Does anyone know where I can order ballend mandocello strings. I see only loop end sets and don't feel confident in doing the modification to ball end myself.
Steven
Does anyone know where I can order ballend mandocello strings. I see only loop end sets and don't feel confident in doing the modification to ball end myself.
Steven
Steven Antonelli
It is very easy. Cut the ball ends out of old guitar strings. You need a good pair of small long nose pliers and wire cutters. Insert the ball end into the open loop and crimp it tight. You may want to give the A strings one twist after you crimp. You can also buy single guitar strings (D'addario) from Juststrings in gages that will match or be close. The .074 C strings are close to a Baritone guitar. Otherwise , You probably would need to special order ball end strings. I suspect most mandocello strings are made for the Old Gibsons so that is perhaps why it is hard to find ball end string sets.
If you know what guages the strings are you can always buy individual ball end guitar strings.
Dave H
Gibson A 1917
Paul Shippey oval hole 2001
Eastman 615 2005
Flatiron 2K 1981
Thank you both for your suggestions. I think I will first see if I can find the guages I need in baritone guitar, acoustic bass guitar etc and then if not I'll give the string modification a shot. What do I have to lose. Right? Steven
Steven Antonelli
NFI, but Just Strings.com has quite a variety of sizes/compositions of strings in singles and in bulk.
I've bought there when I was experimenting with string gauges for my bouzouki, and I wanted all ball-end strings.
As for cutting the brass nuts out of ball-end strings, it's pretty easy with a good, sharp pair of wire cutters. #I find that I just have to grip the ball without getting the string. #Of course, it helps to have some extra strings around in case I do cut the loop, too. #
I've found less variation to be available among loop-end strings than among ball-end strings, so I've cut the brass out of a lot of strings now... # Of course, I could have been looking in the wrong places for a variety of loop-ends...
stv
steve V. johnson
Culchies
http://cdbaby.com/Culchies
The Lopers
Ghosts Like Me
http://cdbaby.com/Lopers1
There Was A Time
http://cdbaby.com/Lopers2
I found ball end strings for my mandocello @ "www.emando.com". They sell ball or loop ends for many 8 string instruments. They even have a special set for my Eastman Mandocello. Hope this helps!
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