This instrument has 5 courses of strings. It can be tuned like a Brazilian guitar (viola caipira), like a normal guitar without the low E (the tuning I use), or in a variety of open tunings as used by Celtic musicians. They often call this type of 10 string instrument a cittern, a name borrowed from a Renaissance instrument.

These instrument are covered on my mandolin page with links to videos etc.

It can also be made as a fluorocarbon strung verson, which plays more like a lute.

I was asked to build a 'banjola' which is basically a banjo neck on a mandola body. It seems to work rather well when you want to play some banjo tunes without the extroverted banjo tone.

Video

There have been a number of basses over the years that have greatly reduced the scale length by using soft strings. The first I know of is the Ashbory bass from the 80s. More recently the Road Toad U-bass has become a real contender. This prototype uses the U-bass scale of 20 inches (51cm).

The sound is remarkably close to an acoustic bass mainly because of the soft attack and a lack of harmonics. But it requires some real care handling the strings, if you press too hard they can roll under the fingers. But once you get the hang of playing lightly, it is effortless.

I was inspired by Aleksei Arkhipovsky playing the balalaika. I didn't want to make a traditional one, so I stretched my mandolin design and adapted it to balalaika acoustics. There are very few instruments that combine a tailpiece with non-steel strings. This produces a very round sweet sound, which is mellowed again by the fact that the body pitch is lower than the lowest string pitch.

I chose to use four strings instead of three as it opens up many other tunings including ukulele and mandola. (The balalaika, tenor uke and mandola all have the same scale length.)

Here is a video using ukulele tuning

The tuning is ADF#B with Worth strings .110, .074, .062, .047. This produces about 5 kilos per string. (The A is lower pitched than the D.)