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  The Steel Guitar Forum
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  Duane's Midnight Rider tuning

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Author Topic:   Duane's Midnight Rider tuning
Jerry Overstreet
Member

From: Louisville Ky

posted 29 April 2004 08:23 PM     profile     
Anybody know what tuning or guitar Duane Allman used on the song? I got to cover the part on 6 string lap or slide and can't quite figure it out. Sounds like it could be some form of D or G, but the ones I've tried just don't sound right. Looks like we'll be going for the original version in key of D. It's probably here somewhere in a pile of GP's but I thought some of you might know offhand. Thanks JO.

Rick McDuffie
Member

From: Smithfield, North Carolina, USA

posted 29 April 2004 09:15 PM     profile     
I've always played it on 6-string electric in standard tuning. Use your pinky to cover the E and B string at the tenth fret, then fret the G string at the 9th fret (playing an "E") with your third finger and bend it up to F# by pushing with all three available fingers. Has worked great for me these past 30 years!

The challenge is to play the Duane AND Dickey parts smoothly (with just one guitar) on the C to Gm change.

Good luck!

Rick

Jerry Overstreet
Member

From: Louisville Ky

posted 29 April 2004 09:29 PM     profile     
Thanks Rick, I'll give that a try!
Michael Johnstone
Member

From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

posted 04 May 2004 08:22 AM     profile     
I picked w/Duane in high school and knew him well for the rest of his life. One time in 1969 he was passing through Portsmouth Va where I was living and he and the Bros had a gig at The Lighthouse on which my band happened to be the opening act. The band's gear got waylaid in a rent-a-truck somewhere between New York and Va so they used our gear and Duane borrowed my Tele for the gig. When he gave it back to me after the gig,I niticed he'd strung it with heavy strings and jacked the action way up so he could play slide. It was tuned normally. I asked him about his slide playing since he hadn't played slide when I knew him in high school and he said he used open tunings on acoustic but on electric w/the band onstage,he just went with a standard tuning so he could switch back and forth between fingers and slide with a minimum of hassle. I saw the band play several times after that and Duane always seemed to be using standard tuning. The real question for me was: How the hell did he finger the bluesy string bending style with such heavy strings and high action.
-MJ-
Chuck S. Lettes
Member

From: Denver, Colorado

posted 13 May 2004 06:09 AM     profile     
Hello Michael,
Nice to see your post on Duane Allman. He was (and still is) a primary influence and hero to me. Could you start a separate thread and post some of your favorite memories of Duane? Hope all is well for you, and I hope to see you in St. Louis.
Chuck
Mike Brown
Member

From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

posted 13 May 2004 06:27 AM     profile     
Having spent my teenage years near Macon, Georgia, Duane and Dicky influenced my playing heavily. I was fortunate to be around Macon during that time.
Billy Woo
Member

From: Los Angeles, CA, USA

posted 13 May 2004 11:12 AM     profile     
"Midnight Rider" is one of the songs that my group plays and I detune the low E to D while the actual key (to us) is D now I realize this may not be Duane's actual tuning but it does sound fat and I've been playing that song this way for years..

Bronco Billy
(formerly of Washington D.C)
now lost in LA

All times are Pacific (US)

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