Mandolin 8 string or 4 string

[shortcircuit]

I have just purchased a new Goldtone GM-110 mandolin. (Rigel copy) Thinking about stripping it down to four string for a Blues and Jazz type mando. Any thoughts? Should I or should I not? Just want some other opions other than my own. Most emando's are 4 or 5 string . Also any thoughts on using flatwound strings with the piezo pickup the mando came with. By the way, I'm impressed with the finish on this mando. Setup ofcourse needs a little adj. Other than that this mando is pretty nice.

[Mike Bunting]

Most (I've never heard of any acoustic that are otherwise) mandos are eight strings, only some electrics are 4 or 5 strings. Yours is a Rigel copy so it is an acoustic mandolin with a piezo in it. So I'd say, play what you bought, string choices are up to you and flatwounds shouldn't behave any differently to a piezo.

[djweiss]

Easy enough experiment to try...If you don't like the single courses, it makes a perfect time to change the strings anyway.

I personally like single course mandolins, though you're effectively, in my experience, trading tremolo for vibrato. I played a two hour gig on Sunday with my new 5-string Arrow mandolin and it was a lot of fun.

[shortcircuit]

I have a junker "A" style mando that I installed a mag pickup and switched to four strings over a year ago. And it's been fun and plays pretty well. But I never thought of the trade off of tremolo for vibrato. Something to think about.

[foldedpath]

Most (I've never heard of any acoustic that are otherwise) mandos are eight strings, only some electrics are 4 or 5 strings.

Actually there is one "acoustic" four-banger: the Breedlove Radim Zenkl mandola. It's intended to be amplified through the humbucker pickup, but it is a full hand-carved archtop, hollowbody instrument.

From experience with that mandola, I can say two things. First, it is fairly quiet when played un-amplified, since it only has four strings to drive the top. The main reason mandolins have double course strings is to get enough volume output with such a short scale length. Removing half the strings is removing half the energy input to the top.

There is also a "cheese slicer" effect on your fingers with single strings on a mandolin. Electric mandolins often use lower tension strings to reduce that effect. It's not too bad on the Breedlove/Zenkl mandola, but I still use flatwound strings to help with finger comfort, and it took me a while to get used to the feel.

(edit) P.S. Djweiss made a good comment about trading tremolo for vibrato. The four-string mandola is the only mandolin family instrument I own that allows guitar-type bends and vibrato. So if you're interested in blues and jazz, it's worth trying... although I think the best instruments for this are either full electric or acoustic-electric hybrids.

[djweiss]

My Jazzbo is primarily an acoustic instrument, though Paul Lestock (Arrow Mandolins) did mount a floating humbucker as well...Plenty loud acoustically, though. I was having so much fun on my Schwab 5 string electric that I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get the acoustic version when Paul completed his last batch of mandolins.

[mandroid]

Got an EM 150 conversion to a CGDA 4 string , and it's quite jazzy, ... C is an .049''.
Gibson EM 150 is an A50 with a magnetic pickup, and tone and volume pots mounted in/on the top.

Been done before..
In the archives of the 4,5,8 string electric section there is a few pictures of someone else installing a magnetic pickup on one of those gold-tone Rigel replica mandolins, router ed out a shelf in the end of the fingerboard, sacrificing a few high frets. used an Kent Armstong floating mini pickup as I recall.

[shortcircuit]

My intent is to use this thru a amp and in a blues, jazz or rock setting. I was also going to use flatwound strings and install a magnetic pickup. I like the shape of this mando and thought it would be better suited for blue and jazz with a few mods. It's also very affordable . So not much lost if it doesn't work out. I believe it will work with a amp just fine. I guess more of a guitar than a mando.

[Chip Booth]

I don't know anything about the mando you have, but I have a 4 string Clark that is great for jazz and swing. I use flatwounds on it, and hope to have a magnetic pickup installed on it some day like an archtop guitar would have.

[shortcircuit]

Chip- Very nice!!! Do you know what kind and size strings that are on it?

[djweiss]

Chip,

I got to know Darren Craig at one of the Mandolin Symposium's (2006, I think) and spent most of the week with your mandolin, I believe...if it's the same one, it's really a treat.

Here are a couple pics of my Arrow 5 string:

[shortcircuit]

Nice!! Are you using flatwounds on your arrow? If so what size? thanks Russ

[djweiss]

I still have whatever strings Paul put on it...they are not flatwounds, and they appear to be bronze(ish)...It now has a 5-pole Kent Armstrong floating pickup, so I'll likely go with steel strings next. Probably just stick to whatever emando is selling for a 5-string set.

[shortcircuit]

I was just thinking about just ordering the flatwounds from emando also. GS and Sam ash in town do not carry a good selection of mandolin strings.

[Coffeecup]

Other than tuning, what would distinguish a four stringed mando from a ukelele?

[mandroid]

Metal steel core strings versus not metal core, mate.

wooden Ukes have a glued on bridge, steel strings at violin pitches,
would pull the bridge off after a while ..
too much tension..

[Tbone]

Well, Bill Monroe started on a 4-string....if it was good enough for him...

[Coffeecup]

Metal steel core strings versus not metal core, mate.

wooden Ukes have a glued on bridge, steel strings at violin pitches,
would pull the bridge off after a while ..
too much tension..

Oh yes. Doh! I didn't think about that.

[PhilUSAFRet]

I have a junker "A" style mando that I installed a mag pickup and switched to four strings over a year ago. And it's been fun and plays pretty well. But I never thought of the trade off of tremolo for vibrato. Something to think about.

Ever try, or consider using both E strings?

[urobouros]

Ever try, or consider using both E strings?

I did with an Eastman Ricky once but found it to be overpowering relative to the single strings. It was just a quick experiment during a string change though so further adjustments may have been able to resolve the balance

[Tom Wright]

I am firmly in the doubled-strings camp. Owning both 5-string and 10-string electrics, I grew certain my little Ryder 5 would be improved as a 10, and it now is such.

There is a technique for bending with pairs, which is not a big deal to develop. (I use very light strings on the 10s, .009 - .048.) To bend a note, stick a spare finger on your picking hand (I use ring finger) in between two pairs to damp them to effectively singles. You can bend either of those toward the other string pair, and because you are only pushing one string it is little effort. Vibrato is better undamped, as it adds a rich pulse as the pair goes in and out of phase/tune. Obviously one does not do a wide vibrato, for that you use the bending system.

I am mystified that while there are many 5-string players pretty much no one plays 10s. I did not have to change the neck or headstock to double up my Ryder, so 10s can be compact and easy players. My Almuse is a joy.

I own only 10-string mandolins, both acoustic and solidbody electric.

[Magnus Geijer]

My last four or five or so acoustic mandolins have been four-stringers. I have hardly touched my eight-stringers since I built the first four. I use the same strings on them as I did on eights, but I carve the top and back thinner, and I slim the tone bars a little further. They're still nowhere near as loud as an eight, but I don't play against banjos, so it's not much of an issue for me. There's definitely a bit of cheese grater effect, but it improves as your callouses build.


For electric, my preference has been a GDAEB semi-hollow octave.

[JeffD]

Realistically of course you can do what you want. My thought is that you are missing out on what only 8 strings can do.

[TonyEarth]

Damn, those are beautiful Magnus

[s11141827]

4 String Mandolins are essentially the Steel String Versions of Cremonese Mandolins