On the original website, Phil recommended (for GDAE) for the GZ3:
- Octave: 020w/042w, 011w/032w, 020p/020p, 011p/011p
- Unison: 042w, 032w, 020p, 011p
My (Mike’s) experience with my GZ1 in unison is that the 011s for the top string are a bit light, and even more so in GDAD. Also the bottom Gs are a wee bit flappy.
The tension calculator on Theo’s Chord Generator site seems to bear this out with the top D being very much lower tension, and the low G being noticeably lower.
I currently have 014p for the top Ds, and am giving serious thought to 048w for the low G, which would give this. Obviously it would need a truss rod adjustment for the extra tension and may even need the nut slots for the low D’s widening a hair.
For the GZ1, he recommended at the beginning:
- Octave: 016p/042w, 011w/027w, 016p/016p, 011p/011p
- Unison: 042w, 027w, 016p, 011p
which is actually a much better balanced, though lighter, set (the tension calculator doesn’t believe in 027w strings, however :D)
but this changed after a few months to
- Octave: 020w/042w, 011w/027w, 020p/020p, 011p/011p
- Unison: 042w, 027w, 020p, 011p
My GZ5 arrived strung with 016p/036w o12p/024w 016p/016p 012p/012p. If you convert that to a unison set it’s actually pretty even:
However, I have restrung mine to unison GDAD 042w, 032w, 020p, 012p
My GZ1 is now in unison DAEA, with the bottom 4 strings of a Clifford Essex regular custom cittern set.
