What's Up With A?

[Cliff Seruntine]

If any strings are likely to go out of tune, it's always the A strings. I did not have this trouble with violins or tenor guitars, and I thought it was unique to mandolins, but it also occurs on my Garrison octave mandolin. Does anyone have any idea what's up with AA? Why are those the bad boys of the mando string team?

[JerseyPicker]

My A string also seems to go out more often. I've always assumed it was because I used that course of strings more often than the others. I have a lot more fret wear on that course too.

[DavidKOS]

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...Wound-a-string

"My main reason for wanting to try a wound A is that I have read they're more stable tuning-wise than an unwound A. " - https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/m...php?1226-g-mac


Well, they do have wound A strings for classical mandolin. The tone is also darker than a plain A, which is what I use. I like the plain A sound and feel, but it is the hardest to keep in tune it seems.

[William Smith]

Do you know David who makes a medium/heavy gauge mandolin set with the wound A strings? I'd like to try a set out, if its darker it may work well for my old F-5's in bluegrass style?

[Bill McCall]

D’addar Flattops are one brand with a wound A string. Don Rigsby uses them on his Sorenson to good effect, to say the least.

[Willie Poole]

Does anyone on here know of a dealer that sells single Wound A strings? I don`t want to buy a whole set of strings just to get a wound A string, I already have six or seven sets of strings and would like to try a wound A string and compare it to an unwound one...

Willie

[MontanaMatt]

Does anyone on here know of a dealer that sells single Wound A strings? I don`t want to buy a whole set of strings just to get a wound A string, I already have six or seven sets of strings and would like to try a wound A string and compare it to an unwound one...

Willie

Try d’addario direct. I love the tone from my a in the flattop sets.

[Mark Wilson]

Does anyone on here know of a dealer that sells single Wound A strings? I don`t want to buy a whole set of strings just to get a wound A string, I already have six or seven sets of strings and would like to try a wound A string and compare it to an unwound one...

Does Mapes offer a wound A? If so maybe they will sell a custom set of (8) wound A strings

[Mark Wilson]

If any strings are likely to go out of tune, it's always the A strings.

That seems the case. I've been experimenting with various gauges of A and E strings looking to see if rebalancing string tension makes any difference.

What size are your strings now?

[DavidKOS]

Do you know David who makes a medium/heavy gauge mandolin set with the wound A strings? I'd like to try a set out, if its darker it may work well for my old F-5's in bluegrass style?

D’addar Flattops are one brand with a wound A string. Don Rigsby uses them on his Sorenson to good effect, to say the least.

Thanks for the answer; I was mostly referring to the Classical flatwound strings by Pyramid and such.

[Cliff Seruntine]

That seems the case. I've been experimenting with various gauges of A and E strings looking to see if rebalancing string tension makes any difference.

What size are your strings now?

Presently, on the mandolin, I'm using GHS Silk & Steel. The AA is LM16. But I've had this problem with several other string makers too.

If the KM-272 has any major shortcoming, it's they use bottom line Gotohs. I know Gotoh makes decent tuners at the mid and upper end, so I think I'll replace the tuning machines. Yet, since I get the same problem on my octave mandolin, I think it is more than just a matter of the tuners.