The British Steelies Society

Hi All,
Just joined the forum.
Bought a Gold Tone dobro from Forum member Coolsteel(Richard) a couple of months back and had a lovely time talking about music and much more. Bought the dobro due to left hand problems, and loved it so much bought a 6 and 8 string gold tone lapsteels and also a 8 string Dobro, just love Mike Auldridge.
As a long time guitar player, playing a lot of bottleneck, I understood the dobro tuning, but did not realise the scope of lap steel tunings. Its been an education listening(a lot) and watching the old lap steel players on youtube.
At 17 I had the choice of either buying a Pedal Steel.....or my first love, a hand made 12 string(I loved Leo Kottke) and after trying out a Pedal Steel, opted for the 12 string to be made.
Anyway, really enjoying reading the forum and learning.
Graham

Welcome
I've got a GoldTone 8 string reso and it's really good. I almost sold it a while back and am so glad I didn't! I think Mike Auldridge used G6th but I prefer C6th (as posted before it's, lo to hi, CEGACGEGD the D top string pitched between 4th and 3rd strings - typical of a C6th pedal pusher ). I was concerned that the high E may not excite the cone enough but it turned out OK probably because it's a Quarterman cone. I picked that tuning after getting exasperated trying to find a useful bottom string which is usually a low 6th sometimes retuned to low min7th, neither of which are, to me, as helpful as the D on top leaving the tonic, C on bottom and giving the benefit of some neat diatonic runs on the upper strings.

Thanks Tony, appreciated.
Really love the 8 string Gold Tone, only had it for a week. BTW, if anyone thinks they would like one and would like to try one out before buying, if you are passing by Cwmbran, feel free to drop in and have a go, no problem.
Have both the 8 strings in G6 tuning and listening to Gary Morse on his 7 string Dobro is a big learning curve for sure.
Some C6 lap steel books have arrived today so looking through them. I have put a message in the wanted section for Mike Aldridge's introduction to the 8 string as they have sold out from the Distributor in The States so hopefully someone may have one.
Again, thanks for the tips,
Graham