bennyb
Jun-10-2008, 2:33pm
Howdy all,
This is in regard to my first "from scratch" instrument, a mandola with a 16.05 scale length. I have a d'addario J76 set on, .015, .025, .035, .052. The g d' a' strings all sound well in balance: they're "live" with lots of sustain, tension-wise they're soft(a good thing) compared to my mandolins. But the c string is "loose as a goose" and doesn't have the same "character", "presence", "liveness", not bad, but just on the same level. I did the calcs, using d'addario's string tension formula: T = (UW x(2 x L x F)sq) /386.4 and got these numbers: c = 25.09, g = 25.98, d' = 29.08, a' = 25.73. The numbers suggest the d' string is out of balance, but that's not what my ears or fingers are telling me.
So, the strings are done wore out, I have to decommission it, and refinish(that's another story) and get me some new strings. I'm thinking of buying another set of J76's and separately maybe something like .056 for the c strings. Can I buy (ball end)guitar strings and adapt them, or maybe something else? Your thoughts, thanks.
bennyb
This is in regard to my first "from scratch" instrument, a mandola with a 16.05 scale length. I have a d'addario J76 set on, .015, .025, .035, .052. The g d' a' strings all sound well in balance: they're "live" with lots of sustain, tension-wise they're soft(a good thing) compared to my mandolins. But the c string is "loose as a goose" and doesn't have the same "character", "presence", "liveness", not bad, but just on the same level. I did the calcs, using d'addario's string tension formula: T = (UW x(2 x L x F)sq) /386.4 and got these numbers: c = 25.09, g = 25.98, d' = 29.08, a' = 25.73. The numbers suggest the d' string is out of balance, but that's not what my ears or fingers are telling me.
So, the strings are done wore out, I have to decommission it, and refinish(that's another story) and get me some new strings. I'm thinking of buying another set of J76's and separately maybe something like .056 for the c strings. Can I buy (ball end)guitar strings and adapt them, or maybe something else? Your thoughts, thanks.
bennyb