5 Course Gittern by George Stevens

5 Course Gittern by George Stevens after Hans Ott c.1450 with solidwood neck and body (lime) and a soundboard made from very old wood as is usual. Ebonised plum pegs complete the outfit with other fittings in pear, ebony, holly, laburnum and sycamore. Supplied with hard case. 

See and hear one of George's instruments below, courtesy of Paul Leigh from Trouvère Medieval Minstrels!

Suggested tunings: d a d' g' c''
Short scale: top string at c''
Long scale: top string a 5th lower 

Aquila Strings:
AQUL44NG x 1  
AQUL50NG x 2
AQUL66NG x 2
AQUL88NG x 2 
AQUL132D x 1 + AQUL66NG x 1

The Gittern  is able to accommodate quite a number of different tuning variations, but we suggest the intervals primarily as 4ths. You can have a 3rd in somewhere if you wish or a 5th, or a mixture of 4ths and 5ths, there are a number of possibilities. If you wanted all 5ths then it may be better to go for a 4 course, or less, instrument. Usually tunings are based on a D chord for the small gittern and a G chord for the large gittern most people seem happy with this: d, a, d', g', c'' and G, d, g, c', f' but really pretty much any tuning configuration is possible between the size variations.