String 13" Mandola as an Octave

[belbein]

Has anyone actually done this and gotten a good result? Can you tell me what strings you used? (Don't tell me to use a string tension calculator, I just don't get them.)

[multidon]

There's no such thing as a 13" mandola. Do you mean 18"?

[Explorer]

Has anyone actually done this and gotten a good result? Can you tell me what strings you used? (Don't tell me to use a string tension calculator, I just don't get them.)

I did retune a Tacoma Papoose guitar, with a 19" scale length, to E standard using an extra-heavy string set. In that case, the body was large enough to make the lowest strungs sound decent, and the conversion was for a friend who is a little person who needed a smaller-scale guitar due to the size limitations.

At 13", you're talking around mandolin scale length, so the body likely will *not* sound good an octave below normal. Let us know if you meant another scale length.

[Tavy]

If the scale length is really 13" (that's bowl back short scale, even for a mandolin), then you can forget about stringing as an Octave mandolin - you would need ships cable for that