# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > CBOM >  Mandocello string options ?

## Kirk

I've been using the standard D'Addario J78 strings on my 1917 K-1 mandocello. However, I've been thinking about experimenting with some flatwound Thomastik-Infeld 185 Medium Lute Mandocello Strings since I wondered if they might help to give cleaner notes. 

Does anyone have any experience with other string choices ?

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## Greg Stec

Hi, Kirk.
I play mandocello with the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra. #
I've been playing the mandocello for @ 15 years with the BMO. #I use Thomastik strings, because that's what the conductor wants. #They are more expensive in relation to other names (D'darrio, GHS, Martin, Gibson, etc.). #You can go to juststrings.com to search for yourself.

I like the sound of Thomastiks. #They are durable and do keep their tone and strength for a long time. #We play often, about 2 dozen concerts a year. #And practice, of couse. #I can get about two years out of a set of strings. #I should change them every six months, but don't.

The only strings I can compare them to are D'darrios. #I've never used them, but I've heard them often. #If you listen close, you can hear a subtle grind or edge to their tone. #Professional recording artists exploit that sound. #The sound adds a bit of "funk" to a piece.

Thomastiks do not have that edge. #They have a cleaner sound to me without any edge or 'grind.'

Just my opinion. #

Next.

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## Kirk

Thanks for the reply. #It's great that you play with the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra. #Its also a bit of a coincidence since I was catching up with an old college friend at our recent 25 year class reunion & sharing that I play mandocello with the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra. #He related that he played with the Baltimore Orchestra for a few years after graduation & had the chance to borrow their K5 for a bit to give it a try (!). #My friends name is Win Westervelt & he's been living in Alaska for the past 15 years or so. 

Now to get back on topic ...... how would you compare the volume of the D'Addario's vs the Thomastik's ?

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## a12

I too use Thomastiks.
Another advantage is that they are slightly
smaller gauge, so fingering is easier.
They are not as bright as other brands though.

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## violmando

I play in the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra on a Larson-Stahl mandocello. I used to use only Thomastiks--HATE D'addario's because I'm used to flatwounds being a double bassist. But I also am perpetually broke and the Ds tend to wear out on me, so I discovered that Labella makes a nice set of flatwounds too at half the price and I use them on my upper 4 strings, which don't last as long and keep the Thomastiks on the bottom. I think the Labellas ring a little more, yet still are nice to my fingers. That's just me...Just Strings has them, too.

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## Greg Stec

I remember Win. #Tell him I said Hi.

D'dadarrio's are defintely louder, IMO. 

The best thing you can do is to spend some $$$, get sets from different manufacturers, string 'em up and have at them. #Judge on your own. #

We have one mandocellist who is a professional musician so he plays with us when he can. #He mixes strings. #I know he uses Thomastiks (the C and G pairs), but I can not remember the other maker. #He did some trick on the other strings; he put tape on the strings near the fretboard. #He avoids playing on the tape. I believe he did it to keep the sound down. #Maybe the strings ring too much for him, so the tape keeps the ringing and/or vibrations down, like a damper pedal on a piano. #

Jonathan. #You reading this?
Maybe not.

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## Kirk

Thanks for all of the great input. 

I have a question for Violmando: are you saying that you use the Thomastik's on the C & G strings and the LaBella's on the D & A ? I just want to make sure I have this right ..

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## David Westwick

I took a look at JustStrings.com -- under mandocello, they list a set of Thomasiks, 
TOI_1804	
Thomastik-Infeld Octave Mandola (European Mandocello) Set, 1804

Are these the Thomasiks that you are using, or is there another set available? From the description, I would have expected these strings to be for a GDAE tuned mandola (aka ocatve mandolin in the US).

I'm a little puzzled, and hesitant to drop $65 on a set of strings that may or may not be the correct size. Until summer rolls around, the point is moot, as I have to compete with 2 accordions, about half a dozen violins and a piccolo, so I need all the volume that I can possibly get out of my mandocello (and then some).

