A few years ago, I got to try someone's five-course mandolin/mandola; since it was mandolin scale length, I guess it was more a mandolin.
I've always been fond of the deeper mandola sound, and the second mandolin-family instrument I bought was a new Flatiron 1SH mandola, which I have to this day.
Playing Maynard's five-course planted a seed, and I started experimenting with different tunings, seeing if I could get to a five-course instrument inexpensively. I had tried this years ago, but decided to be more systematic this time.
Unfortunately, an altered 12-string guitar, tuned (bottom to top) AbEbBbFCGD, didn't have any handy open strings which were useful for playing, and everything had to be in FFCP. Starting with a high E gave me FCGDAE, which was still a little too growly and muddy at the bottom. (I guess there's a reason acoustic bass guitars have a larger body. *laugh*)
I shelved the idea for a few years more... until I came across some strings which can, at a standard 25.5" guitar scale length, be tuned to a high B4.
Now I'm working on setting up an old resin back cutaway guitar in fifth tuning, CGDAEB. Since the B4 strings are $5 a pop plus shipping, I want to make sure the string path is completely free of burrs and other opportunities for breakage before really going for it. I also abhor the plastic "rosette" which is glued around the soundhole, so I might pick up some nice wood and cut a new rosette overlay to match the headstock. It's a little work for a guitar which cost $30 dollars, but since the investment has been minimal so far, and as the guitar looks halfway decent as it is, I don't mind making it look more presentable. Even if it turns out to be only a rugged knockabout guitar for outdoor use or informal play, it won't be a total loss if the experiment doesn't work out.
I've done some experiments on gauges, and found the best sounding combination for the bottom end, with gauges appropriate for the new pitches, and tensions equivalent to a standard guitar set when tuned to those pitches. As things stand now, should it work, I'll be able to put together a dozen strings sets for about $10 each cost, which isn't prohibitively expensive. (I know, the one B4 string cost as much as the other five strings! How whacky is that? *laugh*)
Since I've been using the guitar as a five-string fifth tuned instrument recently, I've been getting used to the CGDAE tuning. It sounds pretty mando acoustically, probably because of the chord voicings, and if I plug in and use a judicious amount of chorus, it becomes a mando instrument. Putting a capo on at the twelfth fret gives me that mandolin chime, and it has the sweetness of a bouzouki and the tone of a mandocello at the low end.
I can't wait to get this thing set up fully. At that point, I can get the bouzouki/'cello thing open, and by either using FFCP or a capo at the fifth fret, I can have that mandolin/mandola sound easily.
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I attended a guitar circle recently where they used what Robert Fripp called New Standard Tuning (CGDAEG). (Incidentally, if usage indicates what is standard, I would assume that the new standard tuning was DADGAD. *laugh*) I got into a discussion with the folks who had been using the tuning for a while, and their argument for not going for full fifths was that the open strings resonances are sweeter with the high. When I pointed out that the Guitar Craft pieces never took advantage of that, and that if resonance was the goal one should go with DADGAD, it seemed to end the conversation. *laugh*
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Anyway, I noticed that Groveland has been using NST, and wondered if there are more folks coming at guitar from a mando orientation.
Cheers!
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