5-course, tell me about yours?

[JeffD]

Marty Jacobson's version. Speaks for itself.
Bill

Ohhh mannnnnnnnn. Yes. When I think of how to do it right, and then to find that Marty just did it right.


I played a fan fret five string mandolin/mandola (not one of Marty's ) and found it surprisingly easy to get used to. It was a matter of a few seconds and my fingers knew what was where.

[billhay4]

It's a joy to play though I've had some issues with the tight string spacing and radiused fretboard. Those are my issues, though, not the instruments.
Marty is something, that's for sure. The bridge alone is a work of art.
Bill

[vernob]

To be exact, I have two five course instruments, but one of them is a banjo. My cittern is my own build. 24 inch scale. Flat spruce top, mahogany back, sides and neck. I started out using the Doc Rossi book of tunes so I tuned it GDADG. Running out of the right strings had me experimenting with other tunings. I've used banjo tuning, GDGBD, but without the high pitch on the 5th course. It's the predictable low bass. I usually play clawhammer style on the banjo and that does not work with bass strings, in my opinion. I especially like Sawmill tuning GDGCD on the cittern. I have also used a guitar variant tuning GDGBE. The top four courses are the same as a tenor uke or the top four courses of a guitar. These alt tunings produce an interesting sound, not at all like banjo or guitar. I've tried octaves on the bottom four courses but I find that I prefer unisons. I have recently discovered Newtone strings and I really like those.

[RBMB]

Pictured is my Flyde Custom. I think it is 14.5" scale. I tune is CC-GG-DD-AA-EE so that I can play it like a mandola with a high E string or mandolin with a low C.

[Lord of the Badgers]

I have a long scale Sobell. I tune it CGDAD with first three courses in octave pairs.
But to be honest I have too many long scale instruments and I'm finding it a challenge so therefore am mulling selling it.
Paul Shippey is hopefully going to build me a give course shortscale mandolin with a low C - it should be based on his "axe" models. More when I know what he's up to!

[GarY Nava]

Here's mine- 10 string mandocello-

There are few more photos and details on my website
And here it is with its owner.

Cheers Gary

[Seonachan]

I picked up a 23" Paul Hathway cittern on eBay a while back. The top has sunk slightly but it's stable and it plays spot-on, so no harm no foul. I first tuned it FCGDG but now I'm having fun tooling around in GDGDG. I really can't justify keeping it and I'll probably let it go at some point but whenever I play it I put those thoughts out of my head!

I had it spruced up at Antebellum Instruments a couple months ago - you can see Jake's writeup here.

[Mandobart]

Here are a few new 5-course instruments since my initial post (#8 on 10/7/12).

My self-modified 5 string viola (16.5"):


My 5 string octave viola (also 16.5"):


and my 10 string F4 mandocello (26")

Shown here in action


Five strings/courses really grow on you after a while...

[Spruce]

You've all seen mine, right?
A wonderful mandolin and a great 'dola, all wrapped up in one unusual package...

[garryireland]

5 course Apc mondol tuned cgdgd.

[Nordwall]

Hi Everyone.

I just saw my name in this thread about citterns. In opposite to Nigel I been geting orders almost only for 5-course instrument instead of 4-course the last couple of years. Swedish folkmusicians use this instruments a lot and also the 12-string guitar tuned in ADADAD or something similar. I build my cittern with 3 diffrent bodysizes, and the scale goes from 580mm to 645mm. The most commond tuning is DGDAD, but also DADAD or DADAE or CGDAE occur. For the bottom strings I use nylon instead of steel, and that is really good for the sound of the instrument in my opinion.

Mats
www.nordwallinstrument.com

[vernob]

I hesitate to post, because I can't recommend a builder. My cittern is home made. It's 24 inch scale. I started with the Doc Rossi book. Tuned it GDADG. Too similar to the zouk IMHO. I've tried a few alt tunings. GDGDG, Jos. Sobol tuning. GDGBE, guitar-like. GDGBD, banjo tuning. GDGCD, Sawmill banjo tuning.

[Chuck Leyda]

Here's my Fylde arch top cittern. 23.5 inch scale. Cedar and Sapele I think.

It has a very rich booming sound but I kinda of struggled to find its voice.

GDGDG worked ok but most of the tunes we were doing were in D and Emin. I tried DGDAD but the low D was too slack and kind of mushy . Next up was GDADG but the extra string didn't seem to help all that much and I'd rather just play a GDAD bouzouki.

Recently went to GCGCG and it's happy there. I sing a fair amount in C so I use it open and then capo on the 2nd to get an ADADA to accompany tunes in D. The open tunings seem to really sing on a cittern.

[vernob]

Hi Everyone.

I just saw my name in this thread about citterns. In opposite to Nigel I been geting orders almost only for 5-course instrument instead of 4-course the last couple of years. Swedish folkmusicians use this instruments a lot and also the 12-string guitar tuned in ADADAD or something similar. I build my cittern with 3 diffrent bodysizes, and the scale goes from 580mm to 645mm. The most commond tuning is DGDAD, but also DADAD or DADAE or CGDAE occur. For the bottom strings I use nylon instead of steel, and that is really good for the sound of the instrument in my opinion.

Mats
www.nordwallinstrument.com

Nylon for the lower bass strings? Are they classical guitar strings? How do you attach them to a tailpiece? (I'm interested)

[alfranreid]

I have a Davy Stuart ten string bouzouki the "ZX10". Here in county Clare it's common to hear the use of the "blarge" name for a 5 course bouzouki ; "cittern" is rarely used.

IMHO the Stuart tone isn't quite as trebley as most of the classic "Irish bouzouki" makes like Foley and Abnett and there is less of the "twang". This twang tone is favoured by most backers here though.

I've been doing a fair bit of recording session work lately.
Here's a sample from my own upcoming disk: https://alanreid.bandcamp.com/releases

[Nordwall]

[Nordwall]

The thickest one is a Hannabach H9 and the other one a regular E6.

[Nordwall]

Here is a picture of the whole instrument.

[allenhopkins]

Here's my fan-fret Lehmann mandolin/dola:



Kona back & sides, spruce top, scale varies from 14 1/8" on the E string, to 16 1/2" on the C.

[lucho]

I have played once in a while for a few years an old Giannini viola caipira with octave strings tuned CGDAE https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/a...hmentid=120563