Hybrid Tunings, part 1
For the past year or so, I've been using a hybrid tuning on the 15-string Baritone. By hybrid, I mean some courses are in octaves, and some are not. Previously, my tunings were either all intervallic, or all octaves. It took some time for me to to understand the new hybrid tuning. I could tell from the first day that it was certainly in the direction I wanted for that instrument. At first, it almost sounded like two separate instruments: the intervallic instrument and the octaves instrument. For the 15-string baritone, the three bass courses are in octaves, and the three treble courses are intervallic. On this instrument, the top three courses are triple courses, so these are actually tuned to various clusters with no repeated notes. The octave bass courses seem to bring additional clarity and definition to the triple courses. After acclimating to this hybrid tuning, I decided to try a hybrid tuning on C4, which is an 18-string Contraguitar. C4's tuning is even
