After working with this tuning for a few hours I'm beginning to get a glimmer of insight into how powerful it is. Here are my thoughts so far:

* There are a lot of chords available at a
single fret including close-voiced jazz
chords like the Leavitt tuning. There are
at least 3 minor chord inversions but
it's not a strong tuning for major sounds
per se.
* This tuning is probably best suited to
electric steel. It offers pedal steel-style
sustain and chromaticism on single
note runs. I don't think it would sound
good on a Weissenborn.
* Having proper string gauges, new strings,
and being perfectly in tune is hyper
critical with such close voiced chords.
I expect having a set-up like a Sierra
lap steel & Evans amp would be ideal for
this tuning.
* For the most part, strumming is out in
favor of careful use of gapped chords
and good right hand blocking.
* Unlike the Leavitt or Alkire EHarp tunings,
you still have a foot (or at least a toe)
in the 6th tuning waters on strings
1,2,4,5. Carl explained this very well.
* There are a lot of opportunities for 3-part
harmony here and substitute chords. Having
some theory under your belt for C
Diatonic seems pretty necessary unless
your ear is exceptional.
* It really helps to hear the chord voicings
in this tuning against the background
harmony to realize just how powerful
it is. The close intervals tend to sound
dissonant played by themselves.
* It's gonna take a long time to figure this
baby out! Makes me appreciate Byrd's genius
in a whole new light.

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 02 December 2001 at 06:38 PM.]

At Carl's suggestion I listened again to JB's "Come a Little Closer" on the HI FI GUITAR album to hear the diatonic tuning in action. It's full of rich chord voicings and it even has some "chromatic style" runs... really nice!

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