Slightly different Dobro tuning..........

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

I've been using a G6th tuning for my lap steel for a few years now, it's low to high B D E G B D. With just retuning the 1st string to E and the 3rd string to G# you get a nice usable E7th tuning. I had an acoustic gig a week or two back and we were playing some old standards so I put this tuning on my Dobro and it worked great. Since then I've been playing along with some Bluegrass friends and it's really helped out there to. You can eliminate quite a bit of bar movement by just that one string. Just take your 6th string off, move 5 to that position, move 4 to 5 and put an E string in the 4th position. I used a .030 string there. You won't have the low G but I can live without that for the added stuff. Also if you play pedal steel the bottom 3 strings now will be the exact same as the bottom 3 on your 10 string E9 neck!

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Have a good 'un! JH U-12

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 31 January 2001 at 05:20 PM.]

Ted Smith · Posted 31 Jan 2001 6:35 pm

I usually don't get excited about tunings Jerry- I think I've heard everything in every direction since I was 5, but I am really hot on getting an E on a Dobro with the G tuning by going with a 7-string and putting either the G root on the outside with this tuning you're working with, or tuning the outside string to E and be able to catch the 6th out there, then left hand choke it to a 7th like a pedal effect. David Snow has one on order we're working on and I think it will really be slick. Stock spacing at the saddle and nearly stock at the nut. I'll work with your tuning when I get off late tonight, although I think it might cramp up licks I'm pat on now.

Ted

Ted Smith · Posted 31 Jan 2001 9:19 pm

It has a nice full chord voice for sure - leans in the 6th sound doesn't it. I changed one string at a time on it and I actually liked just the E on 4 for minor improv' working out of the key of E on the bottom bass strings. I'm going to try it on that 7 string guitar with the gauges you recommended as a test.
A couple of years back at the Grass Valley Festival in N. Calif. I asked LeRoy Mac about tunings, and his opinion was not to try and learn the same songs in different tunings because it took as much time as learning a new song. His idea was certain tunings for certain songs. I ran that by Cindy Cashdollar and she said that a lot of the early non-pedal players thought the same way. So I have leaned more toward tunings that could use the same general gauge of strings and building the guitars so they can re-tune accurately. Which is a real struggle because of string compensation and because the radius on the nut and saddle are different on different tunings if you want the guitar to play in perfect pitch and have a minimum of bar buzz when playing fast.
I would really like to hear opinions on this...

John Kavanagh · From: Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada * R.I.P.

I use a G6 (GBdegbd'e') on my acoustic 8-string, and on the lower neck of my D8, and it's great because of the crossover connections you can make to open G or standard guitar tuning. If I had a 6, I'd probably use the tuning you have, though there are a lot of melodies that flow nicer with that top e string there.

There are a lot of other choke possibilities there, too. At the 12th fret, you mentioned bending up the e for a G7, but you can also bend up the g for an E7, or bend up the b for a C or CM9, and with a little practise you can bend up the g and e together for a diminished 7th.

If you can manage a whole step bend on an e string, you can get a Bm by skipping the g, or a GM7 with the g.

This gives you a LOT of chords within two frets of the tonic, and that's before you start working on the new slants.

It's keeping me busy.

[This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 02 February 2001 at 12:54 PM.]

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