Strings for a Martin Backpacker mandolin?

[alanz]

Ok, someone made me an offer I didn't refuse and now there's a Martin Backpacker sitting in my living room.

I'm a bit of an eccentric guy, and this is an appropriately quirky instrument.

The mandolin hasn't been used for quite a while, and needs strings.

The label specifies light strings.

I know it won't get much volume (a good thing at my stage of 'playing'), and because of the size, it won't get much bass.

However it's worth a try as an instrument that I can take with me more easily on my motorcycle. I can carry my Big Muddy on the bike in its case, but the Martin is more of a beater instrument, that I wouldn't hesitate to bring along for short trips (ride to the top of a mountain... pick quietly, ride home <s>).

So what is the current wisdom for getting the most out of this instrument (preferably with the warmest sound practical for this mandolin)?

[alanz]

Hmm, must really be a puzzlement <s>

[mandroid]

I have one , the neck shape/profile is great on those .
i use something like J73 or GHS A250 or any similar sets,
IE : like ,0.010,.015",bronze wound .024" and ,036". to be a good type and gage.

I sanded a bit off the bottom of the bridge piece and brought the action down to 'Goldilocks' height .

I think it needs a companion , the Backpacker guitar , now ..

[Mike Snyder]

Mine has Martin light guage strings on for over a year. They'll stay on a lot longer cuz I never play the thing unless my goodun is in the shop. Glad to hear that someone likes the neck contour. I sure don't. It's always for sale, but I'm not aggressive about it.

[Potosimando]

In about five years of intermittent playing, I have never changed the strings on my Martin Backpacker and it still sounds great, for what it is. I have found that a Backpacker sounds perfectly OK after a day or so away from my regular instruments--a string change wouldn't make a significant difference.

To me my Backpacker represents some of the coolest experiences I've had. Unfortunately most of my wanderlust wanderings occurred before I had my Backpacker, whereby I was lugging around a regular-sized mandolin--a bit of a pain, but worth it (Vale la pena). Since getting the Backpacker, taking a mandolin along has been basically effortless. Too much so in fact, as it is far too easy to forget about having the little instrument along.

In Costa Rica, I left the Backpacker in the taxi that took me to the airport when I left the country. The taxista took the instrument back to the hotel, which sent it to me a few months later.

The little guy has been to Europe three times. My friend carried it in the bottom of his rolling suitcase all over England and Scotland for a month, playing it nearly every day, jamming with the locals in pubs from time to time. A few years ago I carried it around France for three weeks, camping outdoors the whole time, dragging it up to the tops of mountain passes and to various beaches, leaving it propped up against a rock while I hiked down the beach. I spent three months in Italy last fall, whereby I kept my regular mandolin in the apartment and took the backpacker on weekend train trips here and there. I typically would find a remote spot on the train to play quietly, whereupon people would be drawn to the music, find a seat nearby and ask me to play louder, showering the mandolin (not me) with compliments..."the mandolin is so sad and beautiful; it touches my soul" (that after an hour of my playing what I thought were upbeat tunes). "I love the mandolin, it takes me to a different world, a different time". "You must play louder, surely everyone loves to hear the mandolin". In all of those cases it would not have made much difference to have been playing a "real" mandolin or with new strings.

I took the Backpacker on two week-long canoe trips, wrapped in double garbage bags, where it routinely was splashed, sat in water for several hours (inside the bags), was dumped overboard three times, and even got a little wet a few of those times (air-dried by hanging in the tree with the wet clothes). The point here being that you don't need to focus much on instrument safety, like you might with even a normal camping mandolin.

Anyway, I am getting carried away. All I initially meant to say is that after perhaps five years of very unfavorable string conditions (admittedly for only a few days and weeks at a time), the original strings still serve their intended purpose entirely well. So...find the right strings, get them on your instrument, and then don't worry or wonder about changing them for a very long time. I would say, check your intonation every year or so, and change the Backpacker's strings on that basis.

[alanz]

Well I just installed a set of Martin Mandolin strings on the little creature.
They're 80/20 bronze, .010 - .014 - .061 - .086 " strings. I broke an E string during the installation, fortunately I bought a couple of sets of strings.

As expected, volume is low... very little bass...

But the neck is comfortable for me. Its string spacing is a bit narrower than my Big Muddy wide, but wider than the Ovation electric (which is really narrow), so this seems to be a good practice fretboard.

The Martin makes me really appreciate the richness of sound coming from the Big Muddy.

However, I agree with Potosimando... this looks like it will take a beating.

A couple of observations
1. The top actually extends under the full length of the fingerboard. I don't recall if I've ever seen this before.
2. Although much narrower than my Big Muddy, the Martin actually weighs only an ounce or two less than the BM (which is a lightweight and smaller than something like an F5).

So it looks like the Backpacker will work fine for motorcycle duty, and to leave in the living room for guests to pick on. Now I have to find a violin stand to keep it accessible out of its gig bag.

[Potosimando]

Yeah, kids absolutely love to play a Martin Backpacker (it is a kid magnet for sure)...I have had several kids marching around strumming the thing...around my neighborhood, on the beach, at Thanksgiving gatherings. Good idea -- leave it out all the time. Kids generally tend to take playing the Backpacker seriously too (make it a priviledge that can be earned or taken away)...i.e. good opportunity to instill a few good habits re. how to handle a stringed instrument.

You will be surprised how good the Backpacker sounds after you and it have been on the road a day or two together--but always a small let down when you return to play it alongside your regular mando/s.