Rich Sullivan
From:
Nelson, NH 03457
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Posted 17 Oct 2020 9:35 am |
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I recently acquired a Rickenbacker DW steel guitar and decided to put it through its paces. It is a nice guitar and I am really enjoying it.
Here are four old country songs, all in the key of D, and played non-pedal of course. The songs are Born To Lose, Your Old Love Letters, Then I Turned And Walked Slowly Away, You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry. I have been playing pedal steel (albeit with minimal pedals) for the last four years, so this was fun getting back into non-pedal mode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgB9IylcXKE
The tuning is E6, my most comfortable tuning. When I started playing steel in 1991, there was very little information available about non-pedal tunings, at least here in New England. I was learning on the job, and the band I performed in was playing old country. I was able to find out about Don Helms' and Little Roy Wiggins' tunings, and started learning some of their material, since we played quite a few of Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold songs. For comparison, here are the three tunings I am talking about, and you can see that they only vary in the bottom two strings.
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E6(my tuning) Wiggins Helms
G# G# G#
E E E
C# C# C#
B B B
G# G# G#
E E E
C# D C#
B B A
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Rich Sullivan
From:
Nelson, NH 03457
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Posted 18 Oct 2020 5:08 am
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Thanks, Joe. It is a good tuning, and I am partial to it, although it is not an overly popular tuning. Here are my observations, not that they are original.
Starting with the negative aspects, the most commonly held objection is that the first string high G# is too thin. This is probably the case on many guitars, but not universally, at least to my ears. FWIW, it is the same pitch as the third string on E9th pedal steels, and I don't recall players voicing the same objection in that setting. Also, because the whole tuning is pitched high with the lowest note being a B, it does miss out by not having a fat low-end. Again, this is the same pitch as the lowest string on the pedal steel E9th neck. The obvious way to compensate for this is to have a lower pitched second neck, just as the C6th neck on pedal steel.
To me, the biggest disadvantage is that there is no tritone available without slants, which means the tuning is bereft of dominant seventh chords, as in all 6th tunings. Of course, they are there with slants and partial chords, but you never get the satisfaction of strumming a big fat dominant chord like you could with a 13th or 9th tuning.
Another possible disadvantage would be if you are accustomed to having the fifth of the tuning on the first string, such as in A6th or high C6th or even "Dobro" G tuning. This tuning would definitely feel incomplete and leave you reaching for that missing string, if that is the case.
On the positive side, the disadvantage of the supposed thinness of the high pitched tuning becomes an advantage in a band setting where it allows the steel to cut through the mix easier. Just listen to the Hank Williams recordings with Don Helms.
Also, the symmetrical nature of the top four strings replicating the bottom four strings makes for easy navigation. This symmetry can be sacrificed by raising the seventh string a half step to gain the dominant seventh if you don't want get it with a slant, thus creating an E13th tuning. (See Little Roy's tuning in my first post.)
For me, the number one advantage is the abundance of 6th intervals, which are available in four combinations between strings 1-4, 2-5, 3-6, 5-8. The only string which cannot be harmonized with a 6th is string 7.
Another learning advantage is that this tuning is equivalent to the C6th tuning with a first string E, with the whole tuning just raised four half tones; the advantage being that there is an abundance of learning material for C6th, which can be either directly read in a different key, or alternately just transposed down four frets on this tuning to maintain the same key as the tablature.
I did not know this when I started out, but for any E9th pedal steel players looking to move into non-pedal playing, this is an ideal tuning. I actually learned this because I have been on the opposite journey.
Sooner or later, all non-pedal steel players realize that every tuning is a compromise, and we just learn to play to the strengths of the tuning we choose. Or we migrate to the dark side on pedal steel as I have been doing.  |
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