E13 material

[Mike Neer]

Yes, he did, but his first 2 string were G# and F#.
G#
F#
E
C#
B
G#
F#
E
D
E

[Jim Bates]

Yes, I never heard of a 'standard' E 13th tuning, we all did what was natural to us and used what would best fit in the songs / tunes we were playing.

My 8 string E 13th is h-l E C# B G# F# or E, D or C# B E.

Some tunes required a middle E, and some required a lower C# instead of D. I always keep the low E so I can do boogies, rhythm chops and tunes like Boot Heel Drag and What'd I Say.

The 10 string E 13th I have on my pedal steels is:
h-l G# E C# B G# F# E D B E

I guess I have never have been 'standard'.

Do yuor own thing.

Thanx,
Jim

[Alex Cattaneo]

Thanks for sharing Jim, really interesting stuff. Mike has been telling me about being flexible and retuning according to each song, but I guess I tend to stick with something and try to make it work. But now I'm really intrigued with that high B that replaces the low A in the C6(maj7) tuning. It never ends!!!

[Ray Montee]

I could be wrong, as I have been previously, however I seem to have a strong recollection of "COQUETTE" being played in C#min. tuning.

Thereon, it plays in straight bar positions with no requirement to slant the bar. It's one of the easiest tunes to learn............and play in that tuning and I was quite sure that is the tuning that NOEL BOGGS played the tune in.

Care to give it a try and report back to all of us.

[Mike Neer]

Ray, the first 3 strings of the tuning in Coquette are the same as the C#min, so you're right there. What's missing from the C#min, though, is the D and the F#, which are clearly heard on the recording.

Great cut, it is. Love the organ and Noel's sound.

[Rick Winfield]

hey Jim,
I like the looks of that tuning. I might give it a try, soon as I work out my pedal arrangements on paper. I've already changed my E9 3x5, to a C6 3x5, but had to change it back out of necessity.But that E13 looks to be able to produce the best of both worlds.
Rick
PS: never did care for strings 1 & 2, seeing better offerings in the mix, at least for me.

[Steve Ahola]

Two songs that I thought of right off the top of my head are, Steel Guitar Rag and Pan Handle Rag. Both of these songs are fairly easy to play in E13 tuning but you will have to mostly ignore the 2nd string (c#) if you play the original versions like "Take it away Leon".

I just started playing Leon's E13th tuning and I like having the C# on the 2nd string, which allows me to play the 6th on the 2nd or 3rd string. I do find it easier if I lower the 5th string two frets (from F# to E) for both Steel Guitar Rag and Panhandle Rag, although I really miss having that 9th in there.

So what was the tuning that Leon used on the original recordings? Especially "Take It Away, Leon"- the solo on that really knocks me out.

Steve Ahola

[Steve Ahola]

I've been using the Vance Terry E13 on my 3rd neck for a little while and it is absolutely chock full of possibilities--much more than the Boggs E13, but it is for a different kind of playing and requires a pretty good right hand.

I don't see the Vance Terry E13th tuning spelled out in this thread but found this from your post on another thread:

Vance Terry's E13 (E C# B G# F# D B G#)

Isn't that basically a variation on the Leon McAuliffe E13th, with the low note being G# instead of E?

I guess the variations of Leon's tuning start to build up... did I miss any?

E
C#
B
G#
F#(E)
D(C#)*
B/G#
E/G#

* If lowered to C# you no longer have a dominant 13th chord but it makes for a great E6th chord if you also lower the F# to E.

Thanks for turning us on to so many great tunings!

Steve Ahola

[Alex Cattaneo]

Anyone knows which of the Leon McCauliffe recordings use the E13 tuning? I have the "Tulsa Straight Ahead" compilation, great stuff!

[Steve Ahola]

Anyone knows which of the Leon McCauliffe recordings use the E13 tuning? I have the "Tulsa Straight Ahead" compilation, great stuff!

