Strings for Nerve Damaged Hands
So here's what's up: About a few months ago, I ended up with some not insignificant nerve damage in my hands/arms/neck from my dayjob. The kind that makes playing a stringed instrument pretty difficult at times. I swapped to D'Addario 9s on all my guitars, acoustic included (yay for D'Addario EJ41s).
Uku is no issue, it's nylon, they don't rightly give me any issue.
My mandolin, on the other hand... That's proving right difficult. 10s on it are still a bit too much to play for more'n about 15 minutes at a stretch. I'm loath to leave D'Addario, as I've been with 'em for 20 years, but it don't seem they make any lighter at all from what I can find on the Truth Oracle (google). I do prefer phosphor bronze, as the mellow tone compliments the warmth of my mandolin's midrange.
My other thought was to start playing in a less-than-standard tuning. I mean, on acoustic I already play a lot of DADGAD, is there a nice compliment for that on Mandolin? I'm still fairly new to playing it myself (though I grew up around it being played casually), so feeling all this out (if you'll pardon the pun).
Any advice/help/pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.-Geralt of Rivia
Serve... Save... Slave... Slay... I've sins aplenty, aye. But regrets? Not so much.-Fray Myste
It's the best and strongest steel that goes through the hottest fires.-Me
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