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Post new topic Opinions and recommendations wanted (old newbie player)!
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Author Topic:  Opinions and recommendations wanted (old newbie player)!
Joni Charette

 

From:
Galena, Missouri, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 7:14 am    
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Hi everyone! Am going to get back into playing after DECADES away from it, so I'm considering myself to be brand new to it at this point. Picked up a 1955 Oahu (yes, I know, made by Valco) electric lap steel yesterday. (What can I say, 1955 was a great year!) It is currently tuned open G. What are everybody's preferences to start out with? C6? Open G ok? Something else? And what do you recommend / suggest for strings? I have seen sets with the 4th either wound or plain, what are the preferences? Thanks in advance for the help. Played a Fender Dual 6 in the 1960's for awhile . . . and have now found myself landed in the middle of Steel Guitar country in southern Missouri. Looking to play country/swing type music, not Hawaiian (my dad and I worked that out back in '65).
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David M Brown


From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 8:14 am    
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I'd go with C6. There's lot's of TABS and teaching material and it is very common among country players. Plus, you can retune to several other useful tunings with the same set of strings.

C E G A C E - basic C6

C# E G A C E - Byrd's C6/A7 (maybe not so good for country?)

C# E F# A C# E - A6, common in Western Swing too

B D E G# B E - E7

B D E G# C# E - E13

and so on. I'm still trying to figure which strings I like best, so I am no help there yet.

Have fun playing again!
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Fred Treece


From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 8:38 am     A few very useful links
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Brad Bechtel’s lap steel website:
https://people.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html

Troy Brenningmyer’s free YouTube lessons:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=quk3mZgxuLo

Doug Beaumier’s YouTube channel for superbly done lap steel tunes - very inspiring
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC0aCXqg4vjKL1DLWrxCcFTw
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David Knutson


From:
Cowichan Valley, Canada
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 12:06 pm    
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Joni, welcome back to steel. It never really leaves us, you know.

I will second David Brown's suggestion to go with C6, if for no other reason than the wealth of learning material available for that tuning. And the folks on this forum are extremely generous with their expertise. Have fun.
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Joni Charette

 

From:
Galena, Missouri, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 3:07 pm    
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Thanks for the replies and suggestions. Now to go check my string gauges to see if I need a different set to tune C6. I appreciate the help - I'll happily take all the mentoring I can get! Very Happy
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Nic Neufeld


From:
Kansas City, Missouri
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 3:14 pm    
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C6 is really versatile. Hawaiian of course which isn't your objective but I've been using C6/C13 for jazz standards lately. I think half of the battle is finding a tuning that you eventually "know your way around"...the 6th tunings give you lots of options in terms of maj/min chords, and A6, C6, E13, etc all work pretty well. Whichever one you land on I would stick with for a while...the nice thing about C6 and A6 is it's a really easy retune (as others have mentioned) to C6/A7, D9, B11, and to each other. C6 is likely to have more instructional material and tabs available, although A6 seems the more commonly accepted tuning for Western Swing, generally.
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me
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