Re: Help with MANDOLA and tenor strings and tuning.
1. If you have mandola strings, your mandola should take CGDA tuning, same as a viola (or tenor banjo). You say they won't "go there," and you have the mandola tuned GDAE, which I assume is tuned down to where your octave mandolin is tuned? Whatever was in the "string stash" (?), perhaps the strings weren't mandola strings.
2. Octave mandolin is, of course, GDAE an octave below the mandolin/violin. You can "octave tune" some of the pairs, by getting lighter-guage strings for the 2nd and 3rd courses (I do this for my Octofone).
3. Nylon strings, as a rule, don't have sufficient tension to drive the top of more modern mandolin-family instruments, though they will surely produce a more "mellow sound." You haven't told us what make or model of instrument you have, and that information would be helpful in doing long-distance diagnosis and advice.
4. "Finger string noise" is due to your finger calluses sliding on wound strings' windings. You can try to find flat-wound strings, which reduce that scraping sound. Might not be easy to find flat-would mandola and octave mandolin strings. Some guitarists I've worked with in the studio have put talcum powder on their fingertips to reduce string noise, and perhaps the commercial product Fast Fret might help as well -- it's a "string lubricant."
5. While it's certainly possible to finger-pick mandolin family instruments, and some do, they're generally set up for playing with a plectrum (flat pick). The string pairs are close together, and delicately articulated finger-picking requires more precision, than on guitar or banjo, where the strings are further separated. You might investigate an arpeggiated style of flat-picking, similar to what we call "cross-picking," to achieve the same effect.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Bookmarks