Sq neck strings/tunings

[lexluthier]

Hi folks. Just received a Dobro square neck this afternoon and never having dealt with one before, need a bit of help please!

It has arrived de-tuned and loaded with a 56-15 set of strings. My recent research seem to suggest GBDGDB is a commonly used tuning for square neck and I'm looking for a place to start. My worry about this tuning is the 56 gauge string being tuned to G, it doesn't seem quite feasible. So I suppose I have 3 questions:-
1. Is GDBGDB a good place to start for bluegrass and country blues?
2. What is a good string gauge for GBDGBD.
3. What is a suitable tuning for a 56-15 set of strings(as I like 'em and got a stack of 'em!)
Thanks in advance folks, really looking forward to get playing this instrument.
Chris

[Michael Messer]

Hi Lex

15/56 are fine in high bass G tuning GBDGBD. Usually the top two strings are slightly heavier for that tuning (16,18,26,36,46,56), but the strings you have will be fine.
GBDGBD is the classic Dobro tuning and it is great for blues, but beware because with two major thirds it is very major and not bluesy.

Shine On
Michael

[lexluthier]

Thank you for your reply and advice Michael. I did find you've answered the question a couple of times before when I spent a little more time with search function, I'll try and be a little more patient in the future, difficult when one has a new geetar waiting to be played!
The instrument arrived with the tailpiece under-strung and the string ends bent at nearly 90 degrees to achieve this. Putting the strings on the tailpiece 'properly' was all too much for the 56 and it popped. I did make me think about this string being tuned up a couple of tones above standard (E) especially when I've come to understand these type of tunings are generally called 'slack' tunings, or have I misunderstood? Anyway, it was all too much for my logic! You were right about the string gauges on the high side, they are 16 and 18, misreading my micrometer in my excitement!
Many thanks again, Chris.

[Deleted]

I think the slack tuning refers to the "low G" version of Open G, i.e., Spanish tuning, where the 1st and 6th strings are tuned down to D, and the 5th string down to G.

I didn't actually know there was a "high G" version...seems like it's more of a bluegrass tuning?

[Deleted]

Players normally use a tonebar for lap style playing, but Watermelon Slim uses a bottleneck
and Black Ace a small bottle to great effect in these 2 videos.

Jack Broadbent appears to use a blackboard duster!

[Michael Messer]

High bass GBDGBD tuning has become known as a Bluegrass tuning because that is the world that most acoustic lap steel players inhabit these days. However, high bass tuning was actually the staple of pre-pedal steel acoustic and electric Hawaiian and Country steel playing.

Shine On
Michael

[LouisianaGrey]

Personally I find open D (low to high DADF#AD - open E is just a tone higher) a more friendly tuning for lap-style blues playing if I'm playing solo. That way you can fake it by chording root + fifth on the bottom 3 strings so it can be major or minor. The difficulty with high-bass G is that Em is really the only minor chord you can get with a straight bar.

[lexluthier]

Thanks for the advice Pete, I will try that at some point in the future. I have my Lightning in open D so familiar with the tuning. I tend to want to find the tuning that I think suits the guitar best and stick with it. My tricone's in Spanish G and my parlour in standard. I also find it beneficial to associate a guitar with a tuning as it separates them in my mind and helps me keep 'in mode'. Being a somewhat slow learner I need every trick I can find to use. Another benefit to this separation is I find myself getting stale if I immerse myself in any one tuning for too long and need a break to resolve what I've learned or practiced, so I simply put the guitar down for a few days and play another. It keeps things fresh for me and with 4 guitars in 4 different tunings I've never played so much in my life and never get bored. Got my Shubb SP2 steel today, really enjoying square neck dobro in GBDGBD.

Chris

[LouisianaGrey]

A useful pattern to remember in G tuning if you're blues soloing is to imagine the spots on a 5 dice if the top right spot is the 1st string of the bar position of the key you're playing in. It's sometimes handy to know a safe place you can go to if you get lost in the middle of a solo You may know this already - it would be the 2nd string in. D tuning.

[Deleted]

Sept 23, 2015 23:44:31 GMT lexluthier said:

 I tend to want to find the tuning that I think suits the guitar best and stick with it. My tricone's in Spanish G and my parlour in standard.

I've been wondering about this idea lately as well - what makes one guitar more suited for one tuning over the other?

I now have two parlor resos that I like a lot -- it's one of those things where, every time I pick up one guitar, I say to myself, "Yes! THIS is the one! Heck, I'll just sell the other!" and then I pick up the other one and say exactly the same thing. So I'm keeping both, of course!

For the moment, I have the maple guitar in Open D/Vestapol. The guitar's very bright, has a very airy, acoustic sound to it. Open D seems like a "chimier" tuning that matches this guitar more.  I keep the other, made of mahogany, in Open G/Spanish -- it's a darker-, warmer-sounding guitar, just seems to work better with Open G.

I do have a guitar for standard tuning, an old Hofner archtop I use on occasion for Freddie Green-style comping. But I've otherwise abandoned standard tuning entirely. My electric is tuned to Open G too.

Anyway, this is probably a discussion for a different thread....

[pete1951]

Sept 23, 2015 20:10:58 GMT LouisianaGrey said:

The difficulty with high-bass G is that Em is really the only minor chord you can get with a straight bar.

Am I missing something here?? If you can get Em with a straight bar, can`t you move it up a semitone and get Fm? then F# etc etc?
PT

[LouisianaGrey]

I didn't explain myself very well. When I said "straight bar" I just meant "without the complications of trying to get the intonation right on bar slants". The way you get Em on a high bass G guitar is to fret only the 4th string at the second fret and play just the top 4 strings (technically Em7 but it works).

For other minor chords if you only play the 3rd & 4th strings then you're doing root & 5th so it will work for a minor as a passing chord but it doesn't have much power or depth if you're playing solo.

[pete1951]

LouisianaGray is correct, if you are playing alone , you need a root note now and then to `ground` the song. However, an Em chord is EGB, and Em7th chord can be EGBD, now if someone else is playing a strong Em, or the bass is thundering away in E,when you play GBD it becomes Em7th rather than G. (trust me this does work) So if someone is playing a minor blues in A, you can play a bi-chord on your 2nd&3rd at the 5th fret or 1,2,3 together (and 4 if you want, the more the merrier...well not too merry this is a minor blues) then fret 10 on the Dm and 12on the Em
PT
Hope to make a short video on playing in minor keys on Spanish (G) Tuning, watch this space

[Michael Messer]

A minor at the second fret with the 3rd string G open AC#EG

Shine On
Michael

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2015 18:48:30 GMT pete1951 said:

Hope to make a short video on playing in minor keys on Spanish (G) Tuning, watch this space

Yes please!