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Thread: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string question

  1. #1

    Default Excited to join this community and yet (another) string question

    Hi, all. I played violin when I was younger, tried to get back into about 10 years ago when life got in the way, and then got back into it again this past fall when it felt like the pandemic was sucking the soul out of me (I work in healthcare). I tried to play guitar about 20 years ago, but with small hands and never really liking the way a guitar was tuned (why so many strings? Why fourths and then a random third??), I gave up. My friend recently got a mandolin and after some quick internet searching about how they were tuned the same, I picked up an Eastman 604 at Elderly, then somehow that led to getting a Blueridge 40t tenor guitar that I had restrung GDAE, but neither was really perfect for what I wanted to play, so I started casually browsing the ads here and Elderly's website. When a 2011 Weber F Bitterroot octave mandolin with an oval hole came up for sale, I pounced immediately and traded in the Eastman and Blueridge. I love it. It's different enough from my husband's guitars in sound, the tuning is familiar, I play it with cello fingering in first position and then with mandolin fingering in 3rd positions on up. I enjoy playing classical (working on the cello suites, inspired by Phil Woodhull's recent full recording on mandolin), melody chord versions of popular songs (singer-songwriter type music, classic Beatles and Simon/Garfunkel), starting to dip my toe into bluegrass/country music (azalea waltz, Wildwood flower), but I'm not interested really in Bluegrass jams.

    My string question - I loved the TI's I put on the Eastman, then quickly found out that TI doesn't really have quite the same offering for octave mandolins. The octave mandolin strings look like they might be too short for my 20" scale instrument. I found emando's flatwound string offerings for octave mandolin, but the gauges suggested for my scale length, the "heavy", seem too high, and "medium" too low based on a search I did on this forum for Weber recommended string gauges for the octave mandolins. Any of you have experience with these strings and would recommend the heavy over the medium or vice versa? Thanks in advance

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string quest

    Welcome! Yes, music has played a huge role in maintaining my sanity over the past year as well. While I can't speak to those specific strings, I'm using EJ-72 mandola strings (D'Addairio) on my 20 inch scale Bitteroot OM and find them a vast improvement over the standard OM set, mainly with G and D string floppiness/feel. Maybe compare those gauges to the strings on emando's site and pick the set closest to the 72s? Also, Martin, who runs that site, is a frequent contributor here. If he doesn't chime in or you don't get a more informed response than mine, you may try sending him a pm through this site to discuss.
    Chuck

  3. #3

    Default Re: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string quest

    Oh, great idea! I didn't know he was on here. I'll try that.

  4. #4
    Registered User meow-n-dolin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string quest

    Quote Originally Posted by GDAE4me View Post
    Any of you have experience with these strings and would recommend the heavy over the medium or vice versa? Thanks in advance
    Yes. I have a set on my Eastman OM even as I write this. Not quite the same as the TI's, but pretty close. I use them on my F5 and have also used them on my Mandocello. IIRC, the different weights are supposed to correspond to differing scale lengths... or is the the bazook strings....?

    Al

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    Default Re: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string quest

    My string question - I loved the TI's I put on the Eastman, then quickly found out that TI doesn't really have quite the same offering for octave mandolins. The octave mandolin strings look like they might be too short for my 20" scale instrument. I found emando's flatwound string offerings for octave mandolin, but the gauges suggested for my scale length, the "heavy", seem too high, and "medium" too low based on a search I did on this forum for Weber recommended string gauges for the octave mandolins. Any of you have experience with these strings and would recommend the heavy over the medium or vice versa? Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

    I like the TI’s a lot but price gets in the way for string gauge experiments. I am fairly new to OM’s and have been using Newtone Strings in the UK for my experiments as I have not been totally pleased with the pre-packaged sets for OM. Newtone makes custom sets in round core and hex core and different windings and of course whatever gauge you choose.
    I have a custom made 20.5” OM and am currently playing with 3 different sets; all in PB and round core.
    A. .012-.019-.030-.045
    B. .012-.020-.032-.047
    C. .013-.020-.032-.048

    I know a lot of players consider these too light but my aging fingers tell me to start light and move up as finger conditioning progresses. Classical guitar strings are a bunch easier on fingers.
    I hope this helps and good luck with your search.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Excited to join this community and yet (another) string quest

    Thanks for your response. I ended up making a custom set of flatwound strings from emando.com’s website. Gauges I chose were .048 - .035 - .024 - .014. I finally strung my mandolin with them this past weekend. The strings are great! Only a couple of days of breaking. I think the only thing I would change is .048 G strings to .046. I have really small hands and the thicker gauge is a touch more difficult to work with for me. Otherwise the tone is just so pretty and rich. Very happy with these strings.

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