Claude Brownells Tuning? Is this it?

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 28 Dec 2002 6:41 am

I have lost Claudes email address, and I was wondering if this is his tuning. I recently found it on a piece of scrap paper. E, C#, B, A, G#, G, F#, F, E, C#
Is this the 'long neck tuning' that Claude uses?? I may get crazy & try this on my home made 10 string. Claudes guitar was much longer & required special length strings. Is this worth a shot?? What do you non pedal guys think? I have heard Claude play & played with him myself for several hours about 2 years ago, he gets some incredible sounds from this tuning, if this is in fact that tuning?
Claude, if your out there, give me an email!!

Ernie

------------------

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 28 Dec 2002 7:49 am

Sadly, Mr. Brownell has passed...
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum14/HTML/000980.html [This message was edited by HowardR on 28 December 2002 at 07:51 AM.]

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 29 Dec 2002 6:25 am

Had I not jumped right in there and put that message on, & took the time to read on a little futher, I would have found out that Claude had died, I feel real bad about that. Our time together was short, but I enjoyed playing steel guitar with him when he visited my little store. He even gave me a lot of his rhythm tracks while he was here. Claude played steel with that odd tuning so well, he had to be the best I have ever heard, without pedals, he also sang & played & told great little 'one liners'. We had dinner together and just enjoyed one anothers company so much. My sympathys go to his remaining family. His wife had already passed away & was really his partner, so now I am sure they will be together again. I sat down at his 'longneck steel, and I have played steel for a long time and could not even get one little lick out of that thing!! He was a real pro at that tuning, thats for sure.

Ernie Pollock

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 29 Dec 2002 1:43 pm

As I recall, Claude's tuning was the standard E-harp tuning you describe, but that was the tuning at the 5th fret. The long neck guitar was actually tuned down a fourth. I guess you could call it a "baritone E-harp".

He was a great player and a wonderful human being. I miss him.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 29 Dec 2002 8:28 pm

Claude's nickname was "Longneck". He was one super guy whom I never had the privilage to meet, but corresponded and exchanged tapes with for a couple of short years. Man, he was so smooth on that steel, you'd swear he was playing a pedal guitar...great chords were obtained through the E-harp tuning. I'd venture to say he played the E-harp better than his teacher and E-harp inventor, Eddie Alkire who was no slouch either! As for that long neck guitar he built, I neglected to ask him just how long it was...anyone know ? He had a great sense of humor and also composed many neat original songs. I sure miss my friend, "Longneck".

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 29 Dec 2002 8:46 pm

I believe it was a 30" scale. I'm not 100% sure though.

Jeff Strouse · Post by **Jeff Strouse** » 29 Dec 2002 10:15 pm

I had the pleasure of meeting Claude at the JaxJam a few years back. A super nice guy, and very entertaining to watch...He really danced as he made his Eharp sing! He even showed me his guitar after the show. He explained the Eharp tuning a bit and told me a few great stories (afterall, he's toured and played with some of the biggest names in country music).

I want to say his steel is slightly longer than 30", but I'm a little foggy on that detail at the moment. I was more interested in the tuning...I think the bass strings were in the middle. I've heard Eharp recordings of Mae Lang and Mr. Alkire, and it's a very pretty tuning.

Don't feel bad, Ernie...I didn't know of Claude's passing until now either. With the exception of 'Computers', I very rarely leave the 'No Pedals' section.

A sad Aloha for Claude. [This message was edited by Jeff Strouse on 03 January 2003 at 11:32 AM.]

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 30 Dec 2002 12:30 pm

Talking with Clyde about his tuning & guitar, I do remember him telling me on of the string companys made him some special lenght strings for on that guitar. Now the one he had here was a new one made for him by another fellow who I think has passed away, called a Cougar. It was very well made and Claude was real proud of the job Cougar did on it for him. I am going to hunt up a couple of pictures of Claude taken here at the store with his guitar and I will put them here on this post as soon as possibe for you fellows to get a look at. Oh I think Claude used more than just the thumb & two metal picks, like us pedal pickers, I am thinking he used pick on all finger on his right hand, I may be wrong about that, but anyhow, he sure was S M O O T H on that Cougar Steel.

Ernie

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 31 Dec 2002 6:15 am

heres those pictures, I know I had a couple more of just the guitar, but I tore the place apart looking for them with no luck.

picture #1
picture #1

Anyone who would like to copy these for there own use, feel free to do so.