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## violmando

Yep, I use Thomastiks on the Cs and Gs and Labellas on the Ds and As; have now for about a year. Started it just as a "financial experiment."(HA---couldn't afford new TIs just then!) But I decided I liked it! There is a place down south that has the best prices on Thomastiks of all sorts on the web-I wish I could remember the name---that's where I got my last set and they actually sent me the set for liuto cantabile (so I have a set of high Es) for the same price because they were out of the traditional mandocello sets. 
But I really like the sound of the LOW Thomastiks on my Larson--it is a small sized cello--do a search here and you'll see a pic of myself and my friend Miko with our twin celli--and yet my low range is VERY well heard even when I am the only cello with the group, which has happened fairly often. Labellas ring out more, but I think that's needed on the top strings.... at $26 or $28 a set, you can afford to experiment with them or keep them as spares. I broke a A awhile back right before a concert so I like to keep ones with me.
Labellas are MUCH better than D'addarios for extras in my opinion. I've not tried anything else except a short-lived experiment with Argentine guitar strings on my A's and I thought them WAY TOO BRIGHT for me! Plus there was the "fun" of getting the correct size, etc.
I wouldn't experiment TOO much; if you find something that suits YOU, stick with it. I don't understand folks who have to try out the NEWEST thing just because someone else does. If it works for you, KEEP it. IMHO. Yvonne

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## CraigF

David,

Just Strings is confused. I don't know why they think Octave Mandola is a Mandocello in Europe. Mandocellos are the same in US and Europe. But, the 1804 set are the strings for Mandocello. The 174 set are the Octave Mandola strings.

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## CraigF

Yvonne,

Would you be willing to give me a deal on those on those E strings?

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## violmando

Sure....where are you? First, I have to find them (no small feat), then you can have them for shipping. But let me find them first, OK? They didn't cost me anything....I know they are still in the original envelope, which may be in my cello bag. Give me a day or two. Yvonne

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## CraigF

Thanks Yvonne! I'm in Florida. I'll PM you my e-mail so we can correspond that way after you find them.

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## sean parker

david, craig. i didn't look properly at the juststrings site and ended up purchasing the wrong set of thomastiks for my om. i didn't end up with mandocello strings, and i didn't end up with octave strings. #i think the octave mandola strings are actually for mandola. #with the silk ends, the vibrating length of the string is very specific. juststrings and the distributors for thomastik (they recommended this particular set) are both confused.

the lesson i got was to always check and double check the guages, as there are as many different scale lengths as they are om, mandocello & bouzouki instruments out there.

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## CraigF

Sean,

The Thomastik's are for European *octave* Mandola which have a shorter scale (17-20") than the typical American Octave Mandolin.

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## PT66

Does any company make Mandocello strings with ball ends? I know Ovation mandocello uses ball end strings but I don't know what brand they are.

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## MJS

Newtone strings in england should be able to make up almost any strings you want. I had some ball end and loop ends made. cheaper than thomasick, a bit more than the dadario. These are nickle wound and sound good to me. .022-.068 gauge pkg says "available in phosphor bronse or nickle wound. Custom gauges can be provided, ball or loop end on request.

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## tuxedomoon

I have some inquiries i would like to ask.

Does anyone know what rand of strings mandocello players must have used in the years 1915-1930,are there any historical information?

Also a friend researcher luthier in Greece Giannis Koukourigos insists the the bouzouki model of Anastasios Stathopoulos is actually a mandocello and he says so from the signs on the sound board.
What do you think?

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Koukourigos insisted that on the Sparta conference.He spoke about the marks of the fretboard.

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## vkioulaphides

Yes, what Yiannis (ipt) says makes perfect sense: the strings of the mandocello would leave distinctly different wear-marks on the fretboard than those of the (modern, Greek) bouzouki.

I find this hard to imagine, however... I cannot imagine, that is, how a Greek bouzouki --a large, but _delicate_ instrument-- could ever sustain the considerable tension of mandocello-stringing. Wouldn't the uncanted top sink? Wouldn't the neck bend and warp? The mandocello's top is canted-- and the cant is ESSENTIAL for it to not buckle under tension! Its neck is also MUCH thicker than that of the bouzouki. Also the scale is, of course, much longer on the bouzouki than on the (Italian, bowlback) mandocello: Calace's is 61 cm.; Embergher's 58-59 cm., I think...

I would be curious to learn more.

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

STathopoulo bouzouki string is 63-64 cm.
Koulourigos maybe is right, but i think that the decoration of stathopoulo bouzouki is more close to the greek lute.If stathopoulo wanted to make a mandocello he would have decorated as he did with his mandolins.Check out this site to see the similarities of the stathopoulo bouzouki with that of other makers.
http://oldbouzoukia.wordpress.com/

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## vkioulaphides

FASCINATING!  :Disbelief:  The most astonishing thing I noticed in some of those old bouzoukis is that they DO have a canted top! They look as if the bowl was modeled after a _mandola_'s bowl, onto which a bouzouki neck was mounted. Incredible!

