Tuning a mandolin to octave mandolin.

[sandcastlefaith]

I have recently received Radim Zenkl's CD, Galactic Mandolin, and he tunes his strings into octaves on the last song. Is it possible, on a regular mandolin, to tune each string down an entire octave, or even to mandola tuning? If so, what string guages are necessary to keep the string tension normal, but obtain lower notes?

Thanks

[mandroid]

I found D'addario mandola sets too heavy for my mandola, so I put them on my 4 string electric,the 'dola tuning on 14" scale feels ok.
[synth can lower tuning from there]
octave on acoustic instrument, short scale would have to be fatter than low E on heavy guitar sets.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif
The dissonant intervals are interesting on that recording too m2nds & M7ths http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Bob DeVellis]

When I've heard people talk about octave tuning a mandolin, they usually are referring to replacing one string in each of the two bass pairs (i.e., the D and G pairs) with a string an octave higher. So, the G pair, for example, would have a standard G string plus an unwound string an octave higher. The body size of a standard mandolin would have a hard time supporting the tonal range of tuning the whole instrument down an octave. Plus, the much heavier strings would require recutting the nut and bridge grooves and almost certainly repositioning the bridge for intonation. Personally, I just wouldn't go there.

[neal]

pair an A with the G and an E with the D and you'll have "high strung" like a 12 string geetar. Leave the last 2 courses as are. Of course you'll tune the new A string down to G and that E string down to D. Makes for a quite interesting sound.

It's nice to have an extra mandolin to do this on.........