i've just been given a tuning for my charango that makes it possible to play music written for the mandola (g-b-e-a-d.) it's also a banjo tuning, i note.
it's wonderful. at what point, however, does my charango stop being that and become a mandola or a banjo? if i were to use a renaissance tuning on my oud, would that make it a fretless, renaissance lute? does an instrument get its name from the sum of its parts or is it tuning or contours and shape that makes it what it is? - bill
