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I started stringing up the little baroque guitar. I switched strings from the 5 course Strad guitar in G that I made, that keeps throwing bridges. I used the 2nd to 5th courses. But the high c, low C on the 3rd course will not work. The scale 44,4cm is too long to do that with gut/nylgut. I found a cool string tension calculator for old instruments with gut strings, and found that this little "uke" in A is tuned exactly like a renaissance guitar, that also had 4 courses; but a longer 52cm scale. So they made 8 string Ukulele's in the 1500's!
https://niskanenlutes.com/index.php?p=frontpage
So with the shorter scale, you have to make the strings thicker, and increase tension. With the calculator, I could change the tension on all strings, just tapping; plus. Cool. The strings that I had were pretty close; but just a couple steps too thick.

They have the renaissance guitar as having about 57 pounds of tension (they give it in kg.) An 8 string uke is about 83? I settled in the middle at about 72 pounds. I ordered strings from Aquila, but they won't be as fast as usual, because of the holiday. The strings I picked use The second largest nylgut that they offer, so I don't need the loaded string. That would only add about $4 to the bill, but if I went with guts, it is almost $100 instead of $28. I'd still like to try guts sometime; but not with a setup.

The nut is still really high. The faceplate needed to be really thin. I'll have to remember that. The strings will exit right on the faceplate! Now I see a great plus for a slotted headstock. Maybe I should check my angle; maybe I messed that up. If I didn't; maybe that could be increased too.

I did the string spacing with the StewMac spacer. I used a scale for the high string to the low string, and then a longer (2 spaces) scale for the low string octave to the high string. I didn't realize that they, and most 12 strings were strung octave/low. I must have only seen photos of Gretsch 12 strings, or never paid attention.
I pre drilled the string holes in the bridge, so now I have to play with them anyway! The strings, neck, bridge, body all line up. That's cool; because the bridge is glued on before everything.

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Why be normal?

I love that, Ken. It’s coming along, can we maybe hear it at the next zoom?

From the 1500’s to the future, here is where I’m at with the khaya dred and a video showing how I got here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/DiaxXZi8AYQ? ... yvBjyshRgK



Brad


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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I assume these are made in China. The website did not list the country of origin.

I'm darn sure they are.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.