C6 tuning

C6 tuning is one of the most common tunings for steel guitar, both on single and multiple neck instruments. On a twin-neck, the most common set-up is C6 tuning on the near neck and E9 tuning on the far neck.

On a six-string neck, for example, on lap steel guitar, C6 tuning is most usually C-E-G-A-C-E, bass to treble and going away from the player. Some other six-string C6 tunings are:

• A-C-E-G-C-E.
• G-C-G-A-C-E.
• E-C-G-A-C-E.
• E-G-A-C-E-G.
• C-A-C-G-C-E

On an eight-string neck, for example, on a console steel guitar, popular C6 tunings are:

• High C6 tuning A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G.
• Low C6 tuning either:
  • G-A-C-E-G-A-C-E.
  • F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E.

On a ten-string neck, typical of pedal steel guitars, a popular C6 tuning is C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G, adding two bass strings to the high eight-string tuning, or one string on either side of the F-bass low tuning. This is sometimes called the "Texas tuning".^[1] Another frequent variant is the reentrant C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-D.