Mandola with octave mandolin strings?

Hi all. I have a Eastman mdo305 mandola. I just saw a video online where someone took a mandola and tuned it to octave mandolin. What confused me was the strings they used. They said that a light set of mandola strings are the same as medium guage octave strings and can be placed on the mandola, and tuned GDAE. Is this so, without causing undue stress or tension on the neck, or the opposite, strings too loose? If it works, what’s a set that i can purchase?

Thanks!

My mistake. I typed MDO, its MDA. Still working on the strings though. 16” scale length.

Haven't tried it, but mandola scale's significantly shorter than OM scale -- at least four inches. If you take light-gauge mandola strings, and tune them down to GDAE, I'd guess you would have really low string tension, affecting the instrument's projection. Probably you'd want to go in the other direction, use thicker strings. Don't know what impact that would have on top and neck joint...

I tried tuning a TC mandola as an octave. The TC had a slightly longer scale than the Eastman, but the results were less than spectacular. With heavier strings -- the tone definitely wasn't there. If you find a solution, let us know :)

Thats what i am reading, also told the same from Just strings. A wanted a short scale octave, but it looks like I’m going towards a actual octave.

I’ve been looking for a large body, but short scale instrument, maybe it’s better to tune it to something other than GDAE or CGDA to still get good tone.

In Europe they call an octave mandolin "octave mandola" and the mandola "tenor mandola".

Eastman does make a nice entry level octave mandolin very well suited to GDAE tuning. You would have to monkey with the bridge and the nut to do that on a mandola. If I were going to do something unorthodox on a mandola I'd try Andy Irvine's idea of using mandolin gauge strings and tuning it a whole step below mandolin tuning. I think that's why his high notes have such a nice thick sound.

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Originally Posted by Freddyfingers

Hi all. I have a Eastman mdo305 mandola. I just saw a video online where someone took a mandola and tuned it to octave mandolin. What confused me was the strings they used. They said that a light set of mandola strings are the same as medium guage octave strings and can be placed on the mandola, and tuned GDAE. Is this so, without causing undue stress or tension on the neck, or the opposite, strings too loose? If it works, what’s a set that i can purchase?

Thanks!

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Take a look at my recent post 'Mandola strings' which may shed some light.