Ok, Larry Allen (a well known Alaska steel guitarist and tatoo artist) called me last week to let me know he has a few old road cases that might hold my gear. I went over to take a look and after 3 hours of talking and swapping war stories I was on my way with a few cases to check out. Very cool of him, no?
But, while I was there Larry turned my on to his 'secret' lap steel tuning for 6-string guitars. It goes 1, 5, 6, 1, 3, 5 from low to high. So, if you were in E the notes would be E, B, C#, E, G#, B. I knew the rest of my weekend was wrecked, and it was- all I've been doing is playing the steel guitar so I can master this tuning. Here's what's so cool about the tuning- it's overall a major tuning with the added 6th. But in the middle of it is a minor triad (the C#, E, G#), which means you can play minor chords without bar slants. You can also make a minor 7th chord too.
The other cool thing about this tuning is that the relationship of the 3 highest pitched strings are the same as in a open G country blues tuning. So it's not that much different than most standard blues tunings- it's just got that 6th scale degree in it. And, if you pull the high string up a whole step, you've got a 4 note minor chord. Damn, it's a very cool tuning.
Thanks Larry! I'm a total convert! Was it nice out this weekend? Somebody needs to tell me....
