Taropatch

Taropatch (8 stringed 4 course Ukulele)
The Taropatch, (the name comes from "Taropatch Fiddle" and early Hawaiian slightly derogatory name for all Ukuleles as it was used by the "Landed" Anglo Settlers to describe the instruments played by the Portuguese indentured labour as they worked the taro fields), with its 8 strings in 4 courses, is a very traditional string configuration dating back to the birth of the Ukulele itself. The idea of the extra strings is to give a more plaintive, slightly chorus like tone; and possibly to add volume. Manuel Nunes and his family were certainly fond of them and made quite a few; so did a number of other early Hawaiian makers. Martin then picked up on them and brought them back to the Mainland. Initially they were not very successful on the Mainland as gut strings and double the tuning problems made them tricky to play, and for this reason most of the other Mainland makers of the time didn't make them. Their biggest influence on early Ukulele development on the Mainland though was, originally they were all what is now Concert scale and a number of the more professional players of the time liked this extra size for the extra volume, tone and playability, so played them with only the 4 strings. This led to [Martin]] producing a 4 string variant and the Concert scale as it is now, was born.

These days with nylon strings and clip-on digital tuners, tuning is not so much of an issue. The Taropatch today is usually tuned so the E and the A courses are doubled on the same pitch with the G and C courses doubled an octave apart so gG~cC~EE~AA. Originally however it is more likely all of the courses were at the same pitch but there were probably lots of different tunings as well, including the Violin/Mandolin tuning and the Cavaquinho tunings.

Another change from the original in today's Taropatches is the Tenor scale is a much more popular size so most of them are Tenor scale these days. There are still some Concerts made however, and Baritones too, (though for the Baritones the tuning is usually dD~gG~BB~EE and I have heard of all of the strings being an octave apart). You can even see, though it's mainly for the novelty value, Soprano, and even Mini scale Taropatches