Lap steel tunings like C6 are useful because they have a minor chord shape and a major chord shape built into the tuning. BTW, my lap steel is tuned to "Leavitt Tuning" which is named after William Leavitt (who headed the Berklee School of Music guitar program in the '60s). If you tune your lap steel guitar to an open G chord , this will allow you to play specific major chords up the fretboard. C Major To play a C major chord, simply pluck the lowest three strings (C, E, G) in … Another common tuning … 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. He was a lap steel player too, and came up with this tuning … Lap steel guitar tunings Lap steels are often tuned to specific chords, because standard tuning doesn't work well for sliding on all strings.