So... at least _theoretically_, a Greek bouzouki, WITH a canted top (and perhaps an ebony rod embedded in the neck, to prevent warping) COULD in fact be strung as a mandoloncello. Hmmm...  :Wink: 

It's still hard to imagine, though. The lowest C of the mandoloncello is a whole octave lower than the lowest C of the Greek bouzouki; the former instrument is MUCH more heavily strung than the latter-- hence its "fortification" by Italian luthiers. Also, the bowl of the Greek bouzouki is not quite large enough to resonate satisfactorily in the lowest range of the mandoloncello.

Cheers,

Victor

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## kookibouzouki

"They look as if the bowl was modeled after a mandola's bowl"

In many cases they are literally mandola bowls. Mandola bodies were imported from Italy to Greece and Istanbul, and eventually produced by local luthiers. Greeks would also take mandolas to local luthiers to have them fitted with a longer neck and 6 string set up. Greeks produced 4 course and 3 course bouzouki type instruments, although it's unclear how the 4 course were meant to be tuned (yes, modern bouzoukis are 4 course and tuned CFAD). 3 Course were generally tuned DAD, although other tunings were used (called douzeni). The DAD tuning was standard by the 1930's...interestingly, the Greeks called this tuning "European"!

cheers,
Dave
oldbouzoukia.wordpress.com

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## vkioulaphides

Bingo! In an interview I once read, Vasilis Tsitsanis described how his father took "that old mandola" the family owned, and had a bouzouki-neck retrofitted onto it. What you say makes perfect sense.

The four-string tuning was mostly a _post_-WWII phenomenon, to my knowledge, and so it must have been a later phenomenon than this "neck-transplant" onto mandola bowls. As for why DAD might have been called "European", who knows? Perhaps it was in contradistinction from the microtonal (i.e. not equal-tempered) sazes played by the likes of Yovan Ciaus. Just a guess...

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

Mandola bodies were imported from Italy to Greece and Istanbul, and eventually produced by local luthiers. 
Do you have any historical clues which prove that?

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## vkioulaphides

Many luthiers in _interbellum_ Greece (and even later, of course) were in fact of Armenian descent (Terzivassian, Tsakirian, Samuelian, et al). In other words, I had always thought that the art of bowl-building traveled East-to-West, not the other way around. But of course I am no organologist, and only have second-hand, third-hand information.

Let's see what kookibouzouki may know...

Cheers,

Victor

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## kookibouzouki

I don't have the reference for the bit about importing here at work. Spourdalakis said the bit about replacing mandola necks with longer ones (see The Bouzouki by Pennanan).

The European naming for DAD, according to Vamvakaris, had something to do with the fact that you could "play in all the dromoi". (Dromoi = Maqam = Modes, sort of...).


d

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## vkioulaphides

> The European naming for DAD, according to Vamvakaris, had something to do with the fact that you could "play in all the dromoi". (Dromoi = Maqam = Modes, sort of...)


Makes sense. After all, the reason that J.S. Bach championed what he called The _Well_ Tempered Clavier is that it allowed one to play in all keys (tonalities). Hence, I believe, the "European" connotation.

All of this is VERY interesting! 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Paul Hostetter

> Just Strings is confused. I don't know why they think Octave Mandola is a Mandocello in Europe. Mandocellos are the same in US and Europe...


Just Strings has proven themselves many time to be confused and worse. This is why I order specialty strings from www.stringsbymail.com. Nice people, much more knowledgeable about instruments and strings and, as a plus, they even know what they stock.

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## vkioulaphides

Right, the octave mandola is most definitely NOT a mandocello, anywhere in the world; perhaps the confusion crept into the fact that the octave mandola is a far more common instrument in European plucked orchestras than the "American" CGDA, _viola_-pitch-equivalent mandola. Yes, THAT much is true; but the 'dola is no 'cello.

I still, however, have trouble wrapping my brain around the _bouzouki_-as-mandocello theory. The lowest C-string of a (Greek) bouzouki, i.e. the lower string of the lowest _octave_-course, is tuned to *bass* C, second space on the bass-clef staff. (In other words, it is the SAME pitch, as far as I know, as the "American" _mandola_'s low C.) The Greek bouzouki is a VERY lightly strung instrument, allowing for all sorts of left-hand ornaments, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends... Its strings are barely _thicker_ than a mandolin's; only _longer_, for all I can tell. That is why (I suspect) the instrument's top does not need to be canted.

