Coleman’s March ~ Cello-tuned gourd banjo

Описание: When minstrel tunings/pitches just aren’t low enough...

I had been playing around with the idea of restringing my gourd with heavier strings in order to tune an octave below standard, much like a cello banjo. My gourd banjo has been collecting dust, so I figured why not. For the time being, I’m using the second string from the minstrel set for the first and fifth, third for the second, and fourth for the third, along with a .034” silver wound nylon Labella single that I had gotten for another 6-string build that I was going to use with the minstrel set. For the time being I figured I would test it and adjust some of the gauges by ordering a custom set of singles, using as many nylons as possible, though the wound third I don’t mind.

I had slightly touched on this with two of the low bass 6-string banjos I’ve made, using a classical guitar set in order to tune dDADF#A much like minstrel tuning with an extra low D, which could easily be retuned dDADEA, which is essentially double D tuning an octave below.

While I don’t mind transposing tunings and keys for given tunes, some work out better than others, particularly A or B parts being too high or low, so it’s nice going with the lower tunings and octave tuning, given the responsiveness of gourds to the lower pitches. As a friend said, it sounded like either an old cow bellowing out in the field, or a bullfrog lol.

Tuning: aDADE (an octave below standard)