Six strings in fifths

["Umm, fish?"]

I have a short scale (23.5") epiphone electric that I've tuned to CGDAEB. With the short scale it's easy enough to get up to the high B with a regular guitar string. The low C is pretty ugly, though. But I have a Gibson L 50 (24.75") and a nylon classical (25.5") that I've strung to CGDAEE. Those work fine for me and I just ignore the high string.

I'm "just about to start" building a multi-scale length archtop project so I can have a 26" C string and still work in a 23.5" high B. That's my goal. There's another build in front of that (a five string, mandola-tuned, archtop uke), though, so it'll probably be a while.

[tablaninja]

Okay, the Mandolin Cafe is officially reading my mind. I've never seen this thread on the forum and I swear that not even two hours ago I randomly wondered this same question and started writing out string gauges to see what would work (this tuning, that is FCGDAE) Just logged on and saw this thread. You guys are awesome!

[zoukboy]

Cool. So on the Cretan laouto you can play an ascending scale by alternating between the 4th and 2nd courses: G (4th course) A (2nd course) B (4th course) C (2nd course) and then grab the D (3rd course).

Yes, you could, although I haven't heard that done on the laouto.

I have a charango and its traditional tuning uses that kind of re-entrant strategy. At first I thought it was crazy, but it turned out as really ingenious - extremely handy and easy to work.

The reentrant tunings of charango and the jarana (used in son Jarocho) are retentions from baroque guitar tuning. The most popular five course guitar tuning in 17th C. Spain was: A3A3 D4D4 G3G3 B3B3 E4E4

[s11141827]

Magma GCT-Cello Strings have a High B4 string that's super strong. Keep in mind that w/ the Octave4Plus strings that can tune as High as B4 (or higher) on a 25.5 in scale, you have to treat them as if they're Gut (or Nylon) strings. Seriously Gut/Nylon strings take a long time to stretch, so the Octave4Plus super high pitched strings are essentially the steel equivalent of gut.

[PT66]

My 2 cents worth. At 24 inches scale I would convert to a 5 string instrument tuned in fifths that would basically be a mandocello with the high E of the guitar/octave mandolin added. C G D A E. That would work well with the scale length and not add a tremendous amount to tension.

[JeffD]

If one were to attempt such a thing, I would strongly recommend fan frets.

Gives you the ability to get the spacing scale length right at both the high end and the low end.

I have a fan fret mandola - mandolin (five courses) fan fret. I have tried many five coarse instruments and often the bass strings were thunky or the high strings real tight, all to accommodate such a wise range of tensions.

So six courses are even one more!

[s11141827]

My 2 cents worth. At 24 inches scale I would convert to a 5 string instrument tuned in fifths that would basically be a mandocello with the high E of the guitar/octave mandolin added. C G D A E. That would work well with the scale length and not add a tremendous amount to tension.

Actually we now have Special Strings tuned C, G, D, A, E, B called GCT-Cello & they're nylon so the tension is lower to prevent breakage.

- - - Updated - - -

If one were to attempt such a thing, I would strongly recommend fan frets.

Gives you the ability to get the spacing scale length right at both the high end and the low end.

I have a fan fret mandola - mandolin (five courses) fan fret. I have tried many five coarse instruments and often the bass strings were thunky or the high strings real tight, all to accommodate such a wise range of tensions.

So six courses are even one more!

Magma GCT-Cello strings tuned C, G, D, A, E, B will give you a full 6 course Nylo-Mandophone.