Jake Wildwood has some great vintage instrument photos. I wonder how this would sound tuned to CEA? You know by now that I enjoy finding photos and posting them. Jake is quite the photographer of his restoration projects. I was thinking today about one of those of wood pot bellied mandolins and how one might sound if it were tuned GGCCEEAA. I am a workin' man and I find that it's quite easy to get addicted to an instrument but I don't think I have the time or the room in my noggin' to learn a whole other set of chord shapes. The baritone ukulele changes are taxing enough for me. NOTE: Jake responded and gave string dimensions in his comment. Thanks Jake, HU
You can definitely restring a mandolin for uke tuning. It's great... especially if you use octave pairs. It'll sound a lot like a tiple, or taropatch.
ReplyDeleteString gauges for a low G with mandolin-style (unison) stringing would look like:
G=034w or 030w
C=026w or 024w
E=022w or 020w
A=014w or 012w
The heavier gauges I suggest for flatback and the lighter I suggest for bowlback. You might find you'd need to adjust the nut just a hair on the E course if it's cut really thin for a plain steel.