I briefly owned a bill bussman mandola, and played it using thomastik's octave mandolin strings made for mandola. It sounded great, and it let me continue playing old time tunes and rags without having to do any transposing in my head.

I just joined a band with two fiddles, and so I have been discovering a new mandolin playing mode that relies more on walking bass lines and double stop rhythms than melodies. This is leading me to realize that maybe it’s time either to buy an octave mandolin, or try another mandola with octave strings.

That bussman mandola was a special instrument and seemed made for those darker strings. So right now I'm trying to decide whether I should attempt a trade of one of my small shop mandolins for a small shop mandola. But I’m also curious if anyone reading this has tried thomastik octave strings on an off-the-shelf, less expensive instrument like an Eastman, etc. and offer some words about how that works for them.