Kamaka 8-string tenor tuned in unison as a taropatch

warndt

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I have an old '60's Kamaka 8-string tenor that I haven't been playing for a couple of years...so I threw some OASIS Brights on it and tuned in unison to check it out as a taropatch.

I'm not sure that the taropatch concept works very well with a tenor compared to a Concert scale ukulele. It sounds OK to me, but I'll still probably only play it occasionally. I'll give it some more time to grow on me.

Have any of you other taropatch enthusiasts tried this with a tenor scale ukulele achieving more positive results?
 
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I have mine tuned octaved rather than just doubled. It sound more like a tiple which is Dg GgG BbB eE. I dropped it so it sound more like a baritone than like a concert or tenor. The two outside strings really have a different sound if the outside strings are low.
 
My old kamaka 8 string is my go to ukulele. Mine is tuned in the traditional manner English and A strings in unison while God and Canada strings are in octave.
 
Yeah...I have a concert 8-string taropatch that I'm totally enamored with, which plays and sounds just beautifully. I'm starting to think stringing in unison really does work great for the 8-string concert scale and body size, but that magical sparkly sound doesn't carry over to the 8-string tenor neck and body size.

I'll probably string it back up with octave strings and sell the instrument, since as an octave tenor, it really doesn't fit in with anything that I mostly like to play.

I'm sure someone else would get full use from it in octave and reap the benefits of it's full potential.

Thanks for the comments.
 
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