looking for 20"mandola/OM DAEA

[garryireland]

If anybody can suggest a decent one for pub gigs or has one to sell? I cant find much choice in this part of the world! Looking around $750

[multidon]

You would probably do better if you put what you want in a classified ad. When you ask if someone has one to sell you are dancing right on the edge of posting guidelines.

That being said, I am having a lot of trouble imagining what gauges of strings would give you the tuning you want at 20 inch scale length. The required gauges would be impossibly thin, especially in that upper course. You would need .008 up there, maybe? You'll be breaking strings left and right.

I used to own a 16 inch mandola that I played in DAEB with J72 light guages mandola strings with great success. In my opinion, if you want that tuning, you should be looking for a 16-17 inch mandola.

[multidon]

Ok, standing corrected, your tuning at 20 inches is achievable with .010 strings. Just spent some time with a string calculator to be sure.

You would have to go with a solid string instead of wound on the second course. Perhaps a .014 or .015.

Your third and fourth courses would be in the neighborhood of .023W and .034W, respectively.

This combination would of course require putting together your own custom set.

A Trinity College OM would fit your requirements nicely. You would have to restring it with your required guages. Lots of people complain that the TC bridge compensation is wrong for the way most people string their OM ( WWSS as opposed to WWWS) but for your stringing that would be a plus. There are other brands that offer basically the same instrument. Ashbury comes to mind.

[garryireland]

Andy Irvine plays one and thats roughly the gauges he told me he uses yea

[derbex]

Buchanan OMs are 20", there were some on UK Ebay from around £600 up recently -may still be there.

[allenhopkins]

It's doable. I have a 20.5" scale Sobell tuned as a mandola.

Strings I use are .010", .018" wound for 2nd course, .030", .046". Significantly heavier than recommended above, especially the lower courses.

It's be strung this way since 1986, has stood the test of time unscathed. It is an arch-top, so may endure the greater tension better than a flat-top.

[garryireland]

Sounds good to me

[multidon]

Wow, Allen. Your tension per string, assuming standard CGDA tuning, would be 1st course 18.9 pounds per string, 2nd course 25.8, 3rd course 30.8, and 4th course 31.4. First course seems normal to me, 2nd a bit heavy, but the other two courses are beasts! I don't dispute that the instrument can take it, but isn't it a bear to play?

[garryireland]

Got a deal on a Ashbury Am325. Nice OM. 20" scale. Should do the job. I have a 10 string APC Mondole being strung DAEAE. Cant wait to pair them up!

[allenhopkins]

...the other two courses are beasts! I don't dispute that the instrument can take it, but isn't it a bear to play?

Not to me, but I play all sorts of stringed instruments -- six- and 12-string guitars, tenor and five-string banjos, plus almost all the mandolin family -- "sopranolin," mandolin, mandola, OM, mandocello. And bass fiddle, at least a little bit. So I'm used to working with more and less responsive actions, on different instruments.

As you might expect, with the heavy "bass" strings, the Sobell's louder than anything. I chord with it quite a bit, and play leads mainly on the two upper courses, though not exclusively.

If you'd like to hear what it sounds like, this live recording of three jigs with my band Innisfree, has me playing harmony to Mark's mandolin-banjo and Barbara's hammered dulcimer (except on Saddle the Pony, where I mainly octave-double Mark's melody). Please excuse the haphazard engineering; levels go up and down for no apparent reason.

[ollaimh]

It's doable. I have a 20.5" scale Sobell tuned as a mandola.

Strings I use are .010", .018" wound for 2nd course, .030", .046". Significantly heavier than recommended above, especially the lower courses.

It's be strung this way since 1986, has stood the test of time unscathed. It is an arch-top, so may endure the greater tension better than a flat-top.

lucky duck

[allenhopkins]

lucky duck

Yeah, I am. It belonged to Brit finger-style guitarist Martin Simpson, who was living in Ithaca NY at the time. He traded it in on a Gibson mandolin at Stutzman's Guitar Center so that he could take the Gibson back to England and sell it at a profit, and have Stefan Sobell build him another instrument. This was about 1985-86 or so. He took the Sobell case with him to hold the new instrument he would have Sobell build. I think Simpson had the instrument tuned like an octave mandolin when he owned and played it.

I bought the Sobell for about $800, as I remember; it was an "oddity," and Dave Stutzman wasn't sure who'd buy it, so the price was extremely reasonable. Minute I saw it I knew it was a great instrument (rosewood body, gold hardware), and I wanted it. I had (still have) a Flatiron octave mandolin, and I was using an old Washburn bowl-back mandola in my band Thistledown. I decided I'd use the Sobell as a mandola, and experimented with string gauges until I settled on what I use now. The Sobell tailpiece takes ball-end strings, so I use phosphor bronze GHS guitar strings for the wound courses. It's hard to find the .018 second strings, but I have a little stash of "Sobell mandola" strings now.

This is an amazing instrument that I "lucked into" due to unique circumstances. Interestingly, after I had a custom Harptone case made for it, Simpson contacted me and asked if I'd like to buy the case he kept. Don't know if he ever had another Sobell made for him or not.

[ollaimh]

my old new stock garrison 20 inch scale. i didn't play it much