Why is it called "re-entrant"?

deadpool

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So, it's gCEA. Or "high G". Then there's low G. So, why is high G called re-entrant? Where did this term come from? Inquiring minds want to know.......

Thanks!
 
Because normal or linear tuning starts at bass end and goes up . As do nearly every other type of instrument, be they blown ,struck, hammered or plucked. The only two re-entrant instruments that I know of are the ukelele and the 5 string banjo (I will stand corrected) which start off with a high string and then go back or re enter the bass to treble tuning ,hence "re - entrant". May I have a sweety please ?
:D
 
CeeJay, I have assumed that a Nashville tuned (high-strung) guitar is also re-entrant. Mine has the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th strings an octave higher than standard and the 2nd and 1st strings the same as standard.
 
Thanks! Something I've wondered about ever since I came back to the uke about a year ago. All the other instruments I play are "linear" as are all my uses (low G). I may shift one over to re-entrant.......
 
The Venezuelan cuatro is also reentrant but the "opposite" of uke in that the bottom three are linear and the top drops back an octave. You can do this kind of "low reentrant" tuning on uke as well but it isn't all that common.
 
CeeJay, I have assumed that a Nashville tuned (high-strung) guitar is also re-entrant. Mine has the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th strings an octave higher than standard and the 2nd and 1st strings the same as standard.

I presume that if the lower strings are then tuned higher than the top strings which then makes them the lower strings then re-entrant it must be. Nashville tuning is a new one to me. But the lower tuned higher strings are still lower than the B and E until they get overtaken by the G which goes above so it gets confusing for a simple soul like me.EAD are still lower in pitch but G is higher so I need a lie down with a cold beer :biglaugh: (or over here a warm beer as it is now winter time temperature tonight )

.
 
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You're right CeeJay. The high-strung guitar is not often used as a solo instrument, but if we have a situation where there are 3or 4 guitars, it can add some variety if one person grabs the high-strung. I discovered high-strung tuning from the liner notes on a Nicolette Larson LP over 35 years ago. Believe it or not, it took about 5 years before I realised that I could buy a 12-string set and split it between a regular tuned guitar and a high-strung.
Here's a little video to show you what it sounds like. Keef Richards has said that he's "putting a little angel dust on this track" when he plays a high-strung.

 
You're right CeeJay. The high-strung guitar is not often used as a solo instrument, but if we have a situation where there are 3or 4 guitars, it can add some variety if one person grabs the high-strung. I discovered high-strung tuning from the liner notes on a Nicolette Larson LP over 35 years ago. Believe it or not, it took about 5 years before I realised that I could buy a 12-string set and split it between a regular tuned guitar and a high-strung.
Here's a little video to show you what it sounds like. Keef Richards has said that he's "putting a little angel dust on this track" when he plays a high-strung.



Yes, that's a cool sound. According to Wikipedia, it was also used on the Stones' Wild Horses.

"It features session player Jim Dickinson on piano, Richards on electric guitar and 12-string acoustic guitar, and Mick Taylor on acoustic guitar. Taylor uses Nashville tuning, in which the EADG strings of the acoustic guitar are strung one octave higher than in standard tuning."
 
Reentrant tuning seems to be fairly common with traditional guitar-like instruments just about everywhere except the US. Many places, I suspect guitar-like folk instruments evolved to use reenterant tuning because skills and resources to make wire needed to make lower pitched strings were rare or non existent. Thus, all wood instruments utilizing purely gut strings came into being. So you might see something like the Mexican vihuela evolve in more agrarian regions, vaguely guitar-like, using gut strings, gut frets, and wood tuning pegs. These were regions where metal working was more rudimentary and expensive, and people without money to spend on fancy wire strings made in far way lands. The US is relatively young and industrialzed fairly early on, and in a good position to develop low cost metal strings, so the re entrant tuned instruments that gained popularity there mostly originated elsewhere.
 
You're right CeeJay. The high-strung guitar is not often used as a solo instrument, but if we have a situation where there are 3or 4 guitars, it can add some variety if one person grabs the high-strung. I discovered high-strung tuning from the liner notes on a Nicolette Larson LP over 35 years ago. Believe it or not, it took about 5 years before I realised that I could buy a 12-string set and split it between a regular tuned guitar and a high-strung.
Here's a little video to show you what it sounds like. Keef Richards has said that he's "putting a little angel dust on this track" when he plays a high-strung.

That has a cool sound and now I watch the video I do recall seeing a "How to Video" of recording techniques. The guy recorded a standard tuned guitar . Strummed a few chords and then demonstrated how to create a brighter sound by recording a Nashville strumming the same chords over the original recording and it did brighten the guitar. Excellent video mate ,thanks for the demo.
 
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Jim: Loved your "Keef" reference!

CeeJay: What's a "sweety"?

:D

You would, I believe say a candy. An individually wrapped confection of boiled sugar, caramel or other sweet cocncoction. We call them sweets, over there you call them candy. Sometimes used as a reward for getting something right. Or in this case "rightish".:D

We have candyfloss, but it's about the only time that it is ever used for reference to a sweet. This you call cotton candy. But nevermind at least we understand our misunderstandings in the common tongue divided by two sepearte languages to misquote a quote:smileybounce:
 
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