Amen to that!
I'd like to know the tunings he used on all of his big "hits." I'll put together a database of his tunings vs his songs if anybody wants to contribute what they know. While complete transcriptions are very helpful for someone like Jerry Byrd, I think if we knew which of his tunings Leon used on his numbers it would get us into the ballpark.

Steve

[Alex Cattaneo]

Hey Steve, if you scroll down this page (link), you'll see a box with the tunings used by Leon. I get that neck 2 is E13 and neck 3 is A6... but I have no idea what the other 2 are supposed to be!

http://www.scottysmusic.com/tunings.htm

[Jim Bates]

Re: Leon's tunings

I was very fortunate to meet him several times at our local dance hall in Oklahoma, when I was starting to try to learn all his stuff. During the one of those intermissions when we visited, he wrote out all his tunings on his 4-neck Fender.

Outside neck was a one octave lower A6 th tuning

Next neck from front was the standard A 6th

Next neck was the E 13th as I listed above, where he would tune F# to E and D to C# for certain tunes.

The inside neck was for noodling around and he called it his 'experimental' neck and essentially had 'gibberish' on it when I last saw it - probably was trying some sort of chromatic tuning (no open chords). This is all in the mid 50's, when his band was 'hot'. (Great memories)

Since I had learned the basics from the Jerry Byrd course, I put the C6 tuning on my inside neck and the other two necks, I put Leon's E 13th and A6th.

Also, later I met Herb Remington and he was using the A 6th. Do not remember if was using E 13th or not.

Thanx,
Jim

[Alex Cattaneo]

Jim, that's awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Neer]

Here's a nice E13 solo by Gene Crownover at about 1:00 (there's a really nice Reece Anderson solo later in the tune): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxz6J3fmGYM

[Brentley Dahmer]

Here's a nice E13 solo by Gene Crownover at about 1:00 (there's a really nice Reece Anderson solo later in the tune): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxz6J3fmGYM

Thanks for this one Mike!- and thanks for all your great info all over the SGF here.

Assuming from the sound of it - I'm guessing Boot Heel Drag sounds good in this E13 ?

Would this be the Vance Terry E13?

[Jim Bates]

Just adding to this thread: Both Leon McAuliffe and Bobby Kohfer played non-pedal 8 string E-13. Leon had the low E which he always kicked off Steel Guitar Rag, and was the low note in Leon's version of Boot Heel Drag (played on E 13th neck in key of A)

Bobby uses only a thumb pick and gets fabulous chord strums and fast single notes (and the clearest chimes anywhere on the neck I have ever heard!).

Tom Morrell played a 10 string version of an E 13th, and all you have to is listen to his full, jazz, and big band chords laced through all of his recordings.

I know of no 'written material' or lessons for E 13.

The best way to start figuring it out is to write down the Open Tuning for 'your' E 13 th. Then, use each string as the root note and build a table for what chords you get
with which notes. (Tom Bradshaw publish a booklet of how to use this technique - several years ago.)

Thanx,
Jim

[Alex Cattaneo]

I was going to start a new post on E13 listening recommendation, but look what I found. I was asking the same exact question in 2011, hahaha! Ok, THIS time I’m learning E13 FOR REAL! Happy New Year to all steelers and please share your favorite E13 recordings.

[Alex Cattaneo]

So I found another recording to add to the list: Caravan by Noel Boggs. Spend the day figuring it out yesterday and it's a fun one. Now I just need to tab it out.

When you think about it, the E13 tuning contains a Bmin6 chord(B_D_F#_G#). And this track demonstrates exactly that; the home position is that Fm6 on fret 6.

[Stephen Cowell]

Can't go wrong posting Jernigan... here he teases some Little Coquette, then slays Lover, all in E13 Noel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY3ptUrneOw

Taking it down five notches, here's my take on E13 Leon stuff... I like Leon because it's not too crazy to do stuff in... you'll note Doug is mostly strumming the Boggs tuning, where Leon gives more melodic and intervallic possibilities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r4bpr4mhxw

SGR, Panhandle, and even Herbie's Boot Heel all go well in Leon E13.