Stuart Walsh wrote: >I'm trying something out :- stringing a seven-string Russian guitar (an >old Soviet wreck) with metal strings for at least the top three >'courses'. I have metal strings from NRI to use. > >The idea is to get something like a seven-course eighteenth century >cittern. Just as a little experiment. > >For the top string I've got 9thou steel (meant to be e' in modern pitch >with a string length of 50cms). But I can't seem to get it to tune up >on the guitar.. I've done little loops with wire strings for my English >guitar (guittar) and they work well enough. On the Russian guitar I've >drilled some holes in the tail piece and put some picture pins to hold >the loop. But the string just won't tighten - it just slips and slips. >Any ideas, bodges? > >Years ago I actually made a clumsy copy of an eighteenth century French >cittern. It's still in one piece, but the frets are wrong. I dig it out >every so often and tear my hair out trying to get it in tune. It's >hopeless. > >It's fun playing cistre music on the Russian guitar (although it's not >doing my sight reading in G-tuning much good). I can play in the tuning >-the basic tuning is E,A, d, e, a, c#, e') - but I'd like to capture >more of a cittern-like wire-strung, sound. > >I can't afford to buy a new cittern! > > > >
The easy answer is to buy one of my unfinished Troubadour Blondel 'kits'. These are the travel cittern-git with everything finished and laquered as normal, except - no nut; no bridge, at all, either fixed or floating; no tuner heads, just an undrilled headstock capable of fitting up to ten tuners (mandolin individual size) with additional central banjo peg mechanisms if a couple more were needed. I have some tailpieces, bought from Germany, which are good for up to 12 strings. The neck is a 24 inch (612mm) scale and is fretted, 45mm width at the nut. The shape allows for maybe a 55mm maximum width at the bridge, which must be quite shallow. A floating bridge would be most appropriate but the lacquer could be carefully removed and a pin or tied bridge attached. I have made one conversion without using a tailpiece, just drilling holes in the (skinny) endblock and using bridge pins to hold strings. English-guittar type pins (cribbage pegs) could be fitted in high density and arranged to take 9, 10, maybe even 12 strings. I put leather over the instrument end to take the string pressure but a bone or metal edge would be better. Cost - should be more, but for Stuart or any other listmembers wanting to try it, $200 shipped to US including the tailpiece (the only hard thing to find). Getting the right mini machine heads would maybe even cost as much again. You could equally well use wooden pegs, or banjo pegs. Violin pegs would be a nice touch. Or - with a bit of extra surgery - a Portuguese guitarra fanhead tuner! The lacquer needs to be precisely cut with a scalpel before doing any woodwork, as it's a modern synthetic type and can crack or peel, or come detached from the wood, if sawn through. Masking tape and a drill-through wooden block are sufficient to keep it tidy on the headstock. David To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