Ernie

------------------

Jeff Strouse · Post by **Jeff Strouse** » 31 Dec 2002 6:22 am

Those are nice shots of him, Ernie. Thanks for sharing with us.

John Kavanagh · Post by **John Kavanagh** » 31 Dec 2002 6:53 am

I'm intrigued by this tuning... From this thread and an older one <http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/002593.html> I get c# e e# f#g g# a b c#'e' as the standard tuning (calling string 8 e#, as Mr. Alkire did, makes sense to me), or
G#b b#c#d d#e f#g# b as Mr. Brownell used it. But there are references to "bass strings in the middle" in a couple of places. Were some of those strings out-of sequence? Some of them over on the bass side? If strings 3,5, and 8 were moved over, the tuning starts to look like C6. In any case, you'd need a real educated right hand to make it work.

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 31 Dec 2002 6:58 am

From the pictures it doesn't look like there are bass strings in the middle.

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 31 Dec 2002 10:10 am

I emailed Claude several times this year and asked about his "A Harp" guitar. Shortly before he passed away I received a tape from him, and on it along with his playing he gave me considerable information which may be of interest to those following this thread. I quote Claude ver batim hereunder:

" There's some of -I Love You Because-...
Maybe I can find some more things to put on here and play some chords for you on the A Harp.
You can do a C6th tuning, you can do an A tuning, E tuning, C# tuning. All these tunings are combined when you go chromatic and you can't say,,,well we gotta have this one, we gotta have that one,,,,During the course of puttin' some chords on here, if I can get around to it, I'll show you what the difference is...OK? Meanwhile back at the ranch....
Demonstration playing in background.
"Got 32 chords at each fret,,,talkin' at least three notes and one. If you were talkin
two notes and one you would have over fifty chords at a fret.
You were saying about C6th sounds...
Demonstrates C6th sounds in background
plus you have, so much you can add to it.
Demonstration
and you can do E tuning, A tuning, C# tuning,,,there's all kinds of tunings on here. more demo
Any kind of a chord that you want with a melody note on top. Yes! you can get the proper harmony underneath.
I told you that there was a "hum" in here but I'm not much worried about it because this is just a tape for you. I hope!!!

...
and the tuning of the A Harp.
So it's very important that you just listen to the guitar and not try to figure out how people are playing?
Mae Lang is a good friend of mine and she has been using her vibrato on this tuning for over thirty four years. That's her way.
There are many who along with me,,love her playing.
So if you have any other questions my friend,
please be sure to send me an email, ask me about it and whatever you want to know about the A Harp.
I would tell you this,,,Eddie Alkire spent fourteen, sixteen, eighteen hours a day writing music, arranging and developing a new and entirely different tuning that would be acceptable to Big Bands, piano music, so on and so forth, which you can read on the guitar.
Now,,he did not want this called a Steel Guitar. So that's why when you hear some of his earlier records, he and his two children, he had a lot of circuitry in there which was not known at the time....to get different sounds to the instrument. That way it wouldn't sound like a steel guitar when played with a group of brass in a big orchrestra,, and it would fit right in. So some of the orchrestrations he actually wrote for the big bands had an A Harp orchrestration in there,,and this is why he was working on this thing so much. Actually,
he devoted his entire life to it. Had a six story building in eastern Pennsylvania in one of the prime locations,,,and he was in the mail order business. Yes, he was a fine guitarist although he did not have time to practice. All he had time to do was write
music, write arrangements and work on the A Harp.
So Roy Thomson, be good and may the Good Lord
bless ya and I thank you for your time to-day. All right?
Chordal melody followed by Hawaiian A Harp with band accompanyment.

Roy Thomson
Transcription

------------------
<A HREF="http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm ... abmenu.htm
</A> [This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 31 December 2002 at 10:15 AM.]

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 31 Dec 2002 10:31 am

On the tape I refer to above Claude plays two full arrangements in addition to the chordal demonstrations.
He was a man in complete command of the A Harp. He not only knew the theory behind his tuning but could play it with a very dominent and agressive swing.
Unfortunately he did not address his approach and modification to the tuning.
I beleive what b0b says is no doubt the truth as he saw and heard Claude live.
I can understand his thinking in that the A Harp tuning in the original state is very high end. The tenth string is C# which is our E9th tenth string with the full tone raise!!
By tuning low as Claude did and maintaining the same intervals he was able to penetrate the bass clef more. Altho he would still not have a low E as per standard guitar. As I read it anyway.

