mandola strings

[sunburst]

I'm getting ready to finish up a repair on an old Gibson mandola. I realized that I'll be needing strings to set it up with, and quickly realized that I don't know what to put on there.

Any mandola players out there? What do you use?
The reference I checked recomended pretty light gauges. Seems to me heavier would work better with the tuning and scale length.

Thanks for any advice.

[grsnovi]

I have D'Addario J76's on my 1920 Gibson. Phosphor bronze: .015 - .025 - .035 - .052

[Potosimando]

When I first got my slightly used Weber mandola it had new set of D'Ad J76's on it (installed by previous Owner), but a month later I switched to a much lighter weight "Pearse Mandola Strings" (I think there is only one mandola "weight" on Pearse). #The Pearses not only sounded much, much better on that instrument, but were much easier to #play...so much so that I now would not have anything else on that particular mandola. #You (both of you above) might do a little experimenting with Pearse strings--i.e. try them out. Yeah, I know a new Weber mandola is much different than a 1920's Gibson--scale length on Weber is about 17-5/8" if I remember correctly, for what that's worth.

Also, I vaguely remember Bruce Weber telling me then that Sound to Earth installed the Pearse Mandola strings on all their Weber mandolas...when I was telling him about the huge positive difference in my experience. I "think" that conversation took place anyway--s'been awhile 2000/2001.

Anyway, like I said above, try out some Pearses; could make a positive difference.

[grsnovi]

The Pearse set is: .012 - .021 - .032 - .049

[Potosimando]

It amazes me how such a seemingly small difference in size can make such a big difference in tone and playability. Maybe it's just my particular instrument. I never compared the above strings in terms of measurements when I changed from J76's to Pearses--just switched them out--and assumed there must be a large difference in diameter. The above doesn't look like much to me.

My ex-girlfriend was right, I guess: Size matters. Just kidding.

[grsnovi]

It is actually pretty significant if you consider the resulting change in tension and the significant difference in the mass of the strings - remember that you are adding the amount to a diameter, pi * r squared and all that.

[sunburst]

Well, I ended up using a set of J75s minus the .115s. I used the 2nd strings as 1st, 4th as 3rd, etc.
For the fourth strings I "castrated" a couple of .052 guitar strings.

They're working fine, I think the owner is going sell the mandola anyway, and somebody will be putting the strings of their choice on soon.

[Potosimando]

That seems awfully heavy to me, seeing how your throw-together set is significantly heavier than the heavy J-76's. I wouldn't do that, but honestly that is not a knowledgable opinion at all--I simply err on the side of safety when it comes to instruments (once I had an instrument whose top was sinking because of strings that were heavier than the top and braces could handle...not pretty).

[sunburst]

I had this one apart to fix it. It is a 1939 Gibson and the top and tone bar structure is...let's say... robust!
I think it'll be fine. Actually, I think it would benefit from some regraduation and voicing, but that wasn't the job I was paid for.

The gauges on it are: .016 .026 .041 .052. Not extreemly
heavier than the J76 at: .015 .025 .035 .052.

The bridge is pretty low also. I tried some lighter strings and the sound just wasn't there.

[Seth Austen]

I make up my own sets from Euphonon bulk loop end strings. The gauges were based on D'Addario's mandola set. This is on a 1919 Gibson H, it works well. I'd be curious to try the Pearse when I run out of what I have.