Help: need some advices

Subject: need some advices
From: GUEST,Eric the frenchie
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 06:02 AM

I begin in mandoline playing and I got some difficulties to tune my instrument with other ones , what's a big problem !!! Could somebody give me some help to tune a mandoline with a guitar !!!?? THANKS !!

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 08:02 AM

I use an electronic tuner nowadays. It's a real godsend with a twelve-string guitar, and I can make sure my mandoline is in tune with everything else. Make sure your guitarist tunes to the same tuner. Failing that, get him/her toi tune to your mandoline, it's easier. Failing that, get a new guitarist!

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From:
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 08:21 AM

I think the mandoline is tuned like a violin--EADG going from bass to treble. You can get the guitarist to sound an open "E" (bass or treble, whichever is easiest to use.) and then tune your "E" string to that. You can then tune the rest of the strings as you usually do.

Murray

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 08:26 AM

Close, Murray, but mandoline (assuming this is the same as English Mandolin) is e A D G, treble to bass. The e is a full octave + 2 above Middle C and the G, is Middle C -3.

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 12:08 PM

Well, if you can get around the octave(s) difference, you've both got E A D and G strings.

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 01:02 PM

Just to get that clear, the fiddle is EADG treble to bass.

kat

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:15 PM

I have a fiddler friend who tunes her first set of strings to my guitar this way. I close the first string in the 12th fret, and the second string in the 10th fret, then her 3rd string in tune to my gtuitar in the 7th fret, third string closed. I use an old fashoned tuning fork (440) never needs batteries....

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:18 PM

Me too, Kendall!

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: sophocleese
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:24 PM

Good to hear you don't need batteries Mbo. I never can get them installed properly anyway...

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Gypsy
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:28 PM

We keep tuners around...keeps everyone friendlier! No arguments on what a C should be.

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: lamarca
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:29 PM

Actually, a mandoline is a French kitchen implement used to make very thin slices of vegetables, and would be hard to tune to a guitar in most cases. A mandolin, on the other hand, is easier to tune... ?:)

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:46 PM

Oooohhh... don't get me started on tuning again. I said quite enough the last time.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 10:50 PM

Seriously, though, an electronic tuner is a good idea.  It won't dispose entirely of arguments (I know several people who insist on tuning their guitars to elderly mouthorgans, and who seem quite incapable of understanding that the blasted things are no longer in tune ("your tuner must be wrong") but at least if everybody uses the same one, you shouldn't be too far out.  The trouble with tuning forks is that there is no visible display(!); they work fine if you are playing alone, but are of limited use if you're working with other people; after all, perception of pitch is often subjective, and if they can't tune to a string, they probably won't be able to tune to a fork, either.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 03:33 AM

Lamarca: I know there's no "e" in mandolin,but I didn't want to rub it in with Eric. (You know that, if you take dinner with the Queen [of England, that is] and spill some soup, then Her Majesty will spill some too, to save your embarassment? Any decent Englishman/woman would do the same.)

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: need some advices
From: kendall
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 07:26 AM

I still stick to the fork. If you cant tell Bb from Dm, you should take up the accordion.