Re: Guitar strings on a GBOM?
The world of guitar strings offers a lot more choice and a huge (nearly limitless!) range of options. I use them on my octave and mandocello because of that. Might be the same for Sarah.
I happen to like Elixir strings on my Weber Octar but they aren't made in the right gauges and lengths with loop ends long enough for an octave mandolin. So I get them as guitar singles from one of the online string places and remove the ball ends. That works great. You can be more specific with the string gauges that way too. Same works on a mandocello - I restrung my Gibson K-1 just this afternoon with Elixir guitar singles I removed the ball ends from.
Guitar strings open a big world for you to experiment with. You might want Monels on your octave (they're next on my list!) or stainless flatwound, or 80/20, or really anything you want to try.
The only challenge is removing the ball ends from the guitar strings. Once you work that out you're off to the races. If they're hard to remove you can even just cut the ball ends off and use one of the Pearse String Wizard gadgets to twist new loops on the other ends.
Have fun!
Gavin Baird F4 & F5, Weber Octar, Gibson K-1, Guild D50, Martin D35, Yairi DY-84, etc...
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