Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fergus Morris on November 17, 2009 at 7:18am

Some instruments like mandolins, ouds 12-string guitars and many others have strings placed in double courses like this because it give a unique chorus effect. Often , like on 12 string guitars, some of the doubled strings are an octave higher than their pair to increase said beautiful chorus effect. Find a video on youtube of a 12 string guitar and you will see what I mean.
Oooooh! hear how lovelyly chimey this sounds!

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on November 17, 2009 at 8:03am

It gives you twice the sound. Some folks put it on the high/melody string only. But I rarely play melody only on the high string, so I started doubling them all up. Then I hit on octave pairings, which is even better. imho. It is especially helpful to have an octave on the lower strings, because I think often the bass sound is the first one to wimp out on a small guitar made from some old box.

Permalink Reply by Lucky on November 17, 2009 at 9:03am

O.K. Now you have to explain octave pairings, sorry for being musically illiterate, but like I said somewhere in here I build better than I play.

Diane in Chicago said:

It gives you twice the sound. Some folks put it on the high/melody string only. But I rarely play melody only on the high string, so I started doubling them all up. Then I hit on octave pairings, which is even better. imho. It is especially helpful to have an octave on the lower strings, because I think often the bass sound is the first one to wimp out on a small guitar made from some old box.

Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on November 17, 2009 at 10:54am

The forked looking thing is a winder?
And ... I'm sitting here fiddling with 2 picks to try your trick.

Octave pairings .... two strings tuned the the same note in two different octaves.

Say you are tuned DAd. The big D is a low D the little d is the same note only an octave higher. Sometimes this technique is used with double coursed strings.


Matt

Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on November 17, 2009 at 11:04am

Yes, double courses in octaves is an obvious way to enhance the sound... but when the strings are the same gauge and tuned to the same note, you don't get double the volume.... what you are doing is getting "chorus" sound like a section all singing the same line. same note, different timbre=new sound. You can never ever tune two string perfectly to the same note, so you get a slight dissonance that allows a richness in the tone that a single string cannot produce.

JMHO

Matt Towe said:

The forked looking thing is a winder?
Octave pairings .... two strings tuned the the same note in two different octaves.

Say you are tuned DAd. The big D is a low D the little d is the same note only an octave higher. Sometimes this technique is used with double coursed strings.


Matt

Permalink Reply by Lucky on November 17, 2009 at 11:06am

Thanks Matt!

Matt Towe said:

The forked looking thing is a winder?
And ... I'm sitting here fiddling with 2 picks to try your trick.

Octave pairings .... two strings tuned the the same note in two different octaves.

Say you are tuned DAd. The big D is a low D the little d is the same note only an octave higher. Sometimes this technique is used with double coursed strings.


Matt

Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on November 18, 2009 at 2:36pm

Wichita Sam said:

Yes, double courses in octaves i.
JMHO

But now that I think about ... all of the 4 string dulcimers I have seen have been tuned D A dd .. that's not octave tuning for the 3rd and 4th strings. So why do it?

Matt