This may have been done before but I cannot find many references to it on the Net. I'm curious if anyone else has tried downtuning a mandolin to DAEB.
I recently purchased the classic mandolin test-bed, the Rogue 100A (in black) and after doing the setup thought about down tuning it to take advantage of its larger body. I tried this with the only extra stings I had, D'Addario PB 10's, tuned it to DAEB and . . . it works better than it should!
Open strings still sound kindof cheap-plywood-overtone-rich but fretted notes sound very nice. I put some rubber grommets between the bridge and tailpiece which helped. The intonation worked out fine. I was wondering of the bridge compensation would be off but it does not seem to be.
Of course the tension is loose but I want to try the new Martin Monels which I hope will lower the overtones and raise the tension. I do play 10's on my regularly tuned mandolin so I think the Monel 11's will work for me. But of course, strings are cheap.
However, there is the problem of the tuners! I adjusted/lubricated them to be usable but yikes these instruments really put you in the "luck of the draw!" In this case the tuners were not bad enough to send it back and so far, it is staying in tune quite well.
Bob
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