C6 tuning

C6 tuning is the most common tuning for electric steel guitar

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

, both on single and multiple neck instruments. On a twin-neck, the most common tuning is C6 tuning on the near neck and E9 tuning

E9 tuning

E9 tuning is a common tuning for steel guitar necks of more than six strings. In particular, it is the most common tuning for the far neck on a two-neck table steel guitar or pedal steel guitar, most often combined with C6 tuning for the near neck, and also a popular tuning for single neck...

 on the far neck.

On a six-string neck, most common on lap steel guitar

Lap steel guitar

The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....

, C6 tuning is most commonly 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, most common on table steel guitar

Table steel guitar

The console steel guitar is a type of electric steel guitar intermediate between the lap steel guitar and the pedal steel guitar. Console steel guitars typically have multiple necks and/or more than six strings per neck, and are too large to be easily played in lap steel fashion.They are...

, common 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, most common on pedal steel guitar

Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...

, a common 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.

External links

• Steel guitar tunings indexes many tunings.