Mandolin Strings - Changing and such!

[Tenzin]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi Tenzin, hope you are well.

I checked and yes we can get GHS strings here, but, like Dunlop strings increasingly difficult to source. They cost more compared to most others.

I see that GHS use the term "Americana" , rather like Dunlop do now ...I wonder ??
If you have a pack of GHS - do they say made in Benicia CA?

Something that has become obvious to me is that there is NO standard way of restringing mandolins!

"Manufactured by G.H.S Corporation (the StringSpeailists)
2813 Wilber Avenue, Battle Creek, MI 49015 USA"

Their email is [email protected].

That address was on the back of a set of "PF 270 Medium Bright Bronze Mandolin Strings" They make them in Phosphor Bronze, Stainless Steel, Silk & Steel, Silk & Bronze as well as octave mandolin and mandola.

I don't believe I've even seen the Silk ones online, although I haven't searched.

[varmonter]

I like ghs a200 strings on my ellis . Ive also used
jpearse. Like you i dont usually take all the strings off.
one must be careful not to crank the bridge foward otherwise
the feet are not flat on the top. changing strings
canneventually cause the bridge to slant foward.
we are always tightening seldom loosening.
so naturally the bridge wants to slant forward.
if this happens just grab hold and set it straight.
I enjoy playing mando as much as guitar maybe even a tad more.

[Wade Hampton]

Personally, I can’t imagine changing strings only when one breaks. I play mandolin in public on a regular basis and feel that I have an obligation to the people listening to have my instruments sounding good and fully tunable. So with the mandolin I change strings about every six to eight weeks.

I change them one string at a time, from the inner strings to the outer ones. I’ll generally start with a D string, then an A, and so forth. Doing it that way minimizes the chances of messing up the intonation as well as help keep the tuning more stable.

I’m not at all fond of loop end strings, but they’re unavoidable on mandolin. To keep them from popping off the tailpiece before I’ve had a chance to bring the string up to tension, after I hook each string on I place a strip of Scotch tape over it right where it hooks on. That restrains it somewhat, then once I’ve threaded the string along the bridge and along the fingerboard I’ll clamp it down with a capo so it’s less likely to get away from me as I attach it to the appropriate tuner post.

Then I pull the tape off the tailpiece, put it aside while I’m hooking the next string on, then place it back over the newest string at the tailpiece and repeat the process. I usually go through two or three strips of tape every time I put fresh strings on one of my mandolins.

Using a capo to hold the string is a tip I learned on this forum: it had never occurred to me to do that before, but it really helps. I don’t cuss nearly as much as I used to when changing mandolin strings....

As for cleaning and polishing the fretboard while changing strings, I don’t do that every time because it isn’t needed every time. I’m careful to always wash and dry my hands before I play any of my instruments, and I don’t seem to have the skin chemistry that deposits a lot of oil and grunge onto the fingerboard.

The mandolin strings I use are John Pearse; I use medium gauge phosphor bronze on the two mandolins I use the most, light gauge phosphors on my pre-war vintage wood-bodied National mandolin, and heavy gauge 80/20’s on the Sumi-era Kentucky mandolin that was my main mandolin for many years before I started using first the pre-war National resonator mandolin, then the production prototype National RM-1 that I helped design.

I recently got a couple of sets of nickel mandolin strings to try on another National resonator mandolin prototype I own, which has National’s way cool Hotplate resonator cover with a built-in magnetic pickup. It actually works remarkably well with bronze strings, but I thought I’d give nickel strings a try to see if they work even better with the pickup.

Anyway, mandolin is a persnickety instrument to get and keep in tune even when it’s at its best, so keeping the strings reasonably fresh is essentially mandatory so far as I’m concerned.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller