Billy Hew Len A6 Tuning Question

[Aaron Clinton]

How do I use the diminished chord at the bottom of Billy’s tuning in relation to the A6 on top?

E
C#
A
F#
E
C#
A#
G

[Joe A. Roberts]

You can play these tabs on your middle six strings to get used to the dominant sounds the A# string gives you:
https://www.steelc6th.com/tabs/c6_tabs.htm

For the G string, see if you can find some C13th tabs, because the Bb string in C is analagous to the G string in A.

For reference:

Code: Select all

E  -  G
C# -  E
A  -  C
F# -  A
E  -  G
C# -  E
A# -  C#
G  -  Bb

Also, Mikiya Matsuda’s electric videos at the bottom of this page are all in that tuning, I believe, if you want to try to pick up some tricks:
https://www.youtube.com/@MikiyaMatsuda/videos

[Aaron Clinton]

Thanks Joe, both those simple uses and Matsuda’s stuff is great, but Billy was able to use both the g and the a# together for beautiful lush diminished chords. I can find the chords but not really sure how they are functioning against the original scale in the context of a chord progression.

[Tim Toberer]

I inquired about this tuning a while ago. viewtopic.php?t=392985&highlight=
I was unable to find any recordings of Billy using this exact tuning. I listened through a lot of the archive recordings and found them very enjoyable, but limited in terms of helpful. The main problem is I can never tell what tuning he is using. Most of it sounds like it is on his pedal steel guitar. I was unable to find Billys exact copedant either?? I have a feeling it is similar to Basil Henrique's according to this helpful post viewtopic.php?t=215341 . I tinker with it occasionally (A6/F#7), but I couldn't see making any real progress unless I used it all the time. I am considering a different setup (on my pedal steel), that will allow me to get this tuning.

On a side note, it is sad to me that the 8 string pedal steel has completely fallen out of favor as it is a much more approachable instrument than the modern behemoths. It seems tunings were following a different evolution on these simpler old steels especially with the early Hawaiian pioneers that invented the damn thing! Then abruptly C6 just became the other neck (or removed permanently for an armrest!) with only a few very gifted players being able to unlock its true secrets.

I think the beauty of this tuning A13b9, is getting fat sounding dissonant chords by having notes that are separated by an octave and 1 semitone. Playing these notes together in the same octave is overly dissonant (unless you are Thelonius Monk) You also have all your main chord groups covered, diminished, half diminished and dominant 7. All this and you still have a complete A6 on the top 6 strings, leaving the "wrong" notes at the bottom where they are easy to avoid. This is a perfect tuning!!

[Aaron Clinton]

Hi Tim, I agree it is tough to know what tuning Billy is in on the archival tapes. I also suspect he is using a copedent similiar to Basil's. I am using A13 with a traditional C6 copedent and I end up with Billy's tuning when I use pedal 8. I spent the night learning more on how to use diminished chords and the eureka moment for me was seeing the bottom of the tuning as c# dim rather than g dim.

[Tim Toberer]

Hi Tim, I agree it is tough to know what tuning Billy is in on the archival tapes. I also suspect he is using a cope dent similiar to Basil's. I am using A13 with a traditional C6 copedent and I end up with Billy's tuning when I use pedal 8. I spent the night learning more on how to use diminished chords and the eureka moment for me was seeing the bottom of the tuning as c# dim rather than g dim.

I would be interested to hear more if you can explain further? I never think of diminished chords in terms of in any key, only what key they are relating to I guess, or what chords they move to. I see dim. chords as doorways to modulations, and sometimes just think of them as dominant chords. I recently watched a utube video about how Django used diminished on the I chord. There is always more to figure out it seems!

[Chris Templeton]

Billy @ Jerry Byrd's Hoolaulea-'86