I ended up with one of these resonator mandolins in a trade, and have been trying to decide the best way to use it. It has a longer scale than most mandolins, so the string tension seems a bit high at concert pitch.

I tuned down the first two strings for open G (GG DD GG DD) and it seemed to sound a little better -- maybe there was too much pressure on the resonator cone? This was encouraging, so I dropped it further to Yank Rachell tuning, 3 frets below normal (EE BB F#F# C#C#) and liked the sound. Then down to 5 frets below, and it was starting to get a big fat plunky tenor banjo timbre (DD AA EE BB). At 7 frets below standard, as in a mandola or tenor banjo, the low C was floppy so it was difficult to tune and play.

So, I'm wondering -- has anybody one of these up with mandola-gage strings and tuned to CC GG DD AA? Other comments, thoughts, opinions?