This problem is already being worked on by Chuck Campbell and others.

What are the open strings tuned to on a "Sacred steel E7th" tuning? I would have to know that before recommending a 4 X 4 copedent for a beginner.

Worth some more study for sure.
I would think that a S12 would be very good for this tuning, though most of the needed chords are there now.
My E9 neck is a bit more E7 at the moment, though not this E7.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 27 March 2004 at 05:54 PM.]

    P1  P2  P3  P4  LKL  LKR  RKL  RKR
D                                   C#
E                    F    D#   F#
B       C#      C#
G#  G       A
E                    F              F#
D               E         D#
B       C#      C#
G#  G       A
E                    F              F#
B       C#      A

P3, P4 and RKR gives A6 all the way across.

LKR and RKR gives a B6 All the way across with "the D on top"

[This message was edited by C Dixon on 27 March 2004 at 07:02 PM.]

    P1  P2  P3  P4  LKL  LKR  RKL  RKR
G#  G       A
E                    F    D#   F#
D                                   C#
B       C#      C#
G#  G       A
E                    F              F#
D               E         D#
B       C#      C#
G#  G       A
E                    F              F#

Seriously, I do have a pretty cool hybred, but I am working with Chuck Campbell (who truly is the man) on it before I publish it.....

G#
E
B
G#
F#
E
D
B
G#
E

I could use the PF change for the 3rd pedal
but am open for suggestions. With the added lower G# and E I can use some lower gauges to give it more low tones.

[This message was edited by Frank Parish on 28 March 2004 at 10:45 AM.]

F#   F#
G#   D
E    G#
D    E
B    B
G#   G#
E    E
E    E
B    B
E    E

As for the changes, I don't have any ground breaking suggestions. I'd just say that for the upper strings put whatever changes make possible fast pentatonic, dorian and harmonic minor scales (in E9 terms: the E's--or upper D--to D#, AB + D>D#, and A + F respectively).

For the lower strings whatever gives easily accessible common chords, of course, but I'd also want to have some more dissonant bluesy chords available. I always liked having the raise to G on the seventh string, so in this case something like raising the 7th string E to a G (so that with the 8th string E lowered to D you can get a dom7#9 chord with the seventh string G and the 6th string G# right next to each other) might be nice. It would also give you that A7 with AB down.

It occurs to me though, that the above is a very "E9" way of thinking about how to get various scales and chords. Perhaps the Sacred Steel players have a different thought process and would suggest different ways of getting those things...

-Travis

[This message was edited by Travis Bernhardt on 28 March 2004 at 03:26 PM.]

I thought this thread was about an open E7th tuning. Why all the F#'s? That makes it an E9th tuning. If you use them, the tuning then more or less reverts back to a standard E9th copedent.

Or, I have I missed something?

You make a good point though, that the tuning becomes very E9-like with that F# in there. Another option would be to do it the way that Chuck Campbell does it on the ten string tuning listed on the Carter site:

Ten string tuning

Instead of a high F#, he adds a low B and some interesting changes. I don't know how you're reduce that copedant to 3+4, though.

I can't wait to see what Chuck and co. come up with.

F#-G#-E-D-B-G#-E-E-B-E

But I would make the 4th string C# and pull it up to a D when I want it....al

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