String differences

[vermando]

Greetings, I have used D’Addario EJ74 strings on my Eastman f style mandolin for years. I’m wondering how other strings differ in tone and playability. Any thoughts? I’m not much of a bluegrass player. More old country, old time, folk, hip songwriter, etc… I sing and play.

Thanks

[Billy Packard]

Scroll down and click the Mandolin link,

https://www.mapesstrings.com

Billy

[TheMandoKit]

Tough to give advice about strings, since instruments and preferred setups and sound differ so widely. Strings are (relatively) cheap. I tend to like different strings on different instruments.

If you check MC sponsors, you will find strings on sale from time to time. Get a half dozen different sets and try them. See what you like.

[Kenny]

The way to learn what any given set of strings will sound like on your instrument when you are playing it is to buy a set, install it on your instrument and play it for a reasonable amount of time while listening to yourself playing. If your sound and feel is important to you, invest $12 or $14 bucks each month to try different set of strings. It’s a small outlay but any other approach yields uncertainty, no matter how detailed other people’s descriptions may be.

Mark Twain had a relevant remark in Tom Sawyer Abroad: "... the person that had took a bull by the tail once had learnt sixty or seventy times as much as a person that hadn't …”

[Mandobart]

I've tried most of the usual suspects - d'addario, Martin, DR, La Bella, Mapes, Ernie Ball, Newtone, GHS, and more. 80-20 and phosphor bronze, aluminum bronze, monel, nickel, chrome, round core, hex core, flat wound, round wound, ground flat, etc.

When I first put a set of Curt Mangan phosphor bronze fusion-matched strings on my mandola I heard a warmer tone, better volume and sustain I'd never heard before.

Now I use Mangan strings (some phosphor bronze, some monel) pretty exclusively on my mandolins, mandola, octave mandolins, mandocello and several guitars.

[vermando]

Thanks for all your responses! The consensus seems to be to simply try different ones and check out the sound and feel. That makes excellent sense and sounds like fun.

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Where do I find the MC sponsors?

[Charles E.]

+1 for Curt Mangan strings. After using J-74's for years I put a set of Curt Mangan monels and never looked back. Nice warm tone and they last a long time.

[vermando]

+1 for Curt Mangan strings. After using J-74's for years I put a set of Curt Mangan monels and never looked back. Nice warm tone and they last a long time.

Which Mangan strings do you use?

[Charles E.]

These....

https://www.curtmangan.com/monel-mandolin-medium-11-40/

You should be able able to find them for less from some of the string retailors.

[vermando]

Thank you. I was just on the site and looking at these.