Question For Those of You With Multiple Mandos

[Carolie]

Out of curiosity--

Are the different tunings pretty much standard, and if so--

Do you keep each different mandolin in a different tuning to avoid having to retune one instrument?

Carolyn

[JEStanek]

I keep all of my mandolins tuned GDAE. I bet the majority of us do. I think where you get into frequent alternate tunings is with Octaves and Zouks and Citterns. Just guess, I guess...

Jamie

[John Flynn]

When I experiment with tunings, which is not often, I retune my beater, a Parsons Flat-top, to the non-standard tuning and usually leave it there for a while. I have tried FCGD, like Yank Rachel, and more recently Paul McCartney. I have also tried GDAD. My instructor, Curtis Buckhannon, used to have his second mandolin, a Gibson A-50, strung GDAE, but with octaves in the bass. Second mandolins are good for stuff like that.

[CES]

I don't know enough about theory and chord construction yet to really understand how to use alternate tunings...I do a little with guitars (usually drop D, double drop D, and open G), but even then usually just retune when I get the urge...all three mandos are presently in GDAE...

[JeffD]

For a while I was keeping my "second" tuned to GDAD, or ADAD sometimes, to play some great old timey tunes I was trying to learn from Tommy Jarrel CDs. My "number one" I keep tuned to GDAE.

[Jill McAuley]

I keep all of my mandolins tuned GDAE. They all have different voices so I find them plenty versatile without having to go down the road of tuning them differently.

Cheers,
Jill

[Pete Martin]

I keep mine all in standard tuning. I use different ones when I play different styles of music.

[Jim Garber]

The only mandolin I have tuned differently is my vintage National which strings on an tuned down with the lowest string in E and the two lowest courses in octaves. Same basic tuning low different key. Sounds better and better for guitar blues which often is in E.

[AlanN]

The only mandolin not tuned to standard is the trash Sekova, which is so whacked-out, it can't hold a tuning :mandosmiley:

[Barb Friedland]

I keep all of my mandolins tuned GDAE. They all have different voices so I find them plenty versatile without having to go down the road of tuning them differently.

Cheers,
Jill

I'm with Jill.

[woodwizard]

Most of us will have em in standard GDAE

[mdithk]

I keep all mine in standard GDAE tuning, including the OM.

My mandolins vary by tone and the spacing between strings on the fingerboard. I play the Eastman the most--take lessons with it, practice between lessons with it--and when I pick up another mandolin, it takes me awhile to make the adjustment to the string spacing and fingerboard differences.

[Jim Broyles]

I have only one mandolin. If I had another one, I might tune it to Black Mountain Rag cross tuning - GG DD GG DB - the way Frank Wakefield and Ronnie McCoury do the tune. I might keep one in Get Up John tuning - AF# DD AA AD - if I were in a band which did it.

[journeybear]

I always tune my instruments in fifths: mandolins - GDAE - and my mandola and tenor steel guitar - CGDA. When I was starting out with string instruments I was flummoxed by guitar - too many strings for my four fingers, and that one irregular interval betwen the G and B strings threw me. The regular intervals on mandolin made sense, and still do. That is the same reason I haven't had much luck with open tunings - although they are supposed to make things easier, I find I spend so much time remembering what the new tuning is it's self-defeating.

That said, I can see the value in Jim Garber's approach, to get a low E string for playing the blues. That's one of the reasons I got a mandola in the first place - I got tired of having to suggest a low E without being able to play it.

I've told this story before elsewhere, so if you search on Geoff Muldaur you'll find it. Basically, when my jug band did a workshop with The Jug Band at a festival, he borrowed my banjolin. When I picked it up for the combined band finale, I found he'd put it in some strange open tuning that included the A strings in a third! :disbelief: Eric Weissberg was their utility man for this gig, and he said "Oh, that's his Minglewood tuning. Here, I'll tune it back for you." And bang zoom in half a minute, without a tuner, it was tuned perfectly. My standard joke for years after that was that after being tuned by Eric Weissberg, I should never have to tune it again! :))

[mandroid]

Other than CGDA for mandola tuning on a 8 string H scale, and 2, 4 string electrics the dwarfs are all GDAE.

[JeffD]

Its fun to explore alternate tunings. I was first turned on to it from this book (http://www.amazon.com/Fiddle-Book-Marion-Thede/dp/0825601452), and then my curiosity continued with this (http://www.amazon.com/Old-Time-Kentucky-Fiddle-Tunes-Titon/dp/0813122007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247786646&sr=1-1) one.

The problem with alternate tunings is that I learn several tunes that work but that is all. In other words I learn tunes to play in those tunings, but I don't really play the mandolin in those tunings.

It is a lot of fun, and there is some cool music to make that way.