On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:24:35 +0900, Brett Robson
<deep_m_m@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Raj Feridun wrote:
>> On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 13:05:38 +0900, Brett Robson
>> <deep_m_m@hotmail.com> wrote:

>>>>I was serious. Had it been a hammered dulcimer I would have bought it. 
>>>>They have a mandolin and banjo as well; I'm very tempted by both.

>>>I thought about getting a mandolin and tuning it in a guitar 
>>>tuning, but I would end up playing "Losing My Religion" non-stop. 
>>> They are usually tuned in 4ths like a violin but you could tune 
>>>in 5ths.

>> As a professional violinist I can assure you the violin's strings are
>> in perfect 5ths: G, D, A and E.
>> 
>> Raj

>As a non profesional guitar hack I can console myself that 
>guitars are in fact tuned in 4ths, E A D G, which is the same 
>backwards! If I turn my bass upside down it becomes a violin?

Sure. Curiously, although the electric bass uses this tuning the
upright bass is tuned in 5ths like the violin, viola and cello.