Guilele EFS Open Tuning?

I have a Cordoba Guilele (17" scale) that I bought and slacked to an Open C tuning (G c g c' e' g') with the intent of using it as a tool to rearrange slack-key guitar tabs for the ukulele.

But picking on that thing is a beast with the strings so close together, and I'm not digging the huge wound strings. The instrument sits sad and mostly unused.

I'm thinking of switching it to a SouthCoast EFS re-entrant set and treating the instrument as a strummer, but then I'm not really interested in learning chords for standard guitar tuning. Has anyone tried slacking the Guilele EFS strings down to (d g d' g b d')? Any thoughts?

I'm always willing to throw down and test new SC sets, just checking if anyone else had tried this set-up before.

Hi Jon, I regularly use open D or DADGAD (F# C# F# B C# F#) tuning on my Islander guilele. Here's a little video http://youtu.be/x3z6VWz5YPc?list=UUBpyEu7wI55fPwtDRjDcvmg using Aquilas. Since then I have switched to Savarez 520 Classical Guitar strings (low tension) which I really like. One of the nice things about the Islander is the wider neck, it makes fretting notes a lot easier.

That was certainly some beautiful playing. I don't plan on explicitly learning the guitar, but I think the instrument deserves a shot in my stable and am looking for options other than the stock adgcea aquila setup it came with.

The EFS strings sound like this: http://youtu.be/5_dnYOa5w-w
That's the eadgbe tuning Southcoast intended.

drbekken said:

The EFS strings sound like this: http://youtu.be/5_dnYOa5w-w
That's the eadgbe tuning Southcoast intended.

Click to expand...

Hi Dr, been definitely enjoying your guitalele videos lately with the EFS strings, even took some time to retighten to adgcea and give strumming some "cowboy chords" a try. The instrument has potential, just trying to see what my options are.

I believe the EFS strings would work wonderfully in the open tuning you suggested. Hope to hear you try it.

Just got my strings today and tried them out in d g d' g b d' - the strumming is very lush, but the in trying some slack-key numbers, which involve a lot of picking / alternating bass, a lot of the feeling seems muted with the two pairs of matched strings. Still going to keep experimenting though...

JonThysell said:

Just got my strings today and tried them out in d g d' g b d' - the strumming is very lush, but the in trying some slack-key numbers, which involve a lot of picking / alternating bass, a lot of the feeling seems muted with the two pairs of matched strings. Still going to keep experimenting though...

Click to expand...

It may be that you need to raise the action a bit. Being too close to the frets, even without buzzing, can rob some sustain and contribute to the muted/dead feeling...

JonThysell said:

Just got my strings today and tried them out in d g d' g b d' - the strumming is very lush, but the in trying some slack-key numbers, which involve a lot of picking / alternating bass, a lot of the feeling seems muted with the two pairs of matched strings. Still going to keep experimenting though...

Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see the point of this tuning. You could get the exact (or very close) same effect with a baritone d g b d' tuning, i.e. just slacking the 4th string. True you get some lushness from the doubled strings but if you're going to have a 6 string, I'd think it would be better to have 6 tones.

Jim Hanks said:

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see the point of this tuning. You could get the exact (or very close) same effect with a baritone d g b d' tuning, i.e. just slacking the 4th string. True you get some lushness from the doubled strings but if you're going to have a 6 string, I'd think it would be better to have 6 tones.

Click to expand...

It's just an experiment to see make give my Guitalele a "purpose". I'm not really interested in learning chords for standard guitar tuning, so I thought I'd try this slack-key tuning (which is something I don't mind learning) even if it's in this EFS re-entrant style. The end result is I can learn Taro Patch chords and the strumming is very lush. The downside is playing any actual slack-key tunes doesn't sound so great, so on to another experiment.