filed down and recut. Any idea what kind of tuning uses a set up like this? |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 1 Sep 2012 2:21 am
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There's a page of some of the older tunings on the website of Scotty's steel guitar store in St. Louis:
http://www.scottysmusic.com/tunings.htm
It sounds like it was set up for an E13th tuning used by Herb Remington, Joe Ely, and Bobby Koefer at one time or another.
E13
1 - E
2 - C#
3 - G#
4 - E
5 - Bb
6 - F#
7 - D# HIGH
8 - F# HIGH
This was the tuning that Buddy Emmons took the two high strings on the bottom and move them to the top, for the beginning of the pedal steel E9th tuning. If this is your first post, you've opened up a massive can of worms, here. Another very important sight for tunings and contacts is "Brad's Page of Steel":
http://www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
An interesting thing about this Steel Guitar Forum is that some of the very best players in the world post here. |
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David Stilley
From:
Santa Cruz, California, USA
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Posted 1 Sep 2012 9:44 am
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| Thanks David for the info. I've studied Brad's Web site and although it's very useful I didn't find but 1 tuning with out of order strings and it was a single string tuned a 7th above the root. Speaking of famous guitarists, are you the Dave Mason from the 70's? Just kidding you. I'll try this one out and see how it is. I've been tuning it to an open E with redundant B & E strings. It sounds like a 12 string on the high end. Nice for blues but Open E just isn't one of my favorite tunings for the lap steel. I prefer Open G for blues usually. Although I used that more with a standard 6-string. Thanks again for the pointer. |
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