What Tuning is This?

Open A flat tuning - Ab C Eb Ab C Eb

Strikes me as a curious tuning - how would you tune DOWN to Ab on the 6th string without said string flapping in the breeze? Unless of course you used a string more suitable for the 5th string? And wouldn't the 5th string - tuned all the way up to C - be under a heck of a lot of tension? Unless you used another "4th" string?

I reckon you'd actually need a guitar dedicated to that tuning.

Wouldn't the "standard" Ab tuning be something like Eb Ab Eb Ab C Eb?

:D :D :D

Vic

In the original recording of Sleepwalk, it is done in what a lot of folks think of as "bluegrass" or "Dobro" Open G tuning (GBDGBD), tuned up an additional half-step. Tuning up both the low E and A strings that high on a conventional guitar (especially an acoustic) can be harmful, but a lap steel, as the one in the video, can usually handle it.

You can get strings sets made especially for this "Dobro Open G."

Peace

Yep, it's the standard "dobro" GBDGBD tuned up a half step. On my lap steel i use regular 013-056 strings for this tuning, replacing the 013 with a 015.

If you buy sets made for GBDGBD, like the Martin Bluegrass Resonator Guitar strings, you generally get a .016-.056" set.