As some of you know I play guitar as a hobby, and a lot of what I play is classical, or to be more accurate, from the baroque era. From time to time I play earlier material from the late Renaissance, although at the moment I don’t believe I could play any of that on demand.
If you know anything about stringed instruments during that era, then you know that the guitars of the day were much smaller than a typical acoustic steel string or classical guitar of today. The earliest guitars had four “courses” of strings more or less in the same relative tuning as the four highest pitched strings of a modern instrument–D, G, B, and E. The D, G, and B strings were doubled, either in unison or in octaves, enabling the small instrument to produce a surprisingly rich sound. In the latter half of the 17th century, five courses became the norm, with the A course being added to the other four.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this.
A double-stringed, 5-course ukulele would be perfect for this music, but even if I could find one, a uke isn’t tuned the same way as a guitar. So my question boils down into two parts: Do five-string ukuleles exist, and if so are there any double-stringed varieties? Whether single or double stringed, is it possible to tune the strings to the same relative pitch as the bottom five strings of the guitar, or would that warp the neck, or worse?
Most people probably don’t realize that one can actually play intricate instrumental music on a uke, so it could be fun to surprise them by playing a spirited gigue or a dignified passacaille. And I do like the sound. But except for one time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a five stringed uke.
Ukuleles (especially larger-than-soprano sizes) are already commonly tuned to the same interval relationship as the highest four strings of a guitar (“Low G” GCEA tuning is like a guitar capoed at the 5th fret)…I’d think with the appropriate gauged strings you could tune it the way you want without tension issues.
(I’ve never heard of a 5 string uke either, though, much less a double course one.)
I have a Yamaha Guitalele, and I love it. It’s a 6-string ukulele-sized guitar. I realize it’s not quite what you’re looking for, but it’s closer than a 4-string ukulele.
And it is a FUN instrument to play with. Search for guitalele on youtube and you’ll see some cool stuff.
Eight-stringed, four course soprano ukuleles seem to be readily available, and I’ve seen a baritone uke that had five single strings–once, about 22 years ago. But I don’t see any five double-coursed instruments out there.
I remember seeing an inca band playing at a fair a few years back, and one of the guys was playing a 10-stringed instrument that looked a lot like a mandolin but with five courses of strings. A big of googling turned up the charango. They have them on Amazon, among other places.
I just came back to this thread today; thanks for the great suggestions.
Breezman, the guitarlele looks interesting.
Steophan, ditto the cittern, provided the tension of the strings isn’t so great that I can’t press down on them sufficiently firmly, and that they’re not so close together in the plucking area that it’s difficult to play individual notes as opposed to chords. For instance, I really can’t play much of anything on a 12-string acoustic steel string guitar. I’ve seen small Latin American guitar-like instruments with doubled courses, but usually have not been able to play them for similar reasons.
How is the action and playability on that? From listening to some of the Youtube clips, it does sound as if some of the players are having trouble avoiding string scraping noises. That in turn leads me to wonder if the action is too high, or if the strings at standard pitch (meaning whatever that is for these instruments) feel too loose to the fingertips.
Your Amazon link says the price is $99, which is more than comfortably cheap for anything like a guitar. So what my question really boils down to is this: is it inexpensive because it’s cheap, or merely because smaller instruments tend to be less expensive anyway?
I came back in here to say that I had the chance to try one in a music store. I forget the brand, but it played very decently indeed. It’s definitely on my wish list!
Nope, not a bit like it. That fifth string is used to double one of the other four. It’s still a four course uke, albeit a beautiful one.
I was under the mistaken notion that some of the larger instruments–i.e. tenors and baritones–did have five separate strings, but I haven’t been able to find anything like that online.
While this may be diverging a bit from what you’re looking for…have you considered an oud? It has five double strings, and a single low string, for a total of eleven, also a mandolin shape. But the strings are of gut, and the sound is very much like what I would imagine a classical ukelele sounds like. If you’re not familiar with the sound, check out this number. The oud figures prominently in the intro, and has an impressive solo beginning at 3:06.
SS
