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Topic: High G tuning and tricones |
Mike D
From:
Phx, Az
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Posted 22 Apr 2002 2:15 pm |
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| I have a wood body tricone for sale at a shop in London. I sent it set up for Low Bass G (DGDGBD) and assumed it would be used for Hawaiian or Blues playing. The owner emailed me this morning and said he had someone interested but he wanted to play it in "Bluegrass G" (GBDGBD) I don't play in this tuning and a quick search seems to indicate most folks are using a 16-56 set. Do you guys really crank that big of a low string up that far?! I always though the low strings were somewhat smaller in sets designed around high G tuning. [This message was edited by Mike D on 22 April 2002 at 03:18 PM.] |
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Paul Warnik
From:
Illinois,USA
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Posted 22 Apr 2002 2:22 pm
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| Mike-I have often tune some of my pre-WWII National Tricones to "high G" tuning with standard Hawaiian (Dobro) guage string set |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 22 Apr 2002 7:32 pm
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I think the standard Dobro® string set goes from .056 to .016 (bass to treble). That's one of the reasons why you have a square neck on Dobro®s - to handle the increased tension on the neck from the heavy gauge strings!
------------------
Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars
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mikey
From:
New Jersey
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Posted 22 Apr 2002 8:33 pm
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I use a .059 for my Bass G, John Pearse 3100 set...and the only problem I've ever had is trying to get the .027 high G to G# for open E...ALWAYS breaks...But I've never seen a wood body tri-cone, or more importantly, it's neck...if it's hollow wood go .046 for G...if solid @.056, give or take a few thousandths...
Mike |
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Mike D
From:
Phx, Az
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Posted 23 Apr 2002 6:43 am
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Thanks all. I wasn't worried about the body structure. It's a hollow neck but has an internal support that runs head to tail. I was more concerned about the cones. the Dobro spider set up is a bit more robust, but it sounds like all will be well.
I'll email them and suggest the .046" ga. low G. |
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Gary C. Dygert
From:
Frankfort, NY, USA
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Posted 3 May 2002 6:46 am
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| To mikey: That .027 trying for G# is a real reach. A .025 or .026 will get there, but even then you need extra replacement strings. |
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Gary C. Dygert
From:
Frankfort, NY, USA
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Posted 4 May 2002 6:37 pm
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| Then there is an even-higher-G tuning with a G (about .012) on top. |
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Pete Grant
From:
Auburn, CA, USA
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Posted 4 May 2002 6:40 pm
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Yeah, it's like a D or E tuning.
G D G B D G |
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Brent Graves
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Posted 5 May 2002 4:29 am
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Your suggetion of tuning G D G B D G, is the same as E B E G# B E, which is very common with blues and bottleneck guitar players. But since each string is tuned down three frets from your G version, you would have a lot less problem with breakage. This is still up a bit (on the four high strings from bluegrass G). I think the blues guys call this Vestapol tuning.
Brent |
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