tenor uke strung & tuned like mando

[mandolooter]

I recently picked up a tenor taropatch uke (8 string) and wanna try a mandolin/mandola tuning set-up with it. The scale length is 17 3/8th's and the strings are all nylon except one. The bottom 2 courses are strung like a 12 string guitar, in octaves I believe it's called. It's a great sounding little instrument but my curiosity is calling hard. Any and all help would be great. I really wanna keep the 2 octave tuned courses as that is the thing that most intrige's me. I remember seeing something about this kinda thing in the past but I didn't pay it a whole lot of attention back then. Thanks to everyone!

Eugene, being a classical guitar player and a huge volume of info on old mando's, many of which were strung with cat-gut or nylon, any advice from the great state of Ohio?

I'll post a pic of the thing as soon as i get the digicam's batteries replaced.
Jeff

[mandolooter]

thanks, Im gonna give em a call monday during business hours and see what they say.

[mandroid]

I use martin's baritone uke strings on a shorter(14") scale, ex banjo uke 3 of the set, and 1 out of soprano set[the little one] tune to 5th intervals, in this case F C G D.
perhaps a couple sets of classical guitar strings will give you something with which to experiment.
try any 5th intervals that feel right, 'goldilocks' tension wise, you can always capo until your transposing is up to speed.
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Guages of 3 are similar, BUT one 4 is wound with silvered copper, the 3rd is aluminum wound the 2nd is plain nylon as is the smaller ga. 1st.

[mandolooter]

Thanks for that Droid, I have been using that tuning on my Howe Orme to keep the tension as low as possible since its such a old instrument and needs a neck reset when that becomes affordable. My repair money always seems to get ate up in new (to me)instrument purchases instead. Im mainly worried about string tension issues with the thing. Its a long story but to sum it up quickly I inadvertently paid for it a few days later than the fine print specified and the seller /builder became downright hostile with me and now refuses to answer emails with questions about the instrument, recommended strings etc. I've remained courteous even thru the major frustrations its caused me since I'll be in his neck of the world (Hawaii's Big Isle) here in a few months and plan to drop in at his shop/store for a Q & A as a prospective buyer of a custom built uke identical to the one I have. Luckey for me i have plenty of time and instruments to play and improve on so the wait won't be a very painful process. If I hadn't caused the problem I'd be mighty mad right about now but ya "get what ya give" as I heard in a song the other day and it rang true with my current situation. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Bob DeVellis]

I'll be curious to find out what you learn. I have an 8-string tenor uke, also, and naturally the thought of tuning it to fifths had crossed my mind. One downside of tuning to fifths is finding a suitable pick. In standard uke tuning, I usually fingerpick or just strum. If I tuned to fifths, I'd want to flatpick. Neither regular plastic nor the stiff felt picks made for ukes feel right to me on doulbe-courses of nylon strings. Even if you continue to tune it as a uke, you might want to get strings in Hawaii. 8-string sets are much tougher to find here than there. I'm not sure if this is really the case or not, but I was told by a Hawaiian player that if the bass strings are octave tuned, its an 8-string uke; if they're unison tuned, it's a taropatch.

Keep us posted.

[Jim Garber]

Eugene, being a classical guitar player and a huge volume of info on old mando's, many of which were strung with cat-gut or nylon, any advice from the great state of Ohio?
Hopefully, Eugene will chime in soon on this subject, but in the meantime...

I am not so sure what you refer to as the gut strung mandolins. Most of these mandolins were actually not tuned as the Neapolitan mandolins: GDAE. Many were tuned in fourths instead of fifths. So, in fact, you are back where you started: in uke tuning. Hmmmmm...

I would get yourself to a fishing store and buy up a few gauges of nylon fishing line and experiment. I would also agree with those who mentioned tuning to tenor mandola tuning.

Or get yourself a concert uke/taropatch and tune it up to mandolin tuning.

Jim

[mandolooter]

Thanks again guys, and yes I may be mistaken about the gut strung mandos, I don't remember everything i read correctly, mostly due to the sheer volume of it and my bad habit of doing 3 or 4 things at once it seems. Thats a good point about the picks Bob, I had allready noticed my favorite picks for mando, tenor guitar and banjo all seemed too heavy and the tone was just way more pleasent when strummed using my fingertip/nails. I bought this with the intention of playing it in standard tenor uke tuning with the two lower octave couses to "beef up" the sound. I heard a fellow playing a 6 string Kamaka uke down at a local park at the beginning of summer and have been keeping an eye open ever since. He had his tuned to the Low G tuning and was singing one of my favorite Olomana songs as I rode my bike by. I slammed on the brakes to check him out and kinda scared him but we got to talking and he was here from Oahu to attend BSU. We exchanged numbers but sad to say I misplaced his and haven't seen him since. I've yet to call the folks Jacob linked me to but I'll keep everyone posted as to my findings, successful or not.
Cheers, Jeff

[mandroid]

around 14/15th century soprano lute is also called a Baroque mandolin.
12 strings; a wide but short neck in the photo I see .
tuning listed :g"-d'-a'-e'-b-g. (not F#?)

CD: Baroque mandolin and guitar, duo Gervasio
(German 6-92[cpo 999 26-2])
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