Am not a 10-string owner yet, but thinking about it... I play mainly Scottish and Irish traditional music, and wondered if anyone in the group had preferences for C or D on the bass string for that application? The D makes a good drone string/ chord component, the C keeps fifths for dropping the melody down an octave, so may be better for that (I would think) - anyone played around with this and come to any conclusions? Cheers!
I did not reply initially since I only dabble in Irish music, but I do like DGDAE for the way it chords. In spite of its upper tonal range, I do like being able to chord with the tonic in the bass whenever possible, and the low D tuning gives a configuration where the I, IV, and V chords land in close proximity to one another. On the other hand, I have never tried CGDAE....
Thanks for that - I'm swaying towards DGDAE as a starting point. The good thing is that they are sufficiently close for it to be pretty easy to try out both with a minimum of hassle, so I'll start with the D but can change if I start to find I need the C. Will be putting this into practice in a couple of months - have ordered a 10-string from Paul Shippey here in the UK, and it should be ready in December at some point (if things run to schedule).
I really like the low C and the ability to switch between a mandolin and mandola. I use the D bottom string on a Cittern but I also tune the top string to a D... DGDAD. Try them both, or all three, and then pick one...
Cheers, folks. Some experimentation in store...