C6 tuning is one of the most common tunings for
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
, both on single and multiple neck instruments. On a twin-neck, the most common set-up is C6 tuning on the near neck and
E9 tuning
E9 tuning is a common tuning for steel guitar necks of more than six strings. It is the most common tuning for the neck located furthest from the player on a two-neck console steel guitar or pedal steel guitar while a C6 neck is the one closer ...
on the far neck.
On a six-string neck, for example, on
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
, C6 tuning is most usually C-E-G-A-C-E, bass to treble and going away from the player. Some other six-string C6 tunings are:
* A-C-E-G-C-E.
* G-C-G-A-C-E.
* E-C-G-A-C-E.
* E-G-A-C-E-G.
* C-A-C-G-C-E
On an eight-string neck, for example, on a
console steel guitar
The console steel guitar is any type of electric steel guitar that is built in a frame supported by legs. It may be a lap steel or a pedal steel. Console steel guitars are typically heavier instruments that have multiple necks and/or more than six ...
, popular C6 tunings are:
* ''High'' C6 tuning A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G.
* ''Low'' C6 tuning either:
** G-A-C-E-G-A-C-E.
** F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E.
On a ten-string neck, typical of
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
s, a popular C6 tuning is C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G, adding two bass strings to the ''high'' eight-string tuning, or one string on either side of the F-bass ''low'' tuning. This is sometimes called the "Texas tuning".
Another frequent variant is the
reentrant
Reentrant or re-entrant can refer to:
*Re-entrant (landform), the low ground formed between two hill spurs.
*Reentrancy (computing) in computer programming
*Reentrant mutex in computer science
*Reentry (neural circuitry) in neuroscience
*Salients ...
C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-D.
Kayton Roberts, a noted steel guitar player, used a modified C6 on his steel guitar's inside neck: A(low)-A-C#-E-G-A-C-E. On the outside neck he had F-C-Eb-G-F-A-C(though sometimes D)-F.
References
External links
Steel guitar tuningsindexes many tunings.
Steel-guitar tunings
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