A7: a transition to familiar blues/folk/rock shapes and tones

[Mark Evans]

Recently acquired a wonderful Rick “Ace” lap that is clean and lovely. I’m pushing myself to work that short scale to a 6th tuning (away from my long scale laps open G, D, E etc). A6 specifically. Was getting a handle, but wanted to squeeze more grit, blues, etc (squeeze ‘out’ some of that Hawaiian, swing etc., no offense).

John Ely listed an A7 tuning:
A C# E A C# E

Oh yeah. There’s good bit of grit in there. Will mine Ely’s chord generator.

Anybody play an A7 neck? Apparently the 7th tunings, according to that page, have fallen out of favor. I like it. Familiar intervals

[Brooks Montgomery]

Wouldn’t it need a G in there to be a 7th tuning?

[Fred]

It's definitely not A7, just an A major triad repeated. It's the same as high bass G commonly used on Dobros tuned up a step.

[Brad Bechtel]

https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php

If you're looking to use A7th tuning, you could easily drop one of your A strings to G:

Code: Select all

1. E
2. C#
3. G
4. E
5. C#
6. A

Or:

Code: Select all

1. E
2. C#
3. A
4. E
5. C#
6. G

If you're looking to learn A6th tuning, I'd recommend this one:

Code: Select all

1. C#
2. A
3. F#
4. E
5. C#
6. A

This is assuming you're playing a six string lap steel.

[Mark Evans]

Ooops! My bad.

I adapted an 8 string A7 to 6 string… and omitted the g on one of the low string.
Duh. No wonder it was, familiar in feel. Maybe I’ll change the high A to G… or maybe I’m just a major key player.

Thanks for the redirect
Markj in Denver

[Fred]

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

[Mark Evans]

Maybe dumb question… is that low to high (E is low?)

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

[David M Brown]

Maybe dumb question… is that low to high (E is low?)

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

Yes, B is low to high E. You can also raise the 2nd string B to C# too.

[Fred]

Maybe dumb question… is that low to high (E is low?)

B is low, E is high. It's the same E as your A tuning. Same as a C6 high E.

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

[Mark Eaton]

Maybe dumb question… is that low to high (E is low?)

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

Any time a tuning is typed in a column as pointed out earlier, it’s as if you’re looking down at the guitar across your lap. Brad puts the string number next to the note names so that there’s no question, Fred didn’t.

It’s a good way to avoid confusion. A pet peeve of mine for many years is listing a tuning on a horizontal line from high to low because it’s “tradition in the steel guitar world” rather than low to high like every other instrument in the guitar “family.” I wish that “tradition” was nipped in the bud a hundred plus years ago.

[Mark Evans]

Thanks to all who have pitched in on this thread.
The ‘high to low’ thing is just a ‘my brain is weird’ thing… just have to remember that I am looking a the fret board from above, as I’m playing. Duh.

This variant (shown below) is one that has been on my Ace for a few days now. I’m Liking it! I also found a much older thread
https://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/001917.html
With a few variations (to E6 and G6 with tuner tweaks) that fit well into my mish-mash style.
I’m not much of a traditionalist (I’m not playing Hawaiian/swing/classic song arrangements). More ambient jamming with other players… so I tend to look at tunings that allow for open ended discovery. Must be Friday… as I am rambling on

This is a pretty good 6 string 7th tuning.
E
B
G#
E
D
B

It should work with the strings you have for the A tuning.

[Michael Lee Allen]

Freddie Roulette is a great reference as to the A7th tuning as he used it through all his career. Recent surgery means I can't sit "folded over" for more than about ten minutes at a time and can't lift more than ten pounds so hunting through files for string gauges and other documentation to post isn't going to happen. He used a re-entrant tuning with a plain high g string in the 8th position and doubled low A notes. From low to high g-A-A-C#-E-A-C#-E on a 23" scale National 1010 "Special 8 String Model". Lots of YouTube videos showing his style with loads of slanting. That 7th tone can be retuned to a 6th and other variations too.
MLA

[Michael Lee Allen]

Freddie Roulette A7th string gauges are...
E .012
C# .016
A .020
E .034
C# .038
A .052
A .052
G .034 note the re-entrant gauge on string 8
MLA