What the heck do I tune this thing to?

Well, here’s what I do – your mileage may vary.

E Tuning E B E G# B E

The magic of the E chord….Elmore James would have tuned his guitars to this, if they wouldn’t have snapped in half. Elmore, and Duane Allman used open D tuning – this, just a step Up. The advantage to open E is that all the chords are where you think they should be…G is at the 3rd fret.
Less to think about on stage = better playing.

I know, I know…what about the classic Dobro tunings, and c6, etc…..
well I learned slide with an Elmore James tab book – so that’s what I use.
I play blues based, minor pentatonic scaled solos
so this is just fine and dandy for my applications.
You need to try them all, and see what makes sense to you.
Your style of music, your style of playing will tell you which
tuning is going to be your friend….heck – alot of pickers
use various tunings. My brain hasn’t mastered this yet
but it’s important to remember all musicians are students of music
and the learning never stops.
Be humble and practice, practice, practice.