DAEB string gauges for 17" scale?

[PhilGE]

I have a delightful Jack Spira 17" mandola. It's been sitting mostly dormant, though, for a variety of reasons. I took it out yesterday and, on a lark, change the bottom gauge strings to .42 and tuned up the whole set to DAEB tuning. I believe the current string set is .42, .32, .22, and .13. Any concerns with such gauges and this tuning? It's really quite delightful and the volume jump is quite noticeable.

-Phil

[ptritz]

I use that tuning on my Weber mandola, which is about the same scale. For what it's worth, I use slightly lighter strings than what you're using - .40, .26, .16, and .11. (The two high strings are plain, not wound.) When I first got the Weber, I has strung it a bit heavier - .42, .28, .20 and .11, with the .20 being a wound string. Those gauges were designed to produce about the same tension at DAEB as the gauges that STE recommends for CGDA. You might want to run the gauges you're using through a tension calculator to see how much strain they put on the instrument, compared to what the builder recommends for the lower tuning.

Pete

[John Flynn]

Phil:

I get a lot of use out of The Universal String Tension Calculator, a free download linked below. I set up a profile that represents the string gauges and tunings the instrument was designed for. Then I note the string tensions. Then I reset the software for the desired tuning and change the string gauges until I get tensions close to the original tensions. That provides a baseline for me to string the instrument up in the new tuning with a "safe" string tension. I still sometimes find that there will be a course or two that I don't like the tension on for a given instrument. Then I will go a gauge heavier or lighter than the baseline on those courses and I'm done. It would be great if the software were right on every time, but at least it minimizes how much experimentation I need to do.

http://www.kennaquhair.com/ustc.htm

[Cape Cod Struggler]

I was going to submit the same question as I now use a capo at the second fret on my TC mandola to get the DAEB tuning which is OK but I don't like the capo.

In the past, I have tried a set of Med. gauze mandolin strings (.012 - .048) which work well but I wasn't sure of the tension and the damage they might cause.

[PhilGE]

Thanks for the replies. I've heard from Jack who basically said things should work, but keep an eye on them, just in case. :-)