Eight-String Tenor Uke

[Petrus]

Interesting ... first time I've seen one of these. Isn't it basically a mandolin or mandolinetto, depending on how you tune and string it? Though it might not be able to take the higher tension of steel strings.




8 string Alulu Solid Acacia Koa Tenor Ukulele, Abalone inlay hummingbird

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-string-Alu...-/361054640242

[Jacob]

Avoid steel strings.
For (tenor) mandola tuning, try 2 sets of Aquila 31U concert uke fifths tuning. (nfi)
This may require a little nut slot enlargement.

[Jim Garber]

They call 8 string ukes taropatches tho I think the tenor version might be a newish invention. Martin and others made them back in the 1920s.

[allenhopkins]

I have a 1930's-40's Regal taropatch that's tenor size and scale. It's my main uke for gigging, though it's terminally beat-up.

[Petrus]

They call 8 string ukes taropatches tho I think the tenor version might be a newish invention. Martin and others made them back in the 1920s.

Not to be confused with a tiple, which they also made.

[allenhopkins]

"Taropatch fiddle" was a nickname for the ukulele in the early days, supposedly because workers in the taro-root farms would take their ukes along to strum on their breaks (maybe instead of working the fields, who knows?). The "taropatch" name survived and was applied to double-strung ukuleles.

Taro root is the main ingredient of poi, with which any tourist who's attended a luau should be familiar.

[pfox14]

They call 8 string ukes taropatches tho I think the tenor version might be a newish invention. Martin and others made them back in the 1920s.

I have seen entries in Gibson's shipping ledgers for taropatches and always wondered what the heck they were. Thanks Jim

[kkmm]

There are quite a few of these models found on eBay (brand new). They are simply tenor ukulele with 4 courses of double strings.
I have tried one of them in local music store. They are tuned as G C E A as an ukulele.
Post#2 gives a good alternative to tune is as a mandola (CGDA).
Ukuleles are not robust enough to handle the tension of steel strings (especially 8 of them), and their body are tailored for nylon strings.

[Petrus]

Yep, I guess Martin made them for some years.



(from the Martin Technical Reference)

[Petrus]

... And the elusive tiple, which had five courses of strings. Not sure if they were gut or steel. Note that while the taropatch was made from 1918-1932 (then merged into the concert-sized uke line), the tiple was produced from 1949-1966.

[allenhopkins]

...Not sure if they were gut or steel...

Steel. The second, third and fourth courses were in octaves, the first course unison. You could tune them like ukuleles, in either GCEA or ADF#B tuning. There were other possible tunings mentioned, but you might have had to buy different strings.

Own a Martin T-15 and a Regal koa tiple from the 1930's. Fun little instruments, but really difficult to play with in-tune intonation, due to the varied string diameters and the short scale -- and the uncompensated bridge.

[Petrus]

Thanks for the info. These instruments are intriguing from a historical perspective (which is why I have screencaps from the Martin Technical Reference lying around on my hard drive), but I don't feel a strong need to own one right now, as I think I spend more than enough time stringing and tuning as it is, without adding another eight or ten strings (in paired courses on a tiny instrument) to the mix. Sometimes I post unusual things that others here might be interested in or that might be educational to study from a theoretical perspective. I find it challenging enough to string and keep my mandolins in tune (usually with more than a fair amount of cussin' up a blue streak in the process!)

[Noah Bailey]

I actually own a really nice tenor 8-string uke. It's a blast to play! recently I tried tuning it like a mandola, which did loosen the strings up quite a bit, but it really sounds nice. The 2 bottom pairs of strings are paired octaves, so it sounds kinda of awkward when plucked, but if strummed it's beautiful.

[Jim Garber]

... And the elusive tiple, which had five courses of strings. Not sure if they were gut or steel. Note that while the taropatch was made from 1918-1932 (then merged into the concert-sized uke line), the tiple was produced from 1949-1966.

Sorry, some corrections needed here: the Martin (and other branded American) tiples had four courses of strings, as Allen noted. The Martin tiple was first introduced in their catalogs around 1923. I have a 1928 T-18.

[Petrus]

Sorry, some corrections needed here: the Martin (and other branded American) tiples had four courses of strings, as Allen noted. The Martin tiple was first introduced in their catalogs around 1923. I have a 1928 T-18.

Ah yes, good point thanks. I just glanced at the ten-button headstock in the photo and wrongly concluded that it must've had five courses. Forgot that the courses were 2-3-3-2!

And apparently the T-17 (1926) came out before the T-15 (1949), as the fine print in the technical reference indicates. I just looked at the date on the T-15 (on the left column of the book) and saw the 1949 date and overlooked the 1926 date on the T-17.

[Petrus]

I actually own a really nice tenor 8-string uke. It's a blast to play! recently I tried tuning it like a mandola, which did loosen the strings up quite a bit, but it really sounds nice. The 2 bottom pairs of strings are paired octaves, so it sounds kinda of awkward when plucked, but if strummed it's beautiful.

I recently got a Recording King resonator uke. It's gorgeous, but the reentrant uke tuning is driving me nuts. I'm going to pull the nylons and put on some light gauge steel strings, maybe do GDAE (mando style) or DGBE (like the top four of a guitar.) I've got a vintage TV Pal plastic uke that I put violin strings on, GDAE, and sounds pretty nice, while allowing my minimal mandolin skills to carry over so my fingers and neurons don't get all pretzelated.