The mandocello's lowest pitch, however, is the *contrabass* C, two ledger-lines BELOW the bass-clef staff. The mandocello is also strung in _unison_-courses, so the tension on the instrument is MUCH greater than on the Greek bouzouki. I therefore find it hard to imagine that a regularly, "normally" built and braced bouzouki could ever sustain that sort of burden; the neck would bend, the soundboard would sink, the whole thing would snap like a mouse-trap!  :Frown: 

What am I missing? (I disclaim: I am a _mandolinist_ by heritage and family lineage; I do not claim to know much, if anything at all about the bouzouki.)

Cheers,

Victor

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## Giannis Tsoulogiannis

I think that you are correct.
I believe that bouzouki makers such as Stathopoulo were influenced by mandocello and mandola and not making mandocellos but bouzoukis.
He was selling istruments in Greece when he was at New York,and ofcourse much more greeks played bouzouki than mandocello.
I think that other makers were ifluenced by Laouto (Karabas)other by mandolins(stathopoulo).
From the same period of time there is a beautifull mourtzinos mandocello in the athens musical instruments museum.

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## vkioulaphides

> From the same period of time there is a beautifull mourtzinos mandocello in the athens musical instruments museum.


Oh, yes, I have seen that GLORIOUS instrument in a photograph! SO beautiful! But of course, that one IS a "real" mandocello, and NOT something "converted" (or even convertible) from or to a bouzouki. Oh, I would LOVE to see that instrument up close!

Incidentally, I am coming to Greece next week; after a week-or-so in Rhodes, I'll have a week in Athens, then off to the lovely, Greek maritime countryside again. During this interim between the two outings, perhaps I can visit the Musical Instruments Museum-- a long-standing dream of mine. If not (since my family may, or may not share my enthusiasm for musical instruments  :Wink:  ) I'll surely do so on one of my winter-time visits.

Cheers,

Victor

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## kookibouzouki

When you're in Athens I encourqage you to check out the club Rebetiki Istoria...you will see som eold bouzoukis there!

http://www.myspace.com/rempetikhistoria

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## vkioulaphides

Yes, I will at least try to. The question is always time, as I am usually busy with family and friends; Athens is, after all, my birthplace, and so there are many people expecting to see me when I'm in town.  :Smile:  I do plan to be in the general area of the club, only further down Ippokratous St., as I always visit Politeia (the bookstore) for some pleasant discoveries of reading material. 

Oh, it all sounds very _attractive_; let's see now what's _possible_.  :Wink: 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Paul Hostetter

> Right, the octave mandola is most definitely NOT a mandocello, anywhere in the world; perhaps the confusion crept into the fact that the octave mandola is a far more common instrument in European plucked orchestras than the "American" CGDA, _viola_-pitch-equivalent mandola. Yes, THAT much is true; but the 'dola is no 'cello.


Small point of order: what some English speakers are wont to call an octave mandola is more commonly called an octave mandolin in the US. What non-anglophone Europeans call it more often is mandole, sometimes alto mandoline, and it is essentially an octave mandolin: tuned GDAE one octave below a mandolin or a violin. It plays the viola part. It looks like this:



And what all the "mandola" players played in this orchestra:



The guy with the red bow tie was a dear friend of mine, and he kept his Martin bowlback mandola tuned GDAE, an octave low.




> I still, however, have trouble wrapping my brain around the _bouzouki_-as-mandocello theory.


I do too. But consider that, historically, all the tambourás of the Greek world evolved from 3- and sometimes 4-course ancestors that weren't originally arranged in orchestral voices. Some were large, some were small, and they evolved into different forms as time marched along and musical fashions and political regimes changed. Bouzoúkis, baglamás, oútis, laoútos (which fundamentally are mandocellos) all evolved from a somewhat similar range of common ancestors.

The magnificent item in the photos below is over 200 years old. It's regarded as a laouto these days, but what was it called when it was built? Who played it, and what did they play? Was it for chord accompaniment for a singer, as the pickguard and obvious playing wear would indicate? It has four courses of beefy gut strings, and frets. It's about the size of a mandole or a fat bouzouki.

 




> The lowest C-string of a (Greek) bouzouki, i.e. the lower string of the lowest _octave_-course, is tuned to *bass* C, second space on the bass-clef staff. (In other words, it is the SAME pitch, as far as I know, as the "American" _mandola_'s low C.)


