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Topic: Lap Steel-six Or Eight Strings ??? |
Bob Poole
From:
Myrtle Beach SC, USA
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 7:07 am |
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| Old guy here-pedal steel since 1975 but new to lap steel...band plays variety of music-60s-70s folk/rock,classic country,country rock,country blues...just startin on lap steel & being used to ten strings,I feel like I'm gonna be more comfortable with eight...i love C6th,used to play that tuning a lot on pedal steel back in the 70s and miss it.any opinions on whether or not I'm doin right in going with eight???anyone been in the same situation??? |
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Rick Barnhart
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 7:27 am
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Go with an eight string guitar, not a six. If you decide 6 will do, all you'll have to do is lace it up with fewer. Obviously, it doesn't work the other way around.
_________________
Clinesmith consoles D-8/6 5 pedal, D-8 3 pedal & A25 Frypan, Pettingill Teardrop, & P8 Deluxe. |
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Keith Glendinning
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 7:52 am
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I agree with Rick. I have both 6 and 8 stringed Lap Steels, but find that I "try" to play more on the 8 string. I use C6 on both, with an occasional trip to A6 on a 6 string.
Regards,
Keith. |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Roman Sonnleitner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 8:38 am
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| Go for 8-strings, absolutely! |
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Keith Glendinning
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 9:33 am
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Hi Tom,
I love your selection of handbuilt Lap Steels, they are extremely well made and I'm sure they sound exquisite too. Slightly off the original subject, what would be your suggestion for 10 string C6 or A6 tunings? |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 9:55 am
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| 8 strings. Everything you can do on a 6 string you can do on an 8 string, but not vice-versa. |
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Bob Poole
From:
Myrtle Beach SC, USA
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 10:02 am why not a ten
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| Oh yeah....thought about that & there was a beautiful Jackson ten the other week but right now finances play the major part of any decision making. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 2:58 pm
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| I'm lucky, I don't even have to look upon any sixes with desire. Eight to ten strings are a given necessity. Even if you only end up playing melodies on the top six in a band situation, when practicing the availability of the extra bottom stuff will make you a better musician. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 3:23 pm
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| On an 8 string you can tune the bottom 4 in the same relationship as the top 4, and any time you want to jump down an octave or two you can continue with the same riffs in the same position on the fretboard, but on the lower strings. |
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James Mayer
From:
back in Portland Oregon, USA (via Arkansas and London, UK)
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Posted 26 Oct 2014 6:02 pm
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| I can only think of one advantage to the 6-string, but it is a very significant one. Your choices of pickup options will be far, far greater. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2014 3:36 am
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This may be treasonous, or at least a capital crime to break the code of silence, but I'll reveal the secret - past a certain point, a pickup can't really "get" better. It's one of the dumbest electrical devices known to mankind, right up there with the lightbulb. If a pickup picks up, and has highs and lows and mids and doesn't do anything screwy, it's a "good" pickup. Some of the foofaraw that goes on describing guitar tone - jeez. There probably is a reason that there are at least FIFTY places to get a really great, exquisite, superb in-a-class-by-itself "PAF"-type pickup - and each one is better than the last, so you'd better buy them all!  |
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Paul Honeycutt
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2014 9:47 am
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Considering the range of music that you play and that your background is in pedal steel, I'd say eight string, for sure.
For me, coming from resonator and six string lap steel in E, I've got a six string for a C6 guitar that I'm playing with a focus on Hawaiian and a little '50's honky-tonk playing. Having said that, I'm restoring a D-8 console that will probably become my go-to guitar.
I've been running across quite a few PSG players lately who are getting into non-pedal steel. |
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Jamie Mitchell
From:
Nashville, TN
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Posted 27 Oct 2014 9:55 am
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| David Mason wrote: |
| This may be treasonous, or at least a capital crime to break the code of silence, but I'll reveal the secret - past a certain point, a pickup can't really "get" better. |
I think the Supro string-through is the best pickup.
I want an 8 string.
What do I do? |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 27 Oct 2014 10:11 am
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If you're going to tune to some variation of C6th and play a lot of things on steel that historically go with that tuning, then I would concur that eight strings is the ticket. Some suggested a 10 string non-pedal But then why stop there? Along with a few other builders, MSA builds the SuperSlide in a 12 string model.
But let's backtrack for a minute. Here is Bob's scenario from his original post:
| Quote: |
| band plays variety of music-60s-70s folk/rock,classic country,country rock,country blues...j |
Really, from the sound of it, a six string lap steel works fine on most of this stuff. It cuts out the more complex chords, but how much of that will you really be playing in this band? Whether it is a 6th tuning or a major open chord tuning, there is a lot of music in a six string steel guitar. It would seem obvious to get at least an eight string, but I don't know if it is as obvious as some of the posters make it out to be. Is it really a "given?"
I could use Jerry Douglas as an example, he gets plenty of music out of a six string lap steel when he switches off from dobro, that's more his rock sound as opposed to bluegrass, but maybe he isn't the best example because he doesn't play dobro on anything more than six strings.
Cindy Cashdollar often uses six string lap steels as an alternative to her eight string Fenders or Remington. Why does she even bother? I'm guessing she likes the sound and feel of her string six Asher and her newish Scantic River lap steel for certain styles of music more along the lines of blues and rock.
But the video below to me is the best example that is germane to this thread. We are all familiar with Bruce Bouton as being one of the finest pedal steel players in the business, yet when he plays lap steel, he seems to opt for a six string guitar. He had been playing a six string Asher Electro-Hawaiian Jr. with the Lollar pickup upgrades while out on tour with Reba McEntire a few years back, and more recently he has acquired a six string from Scantic River Guitars. In the video below from The Station Inn, during an event featuring Little Walter amps Bruce is playing the Scantic River steel on a tune that might be categorized as a blues/rock number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jju9wm37JJY
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Mark |
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 28 Oct 2014 11:14 am
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The question always is, what do you want to do with the guitar. I have recently had to go back to 6 from 8 due to hand problems. I'm finding that there is very little that I did on the 8 that can't be done on 6. And I'm finding that what I can't do is approximated so well that nobody but me knows any difference.
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Amor vincit omnia |
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