Re: Whats this tuning called, any YouTubes?
Originally Posted by
John Soper
That octave mating of the wound strings was used by a lot of the African-American string bands of the 20's and 30's to brighten up the tonality of the mandolin or mandolin-banjo...When set up with octave pairs, the higher strings of each pair may not intonate accurately.
Thanks John. I guess the acoustic 12 string guitar has the same problem, as all the 12s I've seen only have 6 compensation flats on the saddle (I think a few electrics have 12 saddles?). I just checked a Guild 12 acoustic, and on courses 5 and 6, the octave string is noticeably sharper than the low string at the 12th fret. Not many of us play up there on the 5th and 6th of an acoustic. The higher guitar pitches with thinner wound strings appear to be less of a problem. a 12 string guitar has nearly twice as much vibrating string length, dunno whether that would make pair tuning problems less than a mandolin or not?
Eastman MD305 mandolin
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