Right. I think. Well, maybe you're an octave low.




> The Greek bouzouki is a VERY lightly strung instrument, allowing for all sorts of left-hand ornaments, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends... Its strings are barely _thicker_ than a mandolin's; only _longer_, for all I can tell. That is why (I suspect) the instrument's top does not need to be canted.


The most common Greek bouzouki is the modern four-course which is tuned like the top four strings of a guitar but one step lower, on a longer scale, which more or less cancels out. It is essentially two sets of guitar strings which, any way you cut it, no matter how lightly you string it, is still a handful. Not really analogous to mandolin strings.

And bouzouki tops that aren’t domed or canted (two ways of accomplishing the same thing from an engineering standpoint) - in other words true flat tops simply don’t hold up, and you don't really ever see them. I’ll go into the details of that type of construction later if you want, but an uncanted bouzouki top has to be domed. The lack of a cant (crease) does not mean they are flat. I see stupid attempts at retopping bouzoukis with flat tops and they 1) sound like banjos and 2) die gruesome deaths. Do not think for a moment that bouzouki tops are flat, and don’t think bouzoukis are very lightly strung. Trichordos can be lighter, obviously, but the four-course jobs are basically double-strung plectrum guitars. The octave strings in the bottom two courses are still exerting considerable energy on the whole instrument.




> The mandocello's lowest pitch, however, is the *contrabass* C, two ledger-lines BELOW the bass-clef staff.


A more helpful way of describing the mandocello C is the bottom string of a guitar tuned down two full steps. The same as a cello C in cello clef! Two full steps below the low E on a guitar. I think you’re thinking a full octave too low here.




> The mandocello is also strung in _unison_-courses, so the tension on the instrument is MUCH greater than on the Greek bouzouki. I therefore find it hard to imagine that a regularly, "normally" built and braced bouzouki could ever sustain that sort of burden; the neck would bend, the soundboard would sink, the whole thing would snap like a mouse-trap!


There’s no doubt that a set of mandocello strings exerts more pull than a set of bouzouki strings, but it’s not as much as you might think. I’ve strung bouzoukis in fifths, and they did OK. The mandocello C is an octave below the usual bouzouki C, so those strings have to be a lot heavier. Mandocello strings in general are all heavier, but are also tuned to much lower pitches, meaning less tension. The typical bouzouki scale is pretty useful: a real cello is about 27”, a normal four-course bouzouki is about 26-1/2”. (My own laouto is over 28” – a real handful!) The neck needs help from an adjustable trussrod that actually works (don’t they all?), and the fatter strings are a bit close together for real comfort, but you can string a bouzouki like a mandocello if you want. I wouldn’t do this to any bouzouki since so many are so miserably built. The bigger issue is: the normal bouzouki body can’t optimize those strings in that tuning. It’s too small. But if the top is braced right in the first place, it won’t collapse from being strung like a mandocello.




> What am I missing? (I disclaim: I am a _mandolinist_ by heritage and family lineage; I do not claim to know much, if anything at all about the bouzouki.)


I’m a luthier, and I’ve been working on and trying to play these beasts for more than 40 years. One thing I have going besides living this long is that I’ve tried, or seen tried, a lot of crazy things, including stringing bouzoukis like a mandocello. There’s a reason it’s not done, but it 's less because of structural limitations, and more because it doesn’t sound that good!

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j. condino

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## vkioulaphides

Thanks, Paul! Yes, the proof of the pudding is ALWAYS in the eating: if doesn't _sound_ all that good, that's a convincing reason not to do it.

Cheers,

Victor

[The gorgeous, ornate instrument you posted appears in Phoebos Anogeianakis's admirable and beautifully illustrated book on Greek folk instruments. This instrument, I believe, is currently at the museum mentioned above. The luthier holding it may be Zozef Terzivassian, but I may well be wrong on this... It is a "Politiko" laouto --NOT a "political" one  :Wink:  in the English sense-- but as in "Constantinopolitan", from its origin. I know precious little about the actual usage of these instruments. The mandola the lady-amidst-bass-players is holding is also a lovely instrument.  :Smile:  ]

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## Paul Hostetter

> The gorgeous, ornate instrument you posted appears in Phoebos Anogeianakis's admirable and beautifully illustrated book on Greek folk instruments.


Yep.




> This instrument, I believe, is currently at the museum mentioned above. The luthier holding it may be Zozef Terzivassian, but I may well be wrong on this...


