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Thread: Your favorite course of strings?

  1. #1
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    Default Your favorite course of strings?

    Come on, admit it... Of all the strings on your mandolin, there's one pair that you have a particular affinity for.

    I know I do. It's the D pair. Something about the tone in that range just sends me, and seems to resonate particularly beautifully on the instrument.

    All the other strings have their roles to play, and I respect them. But that D pair is my secret favorite (just don't tell the others!)

  2. #2
    acoustically inert F-2 Dave's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Odd question, but I'm with you. The D course gets the most attention on my mandolin.
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    Mandolin user MontanaMatt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    i like the one I'm on...till I'm on the other one. When I'm playing two, I like them both
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    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    I'm a D fan too, in combination with the A as a drone.
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    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Definitely D for me.

    While I also do a lot of drone stuff with the A course, the A is my least favorite, due to difficulty in tone, tuning and intonation. "A" seems to be the course most prone to getting wonky.

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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    D and A but leaning to the D.

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    Registered User Hendrik Ahrend's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    The e-string is the key string!

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  9. #8

    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    D here too.

  10. #9
    Registered User seankeegan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    G string

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    Registered User Dave Fultz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    I’ve only been playing 8 weeks. My strings don’t care for me much yet. But I kinda like the D and A combo.

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    '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`' Jacob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Dessert.

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    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Henry Eagle View Post
    The e-string is the key string!
    Even better between the A and to all the A's way up the neck.

    Quote Originally Posted by seankeegan View Post
    G string
    Love those very low notes!

    Evidently I like the extreme registers.

  14. #13
    Dave Sheets
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Interesting question, I think for me it changes depending on what mandolin I'm playing. Often the D-A strings get the nod, but the oval hole does amazing things on the G.
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  15. #14
    rock in rôle Paul Statman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by John Flynn View Post
    Definitely D for me.

    While I also do a lot of drone stuff with the A course, the A is my least favorite, due to difficulty in tone, tuning and intonation. "A" seems to be the course most prone to getting wonky.
    I would look into that, John. That shouldn't be, and is likely fix-able (I am assuming that the A strings are not holding pitch).

  16. #15
    My Florida is scooped pheffernan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Henry Eagle View Post
    The e-string is the key string!
    The d-string is the favorite because it is the most forgiving. However, the e-string and the g-string reveal what a mandolin really can (or cannot) do.
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    Registered User Hendrik Ahrend's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by pheffernan View Post
    The d-string is the favorite because it is the most forgiving.
    That I would call an "underhand serve", to borrow a term from tennis.

  19. #17
    Registered User Hendrik Ahrend's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by pheffernan View Post
    However, the e-string and the g-string reveal what a mandolin really can (or cannot) do.
    To my humble experience, on many F5s especially the e-string is really weak.

  20. #18
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    A- string ....they're '16's and sounds incredible......... fat ( warm ) , loud and clean right up the neck ( Km 150 )

  21. #19
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    G on the OM
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    rock in rôle Paul Statman's Avatar
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    Exclamation Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Henry Eagle View Post
    To my humble experience, on many F5s especially the e-string is really weak.
    Maybe you need to hear/play some better F5s. I had that problem with my first F5, a Vanden. Dawg was the first other player to notice it on that mandolin, and thereafter it bugged me even more (especially as I'd been picking his old Fern while he played mine for the session). Two years later I bought his own KM-Dawg. Problem solved.

  23. #21

    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    G on the mandola
    D on the mandolin

    Which leads me to wonder if it has to do with position/mechanics or... not sure how to describe this... where the tones lay in relation to the others within each instrument.

  24. #22
    Registered User Hendrik Ahrend's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by mandopixie View Post
    Maybe you need to hear/play some better F5s. I had that problem with my first F5, a Vanden. Dawg was the first other player to notice it on that mandolin, and thereafter it bugged me even more (especially as I'd been picking his old Fern while he played mine for the session). Two years later I bought his own KM-Dawg. Problem solved.
    Believe it or not, my first and second (better) mandolins were both Vandens (from '83 and '87). It was Mike Compton who commented on the weak e-string. And my taste shifted more towards Monroe style over the years, without neglecting Grisman. So eventually, in 1992, I purchased a KM-Dawg, problem solved - for a good while. Mandopixie, believe me, I played a lot of mandolins, even some with loud e-strings (several Gils among them), but the finest sounds (and especially great e-strings) I found in vintage Loars and post-Loar Ferns; must have checked out about 20 of those alone. I eventually solved my problem in 2012.

  25. #23

    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    I’m new to this, so I like whichever course I’m fretting cleanly at the moment. FWIW, the courses of my cheap Eastman seem to be pretty balanced.

  26. #24
    rock in rôle Paul Statman's Avatar
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    Smile Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Henry Eagle View Post
    Believe it or not, my first and second (better) mandolins were both Vandens (from '83 and '87). It was Mike Compton who commented on the weak e-string. And my taste shifted more towards Monroe style over the years, without neglecting Grisman. So eventually, in 1992, I purchased a KM-Dawg, problem solved - for a good while. Mandopixie, believe me, I played a lot of mandolins, even some with loud e-strings (several Gils among them), but the finest sounds (and especially great e-strings) I found in vintage Loars and post-Loar Ferns; must have checked out about 20 of those alone. I eventually solved my problem in 2012.
    Ha! Yes, I believe every word of it, Henry. Believe it or not, my Vanden was a 1985. I saw and played some later ones of his that were really good. He also did an F5.5, which I remember being akin to the oversize take by Northfield with its F5-M.

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  28. #25
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    Default Re: Your favorite course of strings?

    A is a great string to bounce off of.

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