electric mandolin shred - new standard tuning

[AndyPollow]

I like to use paul gilberts technique with this - my 2nd favorite way to pick guitar. tune it CGDAE and G with an 8 if you want - i always break those. same strings but use B for A and no G. they sell strings for that. and put a capo at the 4th fret so the lowest note is E and you still have a high E 24th fret - 4 octaves. and you can do wild vibrato on the E. and bar power chords and fast 3 nps pentatonic and VERY cool 2 nps arpeggios for alternate picking and very interesting wide intervals and you can make up some really cool chords... but I always thought the scales are too hard to finger fast 4 notes per string. the capo helps - open strings and 3 fingers on every string. but then I found alot of places where you stretch too far or slide the index or pinky a half step (that was ok but not great) instead you can do this - think of 4 notes on a string as 2 groups of 2 notes. E string - 5/i 7/m whip the wrist really fast - dont move the thumb - 9/r 10/p 9/r whip the wrist really fast 7/m 5/i ...... over and over really slow, a little fast, and then super fast and I was surprised that is possible super fast. to do it really fast you focus on all 4 notes as if you are stretching but keep your wrist loose so the subconsiouse whips the wrist and it works really good. still it does require more focus than 3 nps so I dont know if I would fully switch but I thought it is interesting that you can do that shred fast. You can tell I have alot of time cuz there arent many jobs here right now. It is cool though. Im thinking about switching. you can even do harmonic minor that way but you have to listen really close so you dont hit notes in between. like - E string - 7/i 8/m shift 11/r 12/p 11/r shift 8/m 7/i .... and 4 notes per string is very easy to alternate pick fast.

The cello is the same scale length as guitar and it is tuned to fifths - CGDA - is that how they do it? they dont like to give advise - they say "get a teacher".

[All_¥our_Bass]

I have a guitar tuned FCGDAE.
The high E is the sxame as on a standar tuned guitar and the low F is the same pitch as a bass's low E on the first fret!!

[fingerpikingood]

holy crap. that must be interesting to play.

[AndyPollow]

That sounds awesome - what string gauge do you use for F?!? Ive been playing with the violin again cuz it is tuned to fifths and I found something cool. Ive never seen it taught this way. But my violin is different - its a Viper imitation I made and the body starts at 13 like an acoustic guitar. There are 3 positions you can feel - hand against the headstock, hand against the body, thumb against the body. So pos 1 is open - 7, pos 2 is 8 - 14, pos 3 is 15 - 27 + higher harmonics. And in pos 1 and 2 the i m r fingers play 2 notes and the pinky plays the highest note and pos 3 gets more complicated cuz the notes are close together. So when I found that Im playing 4 octave G scales and arpeggios easy except the highest 3 or 4 notes cuz you have to do wierd s#@& like squeze and trade places. And then for some things you have to do it different ways but most violin music can be arranged in those positions that way and its easy to find the notes. Violinists should always learn first on a mandolin cuz it would be easier. And the bow is really fun. I think people exagerate a little - the bow is REALLY easy to learn to use fast and slow. Some people dont use enough rosin starting off or too much? I think the bow is very easy.

[All_¥our_Bass]

It is indeed interesting, and it sounds amazing. :D

When you play chords on it the different notes have much larger spaces between them than is usual for guitar (for example major and minor triads are usually voiced R-5-10), this adds so mich richness, clarity, and extra range that I don't like "normal" tunings for guitars anymore.

As for string gauges, they are alll elixir nanoweds in the following sizes:
E 9
A 14
D 26
G 42
C 65 (bass string)
F 100 (bass string)

It makes 2 note-per-string arppegios a breeze.

[AndyPollow]

100?!? Thats really cool. Have you ever tried making up your own chords in fifths with open strings on the higher frets? That can get really interesting. 2 nps arps are fun - on violin you do that + 4 nps with all 4 fingers in the highest position like - G minor arpeggio - high e - 15 18 22 27 - but that isnt hard to stretch at all.