He is allegedly Yiannis Paleologos. If we're to believe the text.




> It is a "Politiko" laouto --NOT a "political" one  in the English sense-- but as in "Constantinopolitan", from its origin.


If, in fact, it's a laouto in any other sense than it's a basic lute. My understanding of politikos is that it implies a city reference rather than a country one. I didn't realize it was specific to Constantinople.




> I know precious little about the actual usage of these instruments.


No one seems to. Especially usage 200+ years ago. Think about any common instrument now: guitar, banjo, mandolin. What were people playing on them 200 years ago? What were the instruments themselves like then? Times have changed! The Anoyanakis book has a lot of well-reasoned and informative text, and quite a number of really helpful prints of paintings and so on showing people playing instruments back then. 




> The mandola the lady-amidst-bass-players is holding is also a lovely instrument.


She calls it a mandole. I stumbled on that image years ago and fell in love with it and put it up once, describing the trio as being from Sicily. She eventually saw it, and tracked me down to inform me she was most definitely not from Sicily (she's from Florence, though the photo was taken in Sicily) and we've had a nice correspondence a few times. That's my idea of a great band! But in fact they were just a subset of a much larger mandolin orchestra.

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## vkioulaphides

You're a true encyclopedia, Paul!  :Wink:  Yes, the luthier depicted IS in fact Paleologos. My bad. It's that, y'know... after a _certain_ age, those old Greek dudes end up looking pretty much the same.  :Laughing:  [I am arriving at that stage myself any day now, so I can say politically incorrect things like that. Especially with my generic, lugubrious Mediterranean visage, I will be Mr. Who-Was-That-Again?  :Laughing:  ] Yup: Paleologos. Strikingly, that was the clan surname of the last dynasty of Byzantine emperors...

Yes, "politiko" (e.g. when you order "halva politiko") means from Constantinople, present-day Istanbul. I saw such a laouto (albeit VERY basic, plain) for some $300 at Kevorkian's shop in Athens another Greek luthier of Armenian descent a few years ago. It was pretty, brand new... I did not get it, as I wouldn't have known what to do WITH it. 

But you, my friend, were misled into the faux-pas of calling a _Florentine_ a _Sicilian_. Now, THAT's fightin' words!  :Wink: 

Have a good evening, Paul, and all other mando-friends attending our musings.

Cheers,

Victor

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## brunello97

[QUOTE

But you, my friend, were misled into the faux-pas of calling a _Florentine_ a _Sicilian_. Now, THAT's fightin' words!  :Wink: 

[/QUOTE]

Victor, it seems no matter what country we southerners keep getting kicked around...... :Wink: 

Paleologos?  How would you like to get saddled with that moniker?  Every neo-Aristotilian theorist would be coming up and getting into your face about something.  You think being from Tejas or Sicilia is a monkey on your back......

Mick

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## vkioulaphides

Awful, Mick, simply awful... _almost_ as much trouble as... playing the *mandocello*!  :Laughing: 

Cheers,

Victor
(Happy with his humble, medieval tradesname and itsy-bitsy mandolin   :Wink:  )

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## CHASAX

The viola part is played by the Mandola CDGA.

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## Eddie Sheehy

> The viola part is played by the Mandola CDGA.


CGDA perhaps?

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## mrmando

> The viola part is played by the Mandola CDGA.


Only in some U.S. orchestras. In Europe and Japan (and in European-style orchestras in the U.S., such as Providence) the mandola is tuned to GDAE, as explained above.

These orchestras are usually focused on works & arrangements made specifically for a mandolin group, so there's not really a "viola part" as such. If you're just reinterpreting string & orchestral works on mandolins, you're more likely to use CGDA mandolas. But again, that's just an American thing -- it's the model made popular in the States by Gibson.

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## Kieran

> I've been using the standard D'Addario J78 strings on my 1917 K-1 mandocello. However, I've been thinking about experimenting with some flatwound Thomastik-Infeld 185 Medium Lute Mandocello Strings since I wondered if they might help to give cleaner notes. 
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with other string choices ?



Dogal's set V76 bronze flatwound are sweet:
http://dogalstrings.it/Strings_Class...rings_Classico



Kieran
http://moloneymusic.com

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## Mandomonte

Emando has Mc strings with ball ends. Two different sets. One to replace Eastmans. I had trouble with them binding in nut and saddle. Do the Thomasticks have loop, or ball ends ?

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