The 28, part 7

In this blog post, I discussed a new setup and tuning scenario for the two triples courses on the 28-string Double Subcontraguitar.  Since that post, I've modified the right neck's triple-course tunings from diapason/octave/octave to diapason/octave/fourth.  In other words, the root string, an octave above that, and a fourth above the root.  I've never tried this intervalic combination on any instrument, and it provided an interesting sonority.

I've been shedding with this triple-course tuning for the past month.   

At times, it seems to compliment the all-fifths tuning on the left side.  At other times, it seems too bland to be a contrast or counterpoint, as the fourths are inverted fifths, and I'm starting to hear the fourths in the triple courses as a kind of extension of the fifths tuning, which is the opposite of what I want for the right side.

This week, I plan on reverting the two triple-courses back into double-courses.  I'll likely keep the all-octave tuning on the right side; at least for now.  It does provide a solid fabric and texture as a counterpoint to the all-fifths tuning on the left side.   Overall, both the fifths and octaves tunings are sonorous, but in differing ways such that each tuning provides a substantial counterpoint and contrast to the other.

It's possible that I'll eventually convert the right side into an intervallic tuning. An intervallic tuning scenario on an instrument having an all-fifths tuning would be a fantastically singular texture.  And a combination of fifths/intervallic on one instrument would enable new textures, harmonic structures, and tonal environments that are otherwise not possible.

This instrument is only five months old, and part of the reasoning for keeping one side in octaves tuning is that it helps me to learn the voice and register of the new instrument.  Any time I get a new double-course instrument, I keep it in octaves for a long while.  After I feel that I've learned the voice of the new instrument, then I start moving the octaves tuning into something else.  The time required for keeping a new instrument in all-octave tuning varies, but I'm already thinking of intervallic tunings for the right side.

More to come.

-kk