strings for mando tuned like a guitar ?

First of all let me say that this message board is the best.
Not only are the people here friendly and very funny, they have given me much needed info for a beginner mandolin player...(guitarist at birth). Which brings me to my question:
I have a Samick mando, solid top with F holes... Used it to do a show where I had to read a lot of music for it. Due to not being familiar with the tuning, I tuned it to the top 4 strings of the guitar in order to read the music. It worked like a charm and was wondering....if I kept the tuning this way, what would be the heavist gauges I could use (to get the nice mando sound) and still not hurt the mando? I have on there now... D=.026 G=.020 B=.014 E=.011.....Are these too heavy???
What do you guys & gals think? #Thanks in advance and keep those letters and pics coming in....[B]

[Eugene]

Here's a cut-and-paste of a post I'd made to another forum:

I'm going to be the stick in the mud and humbly submit that you at least make a cursory effort at standard tuning before committing to fourths. Playing in fifths is easy and logical after very minimal effort. The scale length of typical guitars physically lends itself to one-finger-per-fret scale fingerings; that approach at a mandolin-like scale will feel uncomfortably crowded (I do play a 4th-tuned historic mandolin, still don't approach fingerings this way on such a thing, and my left pinkie is occasionally unexploited unless I'm creeping high up the highest string). Mandolin scale lends itself very naturally to one-finger-per-scale-step fingerings, and the use of all your fingers as well as the minimization of position shifts will be facilitated in this approach by tuning in fifths. Chord forms can simply be an exact inversion of the four bass-most strings of the guitar (mandolin tuning being g-d'-a'-e").

The earliest things called "mandolino" were 4-course instruments tuned in fourths (e'-a'-d"-g"). The range was so unacceptably narrow that such things very quickly faded in favor of 5-course (as built by Stradivari: b-e-a'-d"-g") and later 6-course mandolins (as built by Smorsone and Presbler: g-b-e'-a'-d"-g"). However, these were all gut-strung instruments that likely rarely indulged in chords and usually were played fingerstyle, lute-like, through the whole of the baroque era. There was the obscure, wire-strung mandolino Genovese that was tuned e-a-d'-g'-b'-e" (that's right, an octave up from guitar: this was Paganini's first instrument), but it still carried six courses for a wider range...and it was both obscure and short-lived (although Gibson has unwittingly resurrected the concept as the M-6).

Finally, to properly balance tension and arrive at a balanced tone across registers, you will need to piece together oddball string sets for a tuning so disparate to standard. It's much easier to simply buy a package of mandolin strings off the shelf of any given US music shop.

Of course, in the end, you should do what will best serve your needs, [GtrPlyr335], but I can perceive of many more advantages of using standard mandolin tuning on mandolins. Do at least consider it.

[glauber]

If a mandolin's scale is roughly half the length of a guitar's scale, normal guitar strings should work, right? Buy 2 sets and toss out the low Es and As.

But i agree with Eugene, the tuning in 5ths is a Very Good Thing. Once you learn a half dozen 3-fingered chord shapes, you'll be set, because they all repeat.

[arbarnhart]

I agree with glauber but would add that the guitar isn't quite double and you will want to stay with light strings. An E with .011 is in the med to heavy range for a mando. 0.009 is extra light, 0.010 is light (and some medium sets start with a 0.010 also). 0.012 is about the heaviest you find for an E. Unless you know your mando will handle it and really have a reason to go heavy, I would stay more on the light side.

I use this string tension calculator to figure out tensions if I really need to.

[glauber]

Yes, definitely light guitar strings, keep the E at 010 or 011. You may be surprised how much harder it is to finger 2 strings than 1.

Thanks for all your help... I'll get some new strings this weekend and give it a shot....

I may still just go back to the mando tuning.. .not sure yet. Old dog and new tricks... you know what I mean?
Thanks again.