The British Steelies Society

Hi People...
....might be having a go at some Hank Williams material shortly....and was hoping to cut out the middle man, come to the source.... find out about Hank's Steel tunings.

Was it Don Helm on the early recordings btw??

So far...I've only really played lap style in open G (GBDGBD)...but have the feeling I might be needing 8 strings for this?
.....and perhaps a dual neck??

Any comments to get me on my way with this would be most welcome!!

Ken Byng wrote:Don Helms' E6 tuning was (L-H) B C# E G# B C# E G# and was his main tuning throughout his Hank Williams years.

He used E13 on his other neck.

Cheers for that Ken....but a question now!!

After posting my initial question...found a wiki page that describes 'other neck' as a B13 tuning....as opposed to E13

Shows it as F# A B D# F# A C# E
....suppose tunings varied over time??

Thanks again Ken....I realise that E6 is spot on 'main' neck.

It was t'other neck I was querying!

You know what they say about WIKI info.....can be a bit WACKY...

Looks like Wikipedia info is the same as Brads Page of Steel http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/donhelms.html so there's a fair chance it's accurate.
Also see http://www.steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/000868.html from the US forum...

Here are Don's tunings as written down by the man himself.

Of course Don's E6 isn't actually an E6 chord because there is an A in it.

However, Don pretty much only used the top 6 strings of that neck (which was an E6 chord) and used them on pretty much all his solos. Apparently he only used the other (B13) neck for a few fills here and there.

I think Don's "E6" is probably best thought of as 2 tunings on one neck - an E6 on the top 6 strings and abig fat A major on the bottom 3.

Also Don rarely (if ever) used bar slants so that should give some more clues in working out what he was playing.

That 6 string E6 is actually exactly the same relative tuning as C6 (ECAGEC high to low) moved up 4 frets so you can play most of Don's stuff on a 6 string C6 lap steel.

The key to Don's sound though is that 6th note, so pretty much any 6th tuning will get you in the ballpark. I really like A6 and that is what I consider to be my primary tuning.

.....straight from the horse's mouth then....

Great stuff Jeff...and thanks!!