Moved from medium to light strings. Now I have a slight buzz

[Bill McCall]

The Galli’s are available at ‘Lord of the strings’ in the Netherlands. Took about 10 days. Cost less than Thomastiks. NFI obviously.

Designed for light gauge strings means it was built lighter and would not support high tension strings. It’s quite responsive.

[Misanthrope]

The Galli’s are available at ‘Lord of the strings’ in the Netherlands. Took about 10 days. Cost less than Thomastiks. NFI obviously.

Designed for light gauge strings means it was built lighter and would not support high tension strings. It’s quite responsive.

Well, I'm not strictly opposed to ordering from overseas, but I'm also a big fan of Thomastik-Infeld flatwounds strings, despite their higher price, so I might just try a set of those.

However, I find it kind of puzzling that there is very little difference in their "medium" and "heavy" tension strings. Their 'heavies' are .011/.033, while their 'mediums' are .010/.032 (confoundingly little difference?), which means that either way, I'd have to modify my bridge, since the brittle 'medium' gauge roundwound G strings that are on it presently, are .040.

[Jim Garber]

You have what you term old and stale strings and state: “In addition (although I haven't mentioned this previously), the instrument itself doesn't have a lot of volume or presence. It just doesn't ring-out with the projection that you'd expect from a mandolin.”

Your mandolin will ring out if you put new strings on it. If all things are corrected in terms of proper set up then I would suggest that you try other another set of mediums or just go a little lighter. Ultra lights are overkill. I think I may be repeating myself myself myself…

[Misanthrope]

You have what you term old and stale strings and state: “In addition (although I haven't mentioned this previously), the instrument itself doesn't have a lot of volume or presence. It just doesn't ring-out with the projection that you'd expect from a mandolin.”

Your mandolin will ring out if you put new strings on it. If all things are corrected in terms of proper set up then I would suggest that you try other another set of mediums or just go a little lighter. Ultra lights are overkill. I think I may be repeating myself myself myself…

Hey there, Jim,

Nope, I heard you the first time, and I don't disagree. Clearly, the older (stale) strings are a factor, and that's particularly true when they're phoshor-bronze. So yes, a new set of standard (medium 011/040) roundwound strings alone, will improve some things, but the truth is, it's honestly been rather difficult to play (at least in my opinion), since Day-1, even with new strings.

Safe to say, I don't intend to modify anything, and I will indeed be changing the strings, and perhaps more importantly, I don't now intend to go as far down as the "ultra" lights that I mentioned earlier. However, over the years, I have truly enjoyed the transition from roundwound to flatwounds strings on a number of other instruments, all guitars, particularly their smoother playability. Despite their purported higher tension, I have found them to be far easier on the fingertips and far easier to fret, and this has been true on short scale instruments (like the Fender Jaguar) and longer ones (like some of the Gretsch archtops) alike. For this reason, I'm intrigued by the prospect of using flatwounds on a mandolin, but I can't get a set with anywhere near a .040/.041 G string (only 032/033), and this would entail modifying the bridge, which I would truly like to avoid, if possible.

And so, yes, I will be changing strings, they will be medium or light (not ultra light), and the very first change will be to roundwound. If I still consider it to be difficult to play, then I may look at flatwounds and the bridge mods that would be required, but that's down the road. So no, you're not repeating yourself yourself yourself.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Cultivate it. Pretty soon you'll be flyin'!

[Misanthrope]

I wanted to take a minute and close-out my portion of this topic.

I've since made the modifications to the bridge and saddle on this little Kentucky KM-1000 that were discussed here earlier, in an effort to accommodate and evaluate the suitability of lighter gauge strings of various brands and specs, including adjustments of the action on the newly modified bridge. I carefully sanded and leveled the central-bottom side of the bridge itself, to allow it to be lowered further and clear the saddle, and I sanded and leveled the bottom sides of the two bridge arms, allowing them to be lowered somewhat also.

I then installed a set of flatwound Thomastik-Infeld light gauge (W154) strings (009, 014, 020, 030), and adjusted the string height at the bridge. The string tension was soft and the action rather nice, but personally speaking, I didn't much care for how flat they sounded. So I then installed a set of D'Addario EJ73's (010, 014, 024, 038), readjusted the bridge, and I rather liked the results. The fact that they're simply new strings helped both the brightness and string tension, and seemed to help with the fingertip sensitivity somewhat. I played with those for a couple of days. and then tried a set of Elixir 11500's (010, 014, 024, 034), which is where the instrument will now stay. They're bright, easy on the fingers and other than the low 'G' pair, they are identical to the D'Addario EJ73's. Apparently, they are no longer being made by Elixir, but I happen to have several sets of them here, and those will now be my go-to strings on this little guy. There is, what I would call a minor (largely in-detectable) loss in low-end, but its insignificant in my view, and the somewhat lighter gauge low 'G' pair is precisely what I was after. So anyway, thanks to all who contributed here. I appreciate it! ;-)

Cheers!