Recently I’ve been playing the mandolin and I really like it. But my mandolin is kind of heavy. I was wondering if I could tune a ukulele like a mandolin. Or maybe should I look for a chromatic strumstick and tune it like a mandolin. Mostly I want something small and lightweight that I could take on backpacking trips that is tuned like a mandolin. It doesn’t have to sound like a mandolin. Just play like one so that I can amuse myself with a little music. Any suggestions?
I’m not sure I understand how a mandolin can be considered heavy. But Martin makes a nice ‘backpacker’ mandolin, which has a full-sized neck but a reduced body size. My son had one for a while. They’re nice, but of course you sacrifice a lot of volume and cutting power. It would be nice for solo practice, though. And it’s very portable.
Maybe fluter is referring to the weight of the mando plus a good protective case. I have one like the one Buddhu is selling (someone buy this gem!) and the mando itself is nice and light, but with the case I certainly wouldn’t try to backpack it.
A uke might do the trick for you, and you can certainly buy cheapie ones to try it out.
BTW-- you may want to repost this thread on the Chiff and Fipple stringed instrument forum:
Might want to consider this…about 2 1/2 days to go…strung GDAE and about 20" long.
The actual mandolin feels heavy to me. I certainly would not want to hike with one. And I certainly would not want to hike with a banjo ukulele. I played one of those once. It weighs, I don’t know, something like 30 lbs. Maybe not that much, but if feels like it.
Backpacker mandolin, huh? I might have to look at one of those.
I thought a uke might be good because I met a guy hiking this summer who had one. They are pretty small and light. He carried it either so he could strum while he walked or wrapped up in his sleeping pad. I think he said he bought it in a second-hand shop for $40.
Well, nothing says you can’t leave a uke tuned as a uke, and noodle with it that way. It’s basically the same as guitar fingering, relatively speaking. You could put on a heavier 4th string and try tuning the G down an octave to eliminate the re-entrant tuning (like a baritone ukelele). That gives you an octave and a fifth for noodling melodies or strumming chords in 1st position, for your portable string fix. 
Baritone ukes and shorter scale tenor guitars are freely substituteable for each other if strung with different strings. Mine’s strung cgda so I call it a tenor guitar, but it could easily have been born as a uke.
wonder why no one has suggested a fiddle.
David
So you guys that are tuning bari ukes like tenor guitars, you’re still using nylon, right? I would think that a uke would live a short life with metal strings.
I’m using standard tenor banjo strings. They’re metal but lower tension than a guitar string. I tried stringing it ‘irish’ style with half a set of bouzouki strings (ie, higher tension Phospher Bronze strings in GDAE), and you’re right, the neck wasn’t at all happy. I switched the strings back and the neck straightened out just fine.
I have a Sweetpea travel mandolin by Weber. Its got a full sized fret board but the body is small and very light. Its so small that I have to always use a strap to hold it in proper place for playing.
It came with a flimsy gig bag but people have suggested I get a cheap fractional sized fiddle case for traveling with it.
I bought it to help me keep tunes in my head and fingers when I traveled to places I didn’t feel safe lugging my fiddle.
The Weber sweet pea isn’t that much smaller than a regular mandolin. I don’t think a fiddle could survive a backpacking trip.
Maybe I should try the chromatic strumstick. I have the regular strumstick but the diatonic finger board means it’s not the same to play as a mandolin. I like the tinny sound and I like that it is so light. I took it backpacking and aside from how the metal strings freeze your fingers when it’s cold outside, it was easy to carry and a joy to noodle around with in the wilderness. I don’t like how bad the intonation is, though.