mandolin hi e up to g

[guitar344]

I'd like to have an additional octave g string. Will my my 10 gauge on 13.75 mandolin reach g without breakage?

[posternutbag]

There really is no way to know without trying. I will say, I have never broken a guitar string in my life (I once had a nylon string break in the guitar case), but I have broken a couple of mandolin strings, specifically, the top e. It has slightly further to stretch, and I think this makes it more prone to breaking. I certainly would not be surprised if your e snapped either at the tuner or the bridge.

[guitar344]

Mandolin hi e only reached F# and broke. Has anyone had success with the hi e up to g? It's only a third up.

[posternutbag]

Cross tuning fiddles is common (well, sort of common) in Old-time, but they usually use GDGD or AEAE. I have never seen a fiddle player (or mandolin player) tune the high E up.

You might try asking over at Mandolin Cafe.

[Cone Head]

Originally Posted by guitar344

Has anyone had success with the hi e up to g? It's only a third up.

I keep a banjo-mandolin in "octave" tuning (gG-dD-aa-ee).
Only the two lower (G and D) strings have an octave course.
I use a very light .09-.36 set (http://www.juststrings.com/lab-770l.html) and double the octave courses with a .12 for the G and a .10 for the D.

I'm not sure if you mean "an additional octave g string" as in "an octave course for your low string" like the tuning I use, or if you want to tune your highest string up to G?

You can easily tune up to G, if it's G a full step below your A string.
However, if you want to tune to G a step and a half in pitch above the high e string, I think you will run into a lot of string breakage issues, no matter what you do.


Here's Charlie McCoy playing in octave tuning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEeuYMIk4d0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BqHli5sc8