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Thread: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

  1. #1

    Default Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    Now that I have a mandocello, I can't stop trying different things on courses tuned in 5ths. Oddly enough, I took my D35S and tuned it E the bottom string then 5ths all the way up to the 5th String C and the 6th I tuned to C also. That'd make it a Octave Mandola up to an Octave Mandolin...I guess. The strings are medium and they sorta get close to rattling on the bottom end. Anyhow, it was fun and another good way to stretch my fingers before grabbing the mandocello. Here's a clip...not clean but illustrates the point. Anyone else played around with this?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrJ9fo-RjUY

    ..a little extra time on his hands.....

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    It’s tuned CGDAE low to high?

  3. #3

    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    CCGDAE Low to Hi....

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    Gotcha. I have a twelve string tuned that way. I love it because it’s essentially the sound of a mandolin with the range of a guitar. I believe there is a variation of guitar tuning thats CGDAEG, called New Standard Tuning but I haven’t tried it myself. You’ll get some response from other more seasoned members for that.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    A good way to do this is to tune C F C G C D with CAPO @ 2.
    This gives you G D A D on the middle 4 strings (zouk tuning) with a low D on the bottom and an E on the top.
    You could try tuning up and not using the CAPO but increased string tension may not be good for your guitar.
    It is safer to tune down and use the CAPO.

  6. #6
    Still a mandolin fighter Mandophyte's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    OP,

    You might like to see this recent post.
    John

    Social Groups: FFcP, A Song-a-Week
    ABC. Notation for the tabophobic: ABC intro, ABCexplorer, Making Music with ABC Plus by Guido Gonzato.
    FFcP: Just do it! (Any genre, (Honest!) just ignore the jazz references.)
    Eastman 604, 2007 | Thomas Buchanan Octave Mandolin, 2010

  7. #7
    Different Text eadg145's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    I have a friend with a gorgeous Rickenbacker 360/12 electric 12-strng guitar. He is very unhappy that the neck is so very narrow. (I have reminded him that it played alright for me... ) Anyway, I got to thinking about restringing such a beast to an extended-range electric cittern. Maybe string it up CGDAEB (although that B string would be either mighty tight or ridiculously thin. Kinda dangerous, I'd think.) Or maybe New Standard Tuning CGDAEG would work. In any case, I'd want to figure out the tensions and string sizes before trying it out on a nice guitar. Has anyone tried this? How might I work out a custom string set to try it?
    Ideas welcome.
    Think globally, bike locally.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    Excuse me if you have already covered this. The late Quebecois musician and composer Jean-Paul Loyer played tenor banjo and a 6-string guitar tuned as a tenor banjo with two drones: XXGDAE. I'm not sure of the tuning for the bass drones......perhaps D & A? The choice of string gauges was something of a problem, as I remember him saying that he broke a lot strings. If you can find it, the 1995 CD titled OJNAB Le messanger is a superb recording. He was a delightful and thoroughly original person.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    I wonder if I could convert a 12 string guitar in to a 10 string cittern???? That could be a cheap way to get one.

    => replacing the nut
    => replacing the saddle
    => tuning F C G C D (with CAPO at 2. fret if necessary)

    Has anyone experience with such a modification???

  10. #10
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    I went approx. half that way to make a travel/hotel-room-friendly practise CBOM. But:
    - I discarded two strings and shifted the others to have near-correct gauges
    - I put a capo on fret #2 to have near-correct scale length
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  11. #11

    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM


  12. #12

    Default Re: Interesting thought---Guitar tuned to a CBOM

    Here's a vid clip...



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