There have been a couple of threads about instrument conversions, going from a 6- or 12-string guitar to an eight-string mando-family instrument or something similar. For some reason, though, all those threads have dealt with someone either adding or taking away strings.
Among the possible reasons for that is the idea that one would only want four courses. I personally have been able to avoid playing strings on guitar and on mandolin-family instruments, and most mando players have no problem playing double stops or three courses. I figured that if so many guitar players can play broken chords instead of hitting all six strings, then it must be possible for me to do the same, plucking only a subset of the six strings/courses.
Another reason might have been that there was no way to tune notes much lower than C2 on a 25.5" scale length instrument without the resulting bad tone. Sticking with that C2 limit would make the top string, at B4 using full fifths tuning, an impossible note to reach. Up until recently, guitar strings would consistently break at G4/G#4. Tuning down instead is possible, but having F1 as the low note didn't matter if the notes were unusable in a musical context. However, strings have been developed which now allow reaching that B4 note on guitar (with the source being listed a bit further on in this post).
With those two reasons resolved, I felt it was time to actually use an instrument which was actually built to use double-strung courses from the beginning, instead of doing a conversion from six strings to eight.
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To that end, I’ve now had a 12-string guitar converted to unison-course full fifths tuning (FFT), C2 – G2 – D3 – A3 – E4 – B4. It has the open notes and subtle chorusing of a unison-strung mandocello / cittern / octave mandolin / bouzouki, and, when capoed at the fifth fret, it has the capoed open notes, tone and sound of a mandola and mandolin.
Even though I’ve now made the change on several six-string instruments, I wasn’t sure that the 12-string conversion experiment was going to work out. I was afraid that the strings would be too close to each other and might rattle, or that the tension might be too much. However, I did the calculations beforehand, and the tension is less now with the current unison FFT than previously with the 12-string set Ovation puts on as standard.
I had the best guitar tech in the area do it, because I'd rather pay for someone to make it work perfectly than to buy a bunch of files for the nut and saddle, and then grope my way towards that perfect set up, possibly never arriving. The string gaps in the nut had to be widened so the strings could be in unison tuning, the frets evened a bit, the saddle lowered a bit, and the relief adjusted.
Given that the whole thing has cost less than $800 with instrument, set up and strings included, I am more than pleased.
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The strings I used to reach B4 on the top course come from Octave 4 Plus.
http://octave4plus.com/
The top B4 strings are currently .006”, but I might put on some O4+ .007” strings at some point, if the volume needs to come up a bit. Since the Ovation has a 25.25” string length, the bass course sounds a little better with .053” or .052” strings for the C2.
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Granted, the string spacing between courses isn’t as close as a mandolin, but it’s definitely usable. Since a decent mandolin would cost at least about $600 (baseline Redline Traveller), to get the use of all the above listed instruments in one is a bargain, and easier to take to a gig. *laugh*
I’m unsure how this would have worked out with other 12-strings. I’ve owned a few Ovations, and they can get pretty sketchy at the inexpensive end. Having owned some nice ones over the years, though, I just made sure I got a decent one to begin with. Other 12-strings can be just as bad or worse, and I've been looking at instruments for quite a while, waiting for one I felt confident about.
When I started looking for a 12-string for conversion, I had a list of things which were absolutely necessary, in order to take full advantage of having that mando tuning: a cutaway and at least 20 frets (in order to play mandolin / mandola parts), a shallow body (to avoid boominess in the tone), relatively low action (mine is 1mm on the treble now, and 3mm on the bass side), and level frets (otherwise low action would just mean rattling on any raised frets).
(On this last point, I know that others like really high action, and some may feel one needs action sufficient upon which to grate cheese. Having had hand problems, I prefer to avoid developing them again. Several threads here have discussed that a well set up mandolin can have great tone and volume while being set up for low action; it’s only when there are issues with the instrument that higher action is needed to avoid the deficiencies built in.)
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So now, without having to invest the money necessary to buy an Ovation specifically set up as a mandocello, I have all that and more. My mandophone (named to evoke the octafone, which was “eight instruments in one!”) covers the entire spectrum of mandolin-family instruments, and should satisfy my mandolin acquisition syndrome for quite a while….
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