Interesting thread! Here are some pieces (Christmas tunes) that I did with GDAD tuning. I really love that tuning and the possibilities it present for arranging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBMAIz4DM-g
François Chancy's Tablature de Mandore, published in 1629, reveals a mixed fifth-fourth-fifth tuning (CGCG, with some detuning to CGCF and CGCE here and there), and other mandole/mandore for four- and five-course instruments which also have mixed fifths-fourths tunings.
Something of interest I learned from a 2011 article in the Lute Society of America Journal is that diatonic citterns/lutes, fretted in the same way as diatonic lap dulcimers, were actually common, and that many chromatic instruments even continued to mark the frets which were the diatonic frets with differently-colored wood inserts around those frets. The tablature for those diatonic instruments reveals some pretty hearty music. Again, the tuning, similar to the fifth-fourth tuning of lap dulcimers, is alternating fifths and fourths.
The purely fifths-tuned Neapolitan mandolin came about many years after these earlier ancestors, and the earlier instances were meant to be sonorous and full, with octave stringing. I strongly suspect that violin emulation was the reason for the abandonment of the former fuller role of the instrument, abandoning the more chordally-capable role in pursuit of violin melodic work.
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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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Well, I just wanted to point out that there are reasons to use various tunings. Just as with other instruments (you mentioned the variety of fiddle tunings, for example) - the guitar, or guitar player, is no different. I'm not aware of any evidence that would lead me to believe that inherent differences exist between guitarists and other instrument players, vis a vis reasons for using various tunings.
So if you understand this WRT fiddle/mndln, the guitarist's practice shouldn't seem any more arcane.
And what would be a blues tuning?
I'd like to start playing around with a slide on the mandolin and I guess blues tuning could be a way to go.
Jim
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I've never tried bottleneck mandolin, but I'm going to guess here that, like with squareneck Dobro, you'd probably want an open tuning. One such tuning is the one I discussed earlier in this thread, which I use routinely for regular mandolin playing. It is GGCCEEGG (basically open C tuning).
If you want to keep a mandolin tuned for this tuning, you may also want heavier 2nd and 1st string courses. I use .017 and .015 respectively for those string courses. On the other hand, if you use standard strings and plan to tune back to standard tuning, be prepared to have your E strings break due to repetitive stress at the tuner shaft.
Good luck with this, you're breaking new ground!
-- Don
"Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
"It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."
2002 Gibson F-9
2016 MK LFSTB
1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
[About how I tune my mandolins]
[Our recent arrival]
In the interest of not hurting the instrument, the easiest slide tuning would be GDGD, just dropping the top two strings by a whole step. That lets you bar across the whole thing, or to use the lower strings as drones and to slide on the upper courses.
I've also seen slide work just on the top two courses with no retuning, against the bottom two drone courses.
The Mandocrucian has an alternate approach, as discussed in theis "Blues Mando" topic.
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...73-Slide-Mando
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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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If you're referring to my description of <<... you may also want heavier 2nd and 1st string courses. I use .017 and .015 respectively for those string courses...>>...
These gauge selections in the GCeg tuning are based on an expectation of medium gauge wound .039 G and D .026 (tuned to C) strings. When those .017 and .015 strings are tuned to E and high G they are still far lower tension than standard medium gauge strings tuned to A and E. That .017 E is tuned five frets lower than the standard A and the .015 high G is tuned nine frets lower than the standard high E. With the consideration that the D string is also tuned two frets lower at C, this GCeg tuning is a pretty low tension tuning.
If you're using light gauge strings and want to figure the ideal gauges out for this GCeg tuning, you'd want your 2nd course to be at least .007 lighter than your 3rd course, and your 1st course to be at least .002 lighter than your 2nd course.
That said, I would agree with Explorer that this GCeg tuning may include a lot of changes on a mandolin that may sometime need to be re-tuned back to standard tuning -- I use GCeg all the time, but I never try to go back to standard tuning, so I don't break strings or have to readjust action.
If you can use Explorer's tuning suggestion (GDgd) you'll probably find you don't have to use heavier treble strings. You may also have better luck making this change without breaking your light gauge E strings.
Last edited by dhergert; Apr-05-2018 at 2:59pm.
-- Don
"Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
"It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."
2002 Gibson F-9
2016 MK LFSTB
1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
[About how I tune my mandolins]
[Our recent arrival]
Additionally, there's no huge advantage to limiting the tuning to an octave by including the third, whether a major or a minor. Blues are fluid in terms of the third, and if those who already played blues slide know that the sliding can center on that second and third fret.
Just to give an example of a slide appiied to a fiths-tuned instrument, here's Carly Gibson playing a Warren Ellis model tenor guitar from Eastwood. The slide gets used after 6:15.
She didn't change tuning at all, which is how I generally use a short, heavy glass knuckle slide on mandolin.
I'm a big fan of not dong massive changes before giving things a more limited test run. In this case, just trying a slide on mando at the music store, and seeing if it's comfortable and usable in both standard and drop-top GDGD tuning, is a quick test for fitness of purpose.
And, of course, you can then use slide guitar tutorials for Open A and Open F tuning, which will share the intervals on Drop Top GDGD on the botton four strings, should you decide to do the retuning route. Here's one such tutorial from a Mr. John Winter.
https://www.guitarworld.com/acoustic...ng-open-tuning
Good luck!
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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.
Love mandola?
Join the Mandola Social Group!
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