Should I make it a mando or an octave?

[RustyPerez]

Hi folks, I was given an admittedly inferior instrument last night, a Harmonia which was said to be a mandola.
The scale is right about 19.3/8 inches and the body width is about 10-7/8.
It was given to me tuned DGBE, but I want it tuned in fifths.

I understand that this scale length is a bit long for a mandola.

What are your thoughts?
Should I tune it CGDA or go octave with it?

If I go dola with it, what guages of strings, or what string set would you recommend?

I tried to bring it up to pitch CGDA but I broke an a string.

When I played it in GDBE tuning, the b string felt a bit thin and floppy, and the e was a bit tighter feeling. I considered switching the strings thinking that maybe some how the thinnner strings had ended up in the b course. but I didn't.

Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated.

It was free, so I might as well try and make music with it.

the action is a bit low in dgbe and it's easy to fret the strings out of tune. I'm hoping that with the right strings and tuning, the tension will be enough to raise the action slightly and not be as easy to detune with finger pressure.

Thanks!
Rusty

[RustyPerez]

Of course I meant should I make it a mandola or an octave. I can't figure out how to edit my title.

[Marcus CA]

Since it was free, if you're near a good music shop, you might take it in for a set-up.

I'd say go octave with it. Most of the mandolas I've seen have had scale lengths in the 15.9-17 inch range, and most of the OM's I've seen have been in the 20-23 inch range. So, the Harmonia is in the musical asteroid belt, which is probably why you broke a string bringing it up to mandola pitch, but you also found it "easy to fret the strings out of tune" when they were closer to OM pitch. However, the instrument is significantly closer to the OM's orbit.

If you got the instrument with the 1st strings tuned to E, and those strings didn't sound or feel ridiculously floppy, I'm not surprised that one popped on the way to A.

Good move not switching the strings, because they'd be likely to break while getting brought up to pitch after being completely released from tension. However, you should be able to tell by feel whether the B strings actually were thinner than the E strings.

I'm not sure about editing thread titles, but I do know that you can't edit a post after four hours, so that could also be the time limit for thread titles. If they can be edited during that time, there will be an "Edit" button next to your title. Start another thread and try to edit its title right after you post it!

[Dave Sheets]

At that length, go for the octave mandolin tuning, it should work fine. The Trinity College octave mandolin I have has a 20 inch scale and works fine, I preferred with relatively heavy strings on it, that helped with the tone given the relatively short scale for an octave mandolin.

Have fun!

[Ben Vierra]

I would try both tunings over time and see which makes the instrument "sing" best. By which I mean, does the G course sound nice with GDAE tuning, or does it come across as weak and dull? Does the A course sound nice with CGDA tuning, or does it come across as shrill and tight? For CGDA I would recommend looking toward tenor guitars for inspiration on string gauges. While longer than normal for a CGDA mandola, there are plenty of tenor guitars with even longer scales but still in CGDA tuning. 0.009 gauge strings probably would work fine for the A course, as a starting point.

If you want to go down a real rabbit-hole, you could explore online string tension calculators to design custom string sets for this "in-between" scale length.

[allenhopkins]

From another perspective, I have a Sobell with an even longer scale (20.5") that I've strung as a mandola since the 1980's. I tune it CGDA with the following gauges:
1st. .010 plain
2nd. .018 wound
3rd. .030 wound
4th. .046 wound

The Sobell tailpiece takes ball-end strings, so I've been buying individual bronze-wound guitar strings. My 2nd strings are pulled pretty tight, so I get a bit of breakage now and then; otherwise, no problem, and I've owned the instrument for around 37 years.

Believe its previous owner, Brit guitarist Martin Simpson, had it strung as an OM, but I've loved it as a 'dola.

[sounds_good]

Here is my suggestion.

For a 19 inch scale length I would go CGDA.

0.011, 0.016, 0.026w, 0.040w

Ernie Ball Custom Gauge guitar strings are pretty easy to find
in those gauges and inexpensive. Note those are ball end.
The wound strings are nickel wound.

[sounds_good]

Of course I meant should I make it a mandola or an octave. I can't figure out how to edit my title.

I knew what you meant, but here is how to edit the title.

Click on "Edit Post".
Click on "Go Advanced".
You can edit the title line at the top.
Click on "Save Changes".