Best strings for a Lyon & Healy type C mandolin

[Jim Garber]

That Washburn is probably from the same era as mine. They reworked the neck for these, they are bit chunkier. My earlier long scale one had a terrible neck snap due probably due to the design of the scrolled headstock. They had to rout out the headstock. I actually used j-74s on it when I first restrung it and it did sound nice.

The Washburn has T-Is and it will stay that way. I can get a similar sound in the video from my other mandolins although I doubt I can play as well as Frank S.

For your playing convenience to stay on this site and this thread:

[lowtone2]

The strings in the Frank Solivan video can't be TIs—they don't have the black winding at the ends. Whatever they are, they look to be on the heavier side.

Do you know the TI winding colors? I have a set with green silks, and don't remember if they are stark or weich. I know mittels have black silks.

[Louise NM]

Do you know the TI winding colors? I have a set with green silks, and don't remember if they are stark or weich. I know mittels have black silks.

Lowtone, I have only ever used the mittels.

FWIW, I bought a 1970s Japanese bowl back this summer. The strings on it had winding somewhere between blue and turquoise. Very bright, very pretty color. Those were definitely light strings, but I don’t know if they were TIs. Does any other company do silk windings on mandolin strings?

[Jim Garber]

Does any other company do silk windings on mandolin strings?

Dogal Calace Strings: these re the ultralight Dolce ones on my style 3 Vega bowlback. Sort of an aqua-greenish color.

There are a number of violin string ID charts but I don't know if there are similar ones for guitar or mandolin strings.

[~CelloMando~]

Update on my L&H:

At long last, I got my instrument back with a planed fingerboard and new frets. This thing sounds and plays so much better now. I am currently using the Optima soloist edition for the E and A courses, and the Optima Black Label for the D & G courses. I am very happy with the results this far, I feel like these strings have a bit more brightness and pop compared to the Thomastic strings. My last string experiment will be to try these Embergher consort strings:

https://www.stringsbymail.com/optima...set-17593.html

If anyone is interested in hearing the differences, I can post some videos.

[Tim Logan]

CelloMando - what makes you want to try the Embergher set and what are you expecting? Thanks!

[Jim Garber]

I also wondered that. Are the Optimas that are on there very light gauge. The L&H can certainly take heavier gauge than the Consort strings.

[~CelloMando~]

The strings I have on currently have the following gauges: .0105, .015, .022, .036

The embergher consort strings are: .010, .015, .022,. 033

The Embergher strings are a bit lighter, but not by a large amount. The Optima black label strings were designed with a modern German bowlback in mind I assume, and I'm missing a little depth in tone on the G course. I'd like to see how the Bronze bass strings sound on my L&H, it could be a nice middle ground between a classical flat wound set and a modern D'addario set. I've also been playing a ton of Italian folk music along with lots of Calace and other 19th century stuff, and my thought was that the Consort set of strings might provide a more "authentic" sound for that.

Even at $30 a set, these strings are still massive bargain in my opinion. A set of 4 cello strings cost about $350, so i'll take $30 for 8 strings any day....