Time to restring my KM900. Always used light gauge Phosphor Bronze strings, wondering if anyone has tried mediums and if they choke the sound?
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Time to restring my KM900. Always used light gauge Phosphor Bronze strings, wondering if anyone has tried mediums and if they choke the sound?
11-15-26-40 (the D'Addario J74 gauges) are probably the most commonly used strings for F-5 style mandolins. They call those medium, and I wouldn't use anything lighter than that myself. I tend to think of those as light and the J75 set as medium, but that's because the difference between those feels comparable to light 12-53 vs medium 13-56 guitar strings.
Time to restring mine too, I was thinking about going to Dusty Strings and looking for something different from PB's. So monels, nickel bronze, silk/steel or ... maybe even flatwounds (or d'Addario groundwounds, I forget hte model #).
As bradeasley has pointed out, the KM900 should easily handle 11's (Eg J74's). Which strings are on there at the moment? If, by light, you mean 10's, then you'll notice a significant increase in "beef" and volume if you upgrade to 11's.
I always had J74s or similar on mine. That's what it's built for.
Read somewhere that KM900 original strings were GHS250A, phosphor bronze, light gauge (10).
Mine came with J74s. It's a bluegrass mandolin, built to sound like a gibson, why wouldn't it stand up to bluegrass strings?Quote:
Originally Posted by Teletodd
I remember being given a set of 10's to try out a number of years ago. Needed a string change on my F-style mandolin, so I gave the 10's ago. There was an immediate, and very audible, loss of volume, tone and "beefiness" with the 10's. Took them off after a few minutes, and replaced them with my usual J74's. All the volume and tone immediately returned.
Attachment 195294
I plan to try these Gibson medium lights, 11/41, monel wound. Theyre “Tone tempered! I got them years ago on clearance at a Guitar Center one day sale. I think they were old stock and were replaced by Gibson Sam Bush Monel strings.
Well, if they're good enough for Sam Bush!
Attachment 195310
If they're the same gauges as the old SB strings (11-14-25-41), I never did understand how that works for the A strings. Too light on strings that are already the weakest of the bunch, IMO. I've heard, maybe from SB, something about the tension and the bridge design, but it wasn't enough to convince me. Since they're no longer available, if you fall in love with those gauges, Curt Mangan can make ya an identical set.
I just bought them because they were on clearance supercheap. Now that I’ve installed them, I like the sound of Phosphor Bronze (PB) better on the Km900. I’ll play these for a while but I’ll eventually go back to PB.