First of all - THAT'S THE BOOK! Where did you order it?
Second, on the Plectrum strings, we haven't released them yet, and they're reeeeally an exotic tuning - at least in so far as where you can use them. They're for a class of instruments that hardly exists..four string Parlor Guitars braced for classical strings, or to say it another way - Tenor Guitars built for classical strings instead of steel. We've built them, and Pono is just starting to make them.
With classical strings the linear 5ths tuning - traditional for the steel strung Tenor Guitars - just doesn't work as well. With classical strings you can do the Chicago tuning (like a standard Baritone), but we always felt that body size could stand just a little more depth. Plectrum tuning in standard notation is c g b d', like a Machete tuning dropped an octave - then lower the 4th string one note. Perfect range of notes for that body, and a really responsive set of strings for that scale - deep and smooth.
This was the tuning for the Classic Banjo if you take away the 5th string. A Plectrum Banjo is exactly that - a four string banjo for classic tuning without a 5th string. All through the 19th century - the romantic era - beautiful music was written for these instruments. They were played solo in recital halls like the classical guitar was later. When the Jazz Age dawned, the instruments changed, the tunings changed, and it became a Jazz Band rhythm instrument, and later part of a bluegrass ensemble, like most know it today.
Let me know where you got the Vasconcelos book. Rob has a CD available of Plectrum
I was afraid you would ask me that. It bugged me all day because I'm out of town and don't have the book with me at the moment. I knew I got it direct from the publisher in Portugal. Searched around on the web, but again the "Caleidoscopia" website is inaccessible from where I am now. Fortunately, I found this on Ukulele Hunt, and I'm pretty sure this is how I ordered it:
"Jay Lee
March 24th, 2011 5:12 am
Thanks for posting these Al.
Of the two ‘parents’ of the ukulele, the Madeiran machete and rajao, there are three important collections of 19th century music manuscripts that relate to the machete:
Cabral, Manuel Joaquim Monteiro. 1846. 1a / Colleccao de differentes / Pecas de Muzica / Compostas / por / Candido Drumond de Vasconcellos / & / Arranjados para Machete e Guitarra, / por / Manoel Joaquim Monteiro Cabral / & / Para uso de Joanna Mathilde Beda de Freitas. Manuscript.
Cabral, Manuel Joaquim Monteiro. c1850. Estudos para Machete / Arranjados / por / Manuel Joaquim Monteiro MJMCabral. Manuscript. 4 leaves (8 pages bound) & 1 leaf (2 pages loose).
Antonio Jose Barbosa. c1870. Principios de Machete, arranjado / Por A. J. Barboza / Fxal Madeira. Manuscript.
On YouTube, Roberto Moritz, Manuel Morais, Quinteto Drumond de Vasconcelos and the late John King are among those that can be found playing pieces from these manuscripts.
The Cabral manuscript ‘collection of pieces for machete and guitar’ was published by Manuel Morais in 2003 (Casal de Cambra)
http://caleidoscopio.pt/en/livros?p...s&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=584&vmcchk=1
The Cabral manuscript ‘studies for machete’ was published by John King in 2008 in a paper in a big book ‘A Madeira e a Música: Estudos’.
http://www.funchal500anos.com/04_detalhe.asp?ano=2008&id=280
The Barbosa manuscript can be downloaded for free from this website:
http://www.recursosonline.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=search_result&Itemid=19
I myself have restrung a cheap soprano as a machete and begun learning pieces from the Cabral Estudos. Unfortunately, I haven’t posted YouTube videos of myself playing any machete pieces yet.
Keep on ukeing Al!"
When I look at the MacKillop site, he has a recording of Parlor Banjo music for which he says, "I play the Luke Mercier Early-Fairbanks banjo with a Dobson tone ring, with gut strings tuned to the old American tuning of eAEG#B, for a warm and mellow sound." I count 5 strings. So, what is the 4-string material you wrote of?