Guitar Tuning on Mando

[Steve Cat]

I would like to tune my mando like the top four strings of a guitar (E,B,G,D), so that I can use it like a travel guitar. I fooled with this a little and can see that one of the difficulties is string tension. If I use E as the top string I busted the A going to B and the lower strings get real floppy, so can this be compensated for by different string guages? Any tips outside of I should have my head examined would be most appreciated.

[Steve L]

This has come up before, and is generally considered a bad idea. In addition to tuning issues, trying to get around a mando neck with guitar fingerings can be a rather unhappy experience.

[John Flynn]

There are at least two mando guitars on the market, the Gibson M-6 and the Gold Tone GM-6. They have roughly the same scale as a mando, but have 6 strings and are tuned one octave higher than a guitar. I would do some research to see what gauges they use for those 4 strings and then do a custom order with Juststrings or Elderly.

[duuuude]

get a lefty, turn it over & play the bottom 4 of the guitar http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Andy Bard]

Paul Hathway (London) makes two versions of a guitar tuned mando, his '12 string cittern', and his 'bell cittern' - both have a scale length of 360mm. They are tuned one octave above a guitar, E A D G D E, and the strings he uses are:

.046W .036W .026W .016p .011p .008p

I haven't tried one, and although in his catalogue he states that "having the same tuning as the guitar but one octave higher makes this an easy instrument to play", I would imagine that the thickness of the bottom strings would make this hard work for the fingers. They sell for £575 and £725 respectively. Good luck!

[Andy Bard]

Oops, no he doesn't. He tunes them E A D G B E.

[Oren]

I know a couple of guitar players that have mandolins set up this way, and use them for studio gigs, etc., where a mandolin is called for. One has a great old Gibson A, and the other (if you can believe it) has a Gibson F5--a waste of great mandolins, but that's life.

It's not hard to figure out how to restring a mandolin for this kind of tuning--but you do need to restring it. So the question is, are you going to play your mandolin primarily that way or not?

If you're going to play your mandolin in standard mandolin tuning most of the time, I'd say take it with you when traveling, and practice playing the chords you want to play using mandolin forms (if you're thinking of tuning a mandolin in guitar tuning, I assume you're thinking about mostly playing chords).

If you just want to have something that's easy to carry and easy to play close-harmony chords on, get a cheap ukulele. I bought a Chinese-made baritone uke at Elderly for less than $100 w/gigbag, and it is lighter than my mandolin in its hardshell case. And it sounds very nice.

Tenor and soprano ukes are even smaller. Banjo ukes are small and loud.

On the other hand, if this a spare mandolin that you're thinking of retuning, and leave it like that, you could experiment with different string guages and try it tuned at different ranges. I think that an octave above the guitar might be too high to sound pleasant, and the string tensions might make the chord forms hard to finger.

The baritone uke is at the same range as the guitar. The tenor uke I think is a 4th higher--highest string tuned to A. The soprano I think is tuned a note higher than that--B. You could try putting your lower courses in octaves, which might make for some rich, ringing chords.

Happy travels.

[jiffyfeet]

Just buy a ukulele! You can get a decent playable uke for $100. Or you can get a Fluke for about $150 I think, they are nice.