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! To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
