Michael N.
Well-known member
Mine is a Cordoba Mini M, and I still think it sounds best tuned G-G regardless of the choice of strings, and I have tried a lot trying to get acceptable results tuned E-E.
Also it's not just a function of scale length, small body guitars have their limits baked in before you ever put a set of strings on them.
You are correct. In this case it's a matter of soundboard aggregate. It's really a bit too small to suit E - E tuning. Quite a number of years ago I made a Guitalele. I can't remember the scale length I chose but it was around 1 inch longer than the Yamaha. Initially I tuned it to A, then to G before trying the standard guitar E tuning. Now I must emphasise that I have dozens and dozens of strings, practically any gauge you can imagine. Many were purchased as individual strings rather than 'sets'. Of course I knew it was virtually impossible to obtain the same tension as a guitar without resorting to strings looking like rope. I can only say that despite trying numerous strings the E-E tuning wasn't to my taste at all. The terz tuning (G) sounded far better to my ears but it suited the A tuning even better. I play a small Terz guitar that is quite a bit larger than a guitalele (57 cm string length). It's tuned to G but with the 3 rd string dropped a semitone to simulate the lute. Strings are pretty low tension, again to simulate a lute. It does a pretty good job of that, way better than a capo on the 3 rd fret of a standard guitar.
Having said all that if you tune your guitalele to E and like the results, fair enough. Can't really argue with that if someone is happy with the results.