The future of strings. 2 strings-in-one?

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I just had this very interesting thought this morning. I have a very thick wound low C from a Classical Guitar's 6th string and the standard wound C from a Hilo Ukulele String set. What would happen if they joined together right in the middle of the Ukulele? What kind of sound would it make? Will it play two octaves with one string? The Guitar's low E makes a Low Octave C on my tenor Ukulele and the wound C from Hilo's strings make the standard Octave from a Tenor Ukulele. I know this might be gibberish talking about such non-sense but I would love to see someone do this, Join the two strings right in the middle of the Ukulele to have the first part of the string to play the low octave, then the other half would play the higher low octave. This may be a very interesting concept but I was just wondering if this such concept would actually work? Playing two separate octaves with one string. It would take a lot of experiments determining whether which size tension string to use because of it being only half strings each. Let me know your positive feedback please! Also, they could make the High C and low C together on one string!
 
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+1 on the big fat no. Not only would you not get two pitches (octave apart) from the same string, you would probably find that sustain suffered and intonation up the neck would be terrible.

John
 
It is an interesting idea, and I'd say keep thinking outside the box!
But this one in particular won't work quite like you might think. There is a lot of physics that goes into how strings make sounds. The note a string makes is determined by the frequency at which it vibrates when played. Frequency can be changed by changing the length (like when you press a fret), or the tension (like when you tune the strings) and also by the materials used (nylon vs gut vs wound etc) which is why those two strings give such different sounds, and why they can be tuned to different octaves. Here is a link to a wiki that goes through some of the ideas relative to violin, but the concepts would apply to a uke also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_physics_of_the_violin

I definitely don't mean for this explanation to sound condescending and I apologize if you already knew all that, I just thought I'd give a little background as to why that won't quite work.

Keep thinking though, you might just come up with the next best Ukulele improvement ever :)
 
It is an interesting idea, and I'd say keep thinking outside the box!
But this one in particular won't work quite like you might think. There is a lot of physics that goes into how strings make sounds. The note a string makes is determined by the frequency at which it vibrates when played. Frequency can be changed by changing the length (like when you press a fret), or the tension (like when you tune the strings) and also by the materials used (nylon vs gut vs wound etc) which is why those two strings give such different sounds, and why they can be tuned to different octaves. Here is a link to a wiki that goes through some of the ideas relative to violin, but the concepts would apply to a uke also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_physics_of_the_violin

I definitely don't mean for this explanation to sound condescending and I apologize if you already knew all that, I just thought I'd give a little background as to why that won't quite work.

Keep thinking though, you might just come up with the next best Ukulele improvement ever :)

haha thanks! Shortly after that I've posted this thread. I realized that the length of string from the bridge to the nut will determine the sound it makes. And if there were such a dual string, it would have to be perfectly in the middle between the bridge & nut, which is virtually Impossible when you tune the Ukulele. Daniel 0, Ukulele +1!
 
The two strings would just become one big fat string.. so you'll get one sound.


But there are 6-string and 8-string ukes that have double courses of strings, where you have a low string and a string tuned an octave higher close together.
An 8 string uke is like this:

180U-874_front-detail-2.jpg

So each 2 strings are fretted as though it was 1 string, giving both the high and low octave sound.

Mandolins use this doubling of strings exclusively.
 
The two strings would just become one big fat string.. so you'll get one sound.


But there are 6-string and 8-string ukes that have double courses of strings, where you have a low string and a string tuned an octave higher close together.
An 8 string uke is like this:

180U-874_front-detail-2.jpg

So each 2 strings are fretted as though it was 1 string, giving both the high and low octave sound.

Mandolins use this doubling of strings exclusively.

Lol that picture looks just like my Ukulele, except that I'm using different strings. That's a Lanikai LU-8(E) right?
 
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