Thoughts on hybrid A6 tuning?

[Mark Evans]

Recently stumbled into an Ace (Rickenbacker) locally that appears to be almost unused. What a hoot! Boisterous pickup, nary a hum. It’s the shortest scale lap I have, so I’m trying an A6th tuning (all the other long scales are in D, E, C etc).

I’ve tried a few. Variants, settled on one that a fellow forumite suggested.
A C# E F# A C#

I’ve been watching some Western swing rules with Eddie Rivers. One thing he mentions is that he prefers an E on top. I twisted my tuning so that it reads:
A C# E F# A E

I’m finding some cool stuff… but what would you call this? Another A6?

[Tim Whitlock]

E on the top is by far the most common version of A6. You have a nice major triad on the top three strings and a relative minor on 2,3 and 4.

[David M Brown]

Yes, the most common 6 string A6 tuning, which I use a lot, is low to high:

C# E F# A C# E

The one with C# on top is a lower version of the C6 tuning, L-H

CEGACE

[Andrew Frost]

Your approach is interesting but it sacrifices the major third (C#) in the upper register, which then limits the melodic options somewhat.
If you leave the top triad intact, but take the major third out of the bass side instead, you could have..

E
C#
A
F#
E
A

This works well if you like having a low root string on the bottom, while preserving the typical 6th tuning intervals/ patterns on the top 5 strings.