There are several wonderful videos of Jerry Byrd and Marty Robbins on You tube. Does anyone know what tuning Jerry is usuing?
We had a long multi page discussion on this TV show titled The Drifter many years ago on The Steel Gutar Forum starring Marty Robbins and often Jerry Byrd that never actually aired. One of the stories was that it was shot around 1965 in black and white, and color being the exciting new thing in television at the time, it was scrapped.
The resonator Jerry was playing is a seven string, and the tuning was mostly C6/A7, though I don't recall the actual version off the top of my head.
Maybe I can find a link to the long thread later on the SGF. We also had a similar discussion around the same time on the no longer in existence Reso-Nation.
Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 02/11/2026 14:25:22
...and I don't recall anyone ever coming up with a concrete answer, but the speculation was that this seven string reso was built by Shot Jackson and Jerry borrowed it for the show. It would have been pretty lame had he been playing an electric lap steel with an amp down on "the docks" wearing his sailor's cap and clam diggers. 
There were also discussions on the forum in those days by those who knew Byrd including his brother Jack that Jerry didn't care for dobros - he thought they were "gimmicky."
Thanks Mark, That makes sense. He was playing the Kohalo March down around the 2nd fret. Key of D.
This cool footage has him playing Pua Almeida's Tricone.
youtu.be/ytbF58xJmT4?si=Nyu_DD1JTeXHCDZ1
Here's the whole special, it's a great one that many here have probably seen many times, but maybe you haven't.
youtu.be/vYQPk0nNyxY?si=jHHB_04nLVnon6H_
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