ball ends

[John Morton]

A while back I bought a set of Daddario mandolin strings, paying attention only to the gauge. Upon opening the package I saw they had ball ends. I've never seen a mando tailpiece that required ball ends, and got to wondering how my small town music store came to be carrying such a thing.

What's up? (of course the balls can be removed)

[mrmando]

Does this mean you're building a resophonic mandolin?

Lots of electric mandolins take ball-end strings. The Ovation mandolins are a good example.

[allenhopkins]

Sounds like a mix-up in the packaging department of the factory. I'm not aware of a D'Addario mandolin set that routinely comes with ball-end rather than loop-end strings, but there are many, many things of which I'm not aware, so -- just my 2¢ ---

[Jim Adwell]

D'Addario EJ70s are ball end.

[Eric L]

Ovation mandolins use ball ends, may be the shop sold them as well?

[zedmando]

Certainly some electric ones will use those--especially solidbody electric mandolins.
For my mandobird I actually used guitar strings when I changed the strings.
I used four of the strings from two sets and saved the others for spares.
They were sets I already owned.

But I didn't see any ball end strings for mandolin at the local stores, so I pretty much had to use guitar strings, or find a place o order them.

[G7MOF]

I use ball ended strings on my Thomas Buchanan mando, the lugs can be taken out as I've done it in the past when I've been pushed for loop ended strings!

[StuartE]

I use ball ends on my Mandobird. I couldn't find them at my local music stores and, when I asked one to order a couple of sets for me, he couldn't find them on the D'addario site. They are there though.

I ended up ordering them through the mail

[kkmm]

I had an Ovation mandolin and must use ball end strings. The loop end strings won't work (they do but require a small bar to hold the loop, and this make it hard to replace one or a few strings).

[Mandobart]

I have a 'dola, OM and 2 'cellos that use ball ends. Three of these are Allen tailpieces which can take loop or ball end (that's reason enough alone to upgrade IMO).

[Colin Lindsay]

Last time I was in London a certain music / guitar shop in Danmark Street sold me three sets of strings in my specified gauges, with the stipulation that they HAD to be loop end. I arrived home with over thirty ball end strings all in paper envelopes that the shop staff had checked in front of me and stacked on the counter for payment… but for some reason didn’t show me the strings inside…
Luckily many of my instruments take ball end so they weren’t wasted. Most of my moderns take ball end whilst the older ones seem to take loops, so a modern tailpiece may be the way to go for easily available strings with no modification required.

[David Lewis]

I had a crafter that used Ball ends. it had a fixed bridge. I stupidly sold it because it had a fixed bridge and it wasn't good for bluegrass. Great for jazz. My solid body also has ball end. Again a fixed bridge.

I should have bought my f-style and kept the crafter ...

[Rolfe]

Good quality end nippers applied carefully to the ball avoiding the string can produce a nice loop.

[mandroid]

Crushing the bronze into pieces does leave the loop , if it breaks you can always form a loop in the opposite end.

Fender FM61 uses ball ends i got some Cello string balls to double up loop ends ..
they share 1 thru body ferrule anyway ,
1 broken string and the other one has to come loose too to un jam the 2nd ball ..

[John Morton]

Does this mean you're building a resophonic mandolin?

Lots of electric mandolins take ball-end strings. The Ovation mandolins are a good example.

I was in fact thinking there must be a big player in the market for Daddario to be distributing these. Ovation must be it.

Yes, a resophonic. I made a lovely hook tailpiece and cover, but put the hooks too close together. The quickest way out was a keyhole style that I use for guitars, which allowed me to use that ball end set.

[zedmando]

I use ball ends on my Mandobird. I couldn't find them at my local music stores and, when I asked one to order a couple of sets for me, he couldn't find them on the D'addario site. They are there though.

I ended up ordering them through the mail

Who'd you order them from?
I had a few extra string sets as I switched gauges on a guitar and also got some free strings at a guitar show, but there will come a time when I run out of those.

[John Morton]

stringsbymail.com has the EJ70 sets. Mine came from a small music store, so they are probably widely distributed.