nzcumbus - 9-12-2004 at 12:04 PM
Hi
What tuning and size of strings do those brave souls who own a Cumbus ,use?
Thanks
Monty88 - 9-13-2004 at 04:23 AM
Hey NzCumbus,
I've owned a cumbus for about a year now and am swapping between tunings.
For pieces that need the arabic style of tuning I use (from thickest to thinnest strings) G A D G C F
and for turkish stuff i use one step above that (whick is probably the limit. the strings get tight and painful)
A B E A D G
as for head tension mine is about 4 or 5 mm deep in the middle. I personally wouldn't worry. The instruments are pretty rugged and were designed
to be taken around. The idea is if you break your cumbus, just buy a new one 
.
Where are you from Nz? I'm in australia, and I get my cumbus strings from a turkish shop in melbourne where i got my cumbus, called bas foods.
You can use guitar strings, but you would have to tune a lot lower, in the register of an oud.
Have you got a picture of your cumbus?
Regards,
Paddy