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billkilpatrick
Jan-11-2006, 6:14pm
as they both share poly-something bowls i hope there's no animosity or strong rivalry between advocates of the two brands ...

i just tuned my crafter m-70 to the blues tuning of EBF#C# - as used by yank rachell - and whole new worlds have opened up. jamming in the keys associated with blues and rn'r seem to be much easier to play.

another interesting thing i noticed while tuning was that i felt sympathetic vibrations from the strings - particularly the B - in the fingers of my left hand, as i was turning the keys - as if the entire instrument was humming.

- bill

glauber
Jan-11-2006, 6:44pm
Do you use nonstandard string gauges for that tuning?

billkilpatrick
Jan-12-2006, 5:32am
i don't know what the standard would be. what i have now are the following guitar strings from d'addario:

pl 011 - .28mm
pl 015 - .38mm
nw 026 - .66mm
nw 039 - .99mm


i bought these in a music shop in the states when i asked for ball-end mandolin strings. the only other strings i've used - not very happily - came from pyramid ... "mit kugel"! ... no less.

why do i have this feeling you're going to wrap my knuckles?

glauber
Jan-12-2006, 8:37am
I don't know why. I was just asking because i thought most G strings would break if tuned up to E (but i haven't tried).

Mit Kugel - http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif for some reason this reminded me of Mozartkugel (http://www.mozartkugel.com/).

billkilpatrick
Jan-12-2006, 12:15pm
no-no, that's a step and a half down to EBF#C# ... as per here:

http://www.emando.com/faq.htm

one of the reasons i tried this tuning was because the strings seemed terribly rigid. as it is, they're much more responsive - they hum.

glauber
Jan-12-2006, 2:08pm
Cool, thanks! I should try that; i'll keep it in mind.

Doh! I understand now... tune the whole thing down a minor third. Sorry i was so dense.