"Eight-string" mandolin

[jhusson1]

A friend of mine just bought a 12-string guitar and it gave me the idea of creating an "eight-string" mandolin. The idea is to tune the two G strings and the two D strings one octave apart, and leave the A and E tuned in the same octave. Since I don't currently have a spare mandolin to try this on, I thought I'd float it on the board. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it sound and play?

[mrmando]

Mike Compton used to set up his Ajr snakehead this way, before he sold it. Sounded great.

[jhusson1]

Thanks. I think I'll give it a try this weekend with my current one.

BTW, what is an AJr snakehead? I'm new to the mando world.

[otterly2k]

this is a fairly common tuning variation in the world of bouzouki and octave mando playing.

[jhusson1]

Thanks. I'm only passingly familiar with octave mandos and bouzoukis. And a friend of mind enlightened me on the Ajr snakehead. Turns out I used to have one a few years ago. Thanks again for the good comments.

[delsbrother]

I believe this was also a common blues tuning, for which I'm almost positive there was a name for.. But I can't ever seem to remember it..

[Eugene]

At least the octave g-g' was standard to the earliest incarnations of modern mandolin, starting in the mid 1700s. I keep a ca. 1835 mandolin tuned that way strung with brass wire, silver-wound silk, and gut on the e" course.

[Mark in Nevada City]

Did a workshop jam with Joe Craven not long ago and he had his mando strung up that way. Pretty cool sound.

cheer, mmm

[Bob DeVellis]

I have a Martin flatback that I tune that way. I wouldn't want to use only that tuning but it's a nice variation for a change of pace (and sound).

[chinamando]

Did you have to use different strings for the higher/lower octave or do any other adjustments to the bridge or nut? And doesn't this mess with the tension on the string making the lower octave looser?

Oh, and if you tune up, how do your strings not break??

[Dfyngravity]

good questions, i have similar ones floating around in my head.....this is interesting to me

[Martin Jonas]

Of course you have to use different strings: you should choose the two gauges so that they have the same string tension when tuned an octave apart. A string tension calculator will tell you (there are several online). As a rough guide, for the G course octave string use slightly heavier gauge than for the A course, and for the D course slightly heavier than for the E course. That way your overall tension will stay the same. As for nut and bridge slots, you may or may not need to change them out, it depends on how the string sits in the slot. A string can terminate cleanly even in an oversized slot. One thing that will be messed up is your intonation, and the strings will get progressively out of tune with each other the higher up the neck you get. With octave strings, one should stay in or around first position.

Martin

[Mockingbird]

forgive my ignorance, but is there any reason one couldn't use bouzouki strings if one wanted to tune a mando this way? 'cause they've got the top two sets tuned in octaves...I mean, the strings'd be longer, but I just checked my dad's bouzouki against my mando and the strings appear to be about the same gauges...but then I know very little of such things

[JGWoods]

I'v e done it a couple of times. In the end I quit because it just doesn't do it for me- you lose the low notes because they have the octave higher in the pair. It just sounds like there is less going on rather than more.
It's certainly a matter of taste - and it has been a worthy experiment- now I know I want to play octave mando rather than bozouki.

[mandroid]

Radim Zinkles Galactic mandolin recording , he re strung the mandolin a lot, tuned paired strings in all 12 intervals from unison to octave , m2nd M2nd m3rdM3rd.. P4 , tritone, P5 etc.. verry interesting project..