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Thread: String gauge for longer scale length

  1. #1

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    A friend of mine recently bought a mandolin (no brand name) and kept breaking high E strings while trying to tune so he brought the mandolin for me to check out. As soon as I took it out of the case, I noticed it looked almost large enough to be a mandola, which could explain why strings are breaking. I measured the scale length, it's around 15 inches. My mandolin is around 14, and my mandola is 16, so it's in between them. I think it's too short to put mandola strings on, so I'm tuning it down a whole step to F so he can play it. My question is, what would be the optimum pitch for this scale length using a standard light set of mandolin strings? Is FCGD good, or should I maybe go even lower?

    Seth

  2. #2
    Café habitué Paul Hostetter's Avatar
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    You can tune down, or you can use J-73's, which I know work quite well at standard pitch on 15" scales.

    .
    ph

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    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    On topic of tuning down, I found that F C G D ,tuning is quite nice, a modest transposition,
    I fit lighter Octave mandolin GHS strings
    12-22-32-44 on my mandola [15.75"] still tuned C G D A.
    found mandola strings to be such a heavy gage that I fit them on 14" scale electric and tuning to Bb F C G works OK too.




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    Café habitué Paul Hostetter's Avatar
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    Huh?

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    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    F lower than G ::
    C " D
    G " A
    D " E

    different strings and just 4

    C#/Bb, then 5ths for the others F,C, G

    C# is the cure for floppy C

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    Café habitué Paul Hostetter's Avatar
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    Oh!

    But why would you want a C# as a low course, when you can have a G?
    .
    ph

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    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    My Piano [and valve trombone] playing friends voice range favors
    C and Bb and F.

    .. take the 4 string modified Em 150-ized A50 down to the regular Pub Jam.
    C.049/G.040/D.026/A.014 seems to work .
    [or I'm less fussy in my old age, at least I get to play out some]



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    Café habitué Paul Hostetter's Avatar
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    Makes sense. I'm sorry if I seem confused, but I keep cycling back to the original question about the mandolin with the 15" scale.

    Your 15-3/4" beast is just over the line for a practical solution to stringing in GDAE tuning.

    But doesn't your A-50 have the standard 13.9" scale? And you string it and play it as a mandola?

    I've built a few 15" 5-course mandolins that had an .056" for the bottom C course. Even that was a bit floppy and thuddy, but it was the best compromise I've found yet.
    .
    ph

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    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Hi Paul,
    FWIW, I bought it as it is, the conversion included a brass tunomatic style bridge upper section, perhaps that works to fatten the tone, and intonate the string length
    [roughly, A<14, C>14,( casual measuring with a tape)]

    slug of brass certainly mutes it un plugged, but the 4 pole stacked humbucker current
    thru modest Roland AC60 provides suitable tone .

    10 string, acoustic volume would be another matter,
    I defer to experience on that.

    cycling back to original post after scenic a detour, my mandola with strings only slightly larger, 12-44, than BG mando,11-41, and 3/4" longer scale,
    has me projecting .. that adapting to 15" , as you say,
    a 10-38,or 9 to 36, lighter set, OR, ..
    not going up that last whole scale step,
    can be adapted.

    after a while my brain learns to, say, .. play a D chord
    on the mandola , when a G is what I want to hear ,
    an A to hear a G is a bit less.
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  10. #10

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    Thanks to everyone for the ideas. For some reason, even with a light set, 10s felt way too tight or broke when tuned to E. I thought about putting mandola strings on it, but since he's beginning, have decided to tune it down a whole step to FCGD. He can capo up two when he plays with other folks.

    Seth

  11. #11
    I may be old but I'm ugly billhay4's Avatar
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    I just finished a mandolin with a 14.75" scale and the J-73's Paul suggested work fine. No E breakages at all.
    I'd suggest looking for another cause of this, a poorly slotted nut perhaps.
    Where are they breaking?
    Bill
    IM(NS)HO

  12. #12

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    I'll have to ask him where they're breaking, I also wondered about that.

    Seth

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    Oscar Stern s11141827's Avatar
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    Default Re: String gauge for longer scale length

    You might get away w/ using GHS Ultra-Lights or Thomastik Light Tension Precision Strings on this type of Mandolin. Lighter gauge strings work better on a longer scale length cause each string needs a certain amount of tension to produce a good sound.

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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: String gauge for longer scale length

    Quote Originally Posted by s11141827 View Post
    You might get away w/ using GHS Ultra-Lights or Thomastik Light Tension Precision Strings on this type of Mandolin. Lighter gauge strings work better on a longer scale length cause each string needs a certain amount of tension to produce a good sound.
    You do realise that the last reply to this thread was made in June 2007, in other words 15 years ago? I reckon the OP eventually got the information they were looking for between now and then.
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    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: String gauge for longer scale length

    My reply in #7 was 20 years ago ... places to hang out & play have gotten rare by now..
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