Hi everyone out there, what a great site. Found it by accident; glad I did. Look, I’m a AOP from Plymuff been playing stuff a few decades - guitar, banjo, mandolin etc, as we all do. playing currently with a band after 20/25 years solo and fell in love with the mandola. However, I feel that I need to have octaves on the low strings C and G as on 12 string guitar eg. What I do sounds good accompanying Irish stuff, but I have a feeling high octaves on the low courses may be even better. I don’t want to buy a cittern or zouk. My mandolin is adequate but sometimes I feel the need for an extra bit. Is there anyone of one you good people can pair me up (not in the sexual way) with my low pairing of 49w and 32w C and G to get octave string gauges ?
Hi Geof and welcome,
It’s easily done, but we need the scale length of your mandola. Just measure the distance between the nut and the saddle of the bridge. You want the actual length of the vibrating portion of the string.
Hi Tim,
I think I may have found the answer, albeit in a round about way. I took the gauges of the thick strings on 12 string guitar, divided it by the octave string and came up with average 2.28. By using this formula I divided my low strings (C and G) on mandola by this and arrived at .014 gauge for 6th and .021 for 8th string, based on .054 (C) and .034 (G) This turned out to be exactly as I needed it to be. May be a botch job but sounds fantastic! My mandola is now a mini bouzouki (minizouk). Thanks for your reply and I will bear in mind you advice. It’s likely I will return in future for teckers.
regards
Geof
Sounds like a winner! You won’t be too far off with your method. Those thin strings will do no damage of any kind, so as long as you reach the right tuning at a reasonable tension, you’re good to go. Remember that, should you encounter odd buzzing problems, you may have to adjust the slots on neck and/or saddle for the thinner strings.
Best of luck!