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Thread: 5 course mandola

  1. #1
    Registered User J.C. Bryant's Avatar
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    Default 5 course mandola

    I like the mandola and I like mandolins. Would there be much of an advantage, if any, to having a CGDAE, 5 course mandola?

  2. #2

    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    There are both fans and detractors of 5-course instruments.

    I play a six-course instrument, and love it. It's a converted 12-string guitar, tuned CGDAEB (like a cittern/mandocello/octave mandolin), and capoing at the seventh fret gives me a mandolin-mandola tuned FCGADE.

    The obvious advantages are a wider note range, and more chord possibilities. If the body is small though, it might not support the low C well.
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    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

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  3. #3
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    The big problem is either the lowest course or the highest, depending on what scale length you choose. If you veer toward the mandolin scale length then the low (usually tuned C) can be pretty floppy or else you have to use fairly thick strings. If you use mandola scale length, then the E string either has to be super thin or else it will break.

    Some builders solve the problem using a fan fret arrangement which looks pretty strange. I am told by some players that it works well and takes only a short time to adapt to it. Here is one built by Lawrence Smart.

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  4. #4

    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by J.C. Bryant View Post
    I like the mandola and I like mandolins. Would there be much of an advantage, if any, to having a CGDAE, 5 course mandola?
    Well what kind of music do you play?

    I played a bunch of solo stuff, so the 5-course led to a particular fondness for larger and larger...cittern, and eventually oud - which is perfect.

    5-course dola is a potent gateway

  5. #5
    Registered User Denman John's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    I like the idea/concept of them, but I've never had a chance to play one. Hopefully one day I'll get to cross paths with one.
    ... not all those who wander are lost ...

  6. #6

    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    There is a poster here who plays a 5 course mandola/lin as his main instrument; I can't think of his name but maybe he will turn up. I play 7 string guitars, so the 5 course appeals to me as well but haven't had the chance to play one either.

  7. #7
    Registered User J.C. Bryant's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    I'm listening and learning - Thanks

  8. #8
    Registered User Tom Wright's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    I'm the guy who plays only 5-course instruments, and I find no problem with the C course at mandolin scale length, even using fairly light strings on my 10-strings--.047, and .050 on my 5-string. The acoustic 10s get their main use in folk dance bands, and the electric in a straight-ahead jazz group.

    The challenge is acoustically, in that the best-projecting instruments are archtops, and a custom 10-string archtop will cost a bunch. Thomas Buchanan's current design is pretty good acoustically (and very affordable), but still not as powerful as a good F5. Also, for power in the upper mids a smallish body is better, but more internal volume is necessary for the low range. Buchanan optimizes for the low range, with a body about 50% larger than for his similar-design mandolins.

    I find this no problem, as pretty much all performance is amplified, and the Buchanan design is easy to amplify with an undersaddle pickup. I play in mixed settings where piano, violin, or flute might not be amplified, so I use a very small amount of extra sound, although the Headway pickup sounds great at high volume, too.

    The usual tuning challenges exist, and are greater over the span of 5 fifth intervals. I have made sure my performing instruments have a slightly shorter fingerboard between nut and the 1st fret, about .010" less than normal mathematical locations. This serves as a sweetening, making all the unisons and octaves much easier to achieve.

    Simply put, I'm using 10-string mandolins professionally, and I feel they are hugely more useful than a 4-course instrument---which is why I sold my only normal mandolin. Then again, I'm not playing in a conventional bluegrass group or jam that has expectations. If so, I would be chopping on my Weber still.

    I have played the Smart fan-fret and found it interesting, but I can't reach the chords I want on it, (and it hurts my eyes to look at).
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  10. #9
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    ...Some builders solve the problem using a fan fret arrangement which looks pretty strange. I am told by some players that it works well and takes only a short time to adapt to it....
    Whaddaya mean, "looks pretty strange?" It is pretty strange; here's my Lehmann:


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    I had to beef up the fifth-course strings to get volume out of the C; my stringing is .011/.016/.024w/.036w/.052w, 1st-5th.

    Does take a while to get used to fan fretting, and since I go back and forth from fanned to "normal" frets, I go through an "acclimatization period" when I play the five-course.
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  11. #10
    Registered User Colin Lindsay's Avatar
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    Default Re: 5 course mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Wright View Post
    The challenge is acoustically, in that the best-projecting instruments are archtops, and a custom 10-string archtop will cost a bunch.
    Yes they do / did... so to attempt a compromise I had a Fylde cittern specially made by Roger Bucknall to give me a ten-string advantage over my other eight-string instruments; it cost me more than many cars I've owned but although I play it quite a bit, I still can't get the sound I want out of it - not the tuning, which plays as I want it to, but the clarity: the notes tend to blur into each other and it's difficult to get a crisp, warm sound like my bouzoukis or mandolas make. I've gone for progressively heavier and heavier strings, to little effect, so it's the extra strings that cause the problem and as Jim says, it's either the highest or lowest. I'll just have to keep experimenting.
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