Is this an original helicon or a conversion?

[bigtubby]

Can you enumerate the guages of the strings and complete tuning? Interesting solution.

The Martin Backpacker 1st generation (until 2003 or so) has a unique structure keeping the number of pieces of wood at the surface down to 7:

root of headstock, neck, and sides are out of a single piece of mahogany
headstock extension, end piece, and back also are solid mahogany
fingerboard and bridge are rosewood
soundboard is solid spruce

As there is no truss rod Martin recommends 0.009 gauge string sets. Going from there I had my string pusher, a German guitarist with a small online store, do the calc.

1st & 6th E are both .009
2nd B is .013
3rd G is .008 (made for 12 string guitars)
4th D is .010
5th A is the only wound string and there I am not sure about the gauge. It is the lightest possible wound string available, likely meant to be a 3rd G in normal tuning.

Guitarists call this a reentrant tuning of the G, D, and A strings. The 6th E could be considered being double reentrant. This takes exact tuning anyway, but is somewhat of a PITA with simple chords where a lot of unisons will happen making this set-up meaningless. But I happen to like 5, or even 6, note chords. As a sample I only press the 2nd fret on the 1st string when playing a Gmaj. Or the 2nd fret of strings #1, 2, 3, and 5 for a Dmaj. No notes down in the rumbling range.

Klaus

That is what I wondered about, the unisons that would result with standard chord forms. Sounds interesting, I'd like to hear what you do with it.

[imperialbari]

Nothing ambitious, just playing chord sequences for my own enjoyment. I didn't like the standard tuning because because the upper tension notes sometimes ended out at the bottom of the chords.

Klaus

[Three Valves]

This item hasn't sold in nearly two years??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONN-HELICON-BB ... 27d2ce91a3" target="_blank

[Three Valves]

I guess if one doesn't have to worry about cash flow, they can sit on inventory for years.

Must be nice!!