------------------
<A HREF="http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm ... abmenu.htm
</A>

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 1 Jan 2003 12:45 pm

In accordance with b0b's post above on Claude's tuning here are the open strings:
[tab]
1. B
2. G#
3. F#
4. E
5. D#
6. D
7. C#
8. C
9. B
10. G#

With the appropriate guaged strings you do not need a long neck guitar to tune that way. Claude was looking for more sustain
and depth and I suspect that was his reasoning in having the long neck built.
Plus it set him apart.

He did not have heavy guage strings in the middle of the tuning as was suggested in a previous post.

I trust this information will be helpfull and accurate.

Roy

------------------
<A HREF="http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm ... abmenu.htm
</A>

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 1 Jan 2003 9:00 pm

As I understand it, the scale length from the fifth fret to the bridge was similar to a standard steel guitar. The way he explained it to me me was, "If the nut was here, it would be a standard E-Harp". He encouraged me to think of the fifth fret as the nut, and play above the fifth fret.

I played the guitar and it wasn't all that strange to me. I had been experimenting a lot with diatonic tunings at the time, so the skip grips didn't throw me off. You can't strum across the strings. You have to pick the right grips.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 2 Jan 2003 1:29 am

What you say is in line b0b with Ernie's picture #1 above.
Note the fret markers.
There's one behind the second fret and then another behind the fifth. The low notes I outline above would resolve to the Alkire tuning at fret 5.
The fret markers on his guitar onward from fret 5 then conform to standard.

------------------
<A HREF="http://www.clictab.com/royt/tabmenu.htm ... abmenu.htm
</A>

Ernie Pollock · Post by **Ernie Pollock** » 3 Jan 2003 9:56 am

Now, thanks to Roy & Bob, I am starting to get the picture. I will re-string my guitar for the tuning at the 5th fret, after looking at my own pictures, I saw that. Isn't it funny how we can just look right past something that important. the beauty of it is, Claude probably tried [in vain] to explain that to me when he was here. I am going to give that a try sometime in the very near future - I will try to remember, 'No Struming' the strings!!

Ernie

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 3 Jan 2003 11:09 am

Most Eharp players I've heard really sounded stiff - not Claude. He could really swing and with beautiful tone.

The tuning is very powerful but not very intuitive. It was designed to be played with 4 picks and offers the most chord possibilites of any non-pedal tuning. Being able to rip fast single note runs is NOT something the tuning facilitates , at least in my limited experience with it.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 3 Jan 2003 11:22 am

Claude could imitate lots of machinery and barnyard animals with that tuning.

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 3 Jan 2003 12:06 pm

I got to meet Claude at the Atlanta show in '98 I believe. We jammed a good bit in the Peavy room with me playing lead guitar and him on that long neck "thing". I was very impressed with his chord work and knowlege of that strange tuning. I couldn't get anything out of it personally, but he made it talk! He was truly a one of a kind player and very entertaining on stage. I hadn't heard of his passing and am saddened by it....JH

------------------
Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 3 Jan 2003 10:13 pm

I am originally from Pa. and also went through two EHArp courses. I heard and saw Eddie Alkire play several times and he was not handycapped one bit when it came to fast playing on the EHArp tuning. I was only about 13 or 14 years old at the time, but; I can remember that he was a man with a lot of ability! "Big John" Nashville, Tn. http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/docO [This message was edited by John Bechtel on 06 January 2003 at 10:33 AM.]

Graham Griffith · Post by **Graham Griffith** » 6 Jan 2003 12:55 am

I was in the round robin tape club with George Lake and Claude and have been dabbling with the Eharp tuning for some 7 years now. Recently I've been going hard at it and it really is fantastic (I like old jazz standards and chordal melodies etc.) In reference to single string work and speed, I had to play Turkey in the Straw on pedal steel for a show (at bluegrass tempo). I've been transferring the tune to Eharp and I reckon that I'll soon have that speed and fluidity on the Eharp(despite the lack of pedals) ... goals and determination are all that count (along with a love for the instrument. Claude was a magnificent man and I really regret being so far away and never having met him.

Graham