electric mandolin

[austin]

So I just bought an electric mandolin -- specifically, the Epiphone Mandobird VIII, which is an 8-string mandolin with Gibson Firebird-style body. Pretty cool. I don't actually play mandolin (yet) but I thought it'd be fun to learn a new instrument.

My question, for anyone who might have one of these, is this: What strings do you use? It requires ball-end strings, but the only ball-end mandolin strings I can find are phosphor bronze -- which in my experience are only ever used with acoustic instruments. (This thing is entirely electric, not acoustic-electric -- one single-coil magnetic pickup.) The strings that are already on it sure look like steel, though, and they must have come from somewhere... Epiphone itself is of no help.

Anyone else ever played one of these? I'm having fun with it so far.

[@?,*???&?]

D'Addario make great mandolin strings that are nickel. Those are what I use on mine. Keep them fresh too. With all the upper harmonic information of these (indeed a mandolin solidly reaches 20KHz in frequency response), you'll lose alot of tone with old strings.

[ashcat_lt]

I've used bronze strings on electric guitars in the past. The core (the part that really matters when it comes to the magnetic pickup's transduction) is generally steel and they work fine. Whether you'll actually like the sound is another matter, but it's worth a shot.

[tfred812]

I have a Mandobird IV that I cobbled together out of parts from eBay (and the bits of an VIII waiting in my shop for a bridge). Good fun, and it's my 2-year-old's favorite ax.

Don't do what I did and buy the "special" electric mandolin strings offered on eBay. Brutally stiff.

Next time I get strings, I'm going to figure out the weights I want (med wt mandolin strings are roughly .011, .015, .025, .039) and buy single electric guitar strings in those weights from Just Strings. You should be able to find strings in a style or from a manufacturer you are comfortable with from your guitar playing ? I'll go for Ernie Ball, for instance. Undoubtedly there will be tweaking and fine tuning as you get to know the instrument better, but that should get you going.

[tfred812]

I have a Mandobird IV that I cobbled together out of parts from eBay (and the bits of an VIII waiting in my shop for a bridge). Good fun, and it's my 2-year-old's favorite ax.

Don't do what I did and buy the "special" electric mandolin strings offered on eBay. Brutally stiff.

Next time I get strings, I'm going to figure out the weights I want (med wt mandolin strings are roughly .011, .015, .025, .039) and buy single electric guitar strings in those weights from Just Strings. You should be able to find strings in a style or from a manufacturer you are comfortable with from your guitar playing ? I'll go for Ernie Ball, for instance. Undoubtedly there will be tweaking and fine tuning as you get to know the instrument better, but that should get you going.

[austin]

D'Addario make great mandolin strings that are nickel. Those are what I use on mine.

Are they ball-end? I couldn't find any that were steel or nickel AND ball-end -- just one or the other. Jeff, do you have a Mandobird or are you just talking about mandolins in general?

Using cut-down guitar strings is a good idea. But I can't believe that nobody actually makes strings for this instrument! It's a major manufacturer and they're not that rare... You'd think somebody would be making strings that fit them by now. For that matter, where did Epi get the strings that it shipped with? Weird...

[ashcat_lt]

Did you try the bronze ones?

[austin]

Did you try the bronze ones?

Not yet. I'll give them a shot when these wear out and see how they sound.

On the bright side, I learned a few chords last night -- I realized that the tuning is basically like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar but upside-down (GDAE instead of EADG), so you can kinda play upside-down guitar chords... Fun!

[chovie d]

I like the bronze ones...they seem a bit softer on the fingertips and with double string courses, that is appreciated. enjoy!

[RefD]

On the bright side, I learned a few chords last night -- I realized that the tuning is basically like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar but upside-down (GDAE instead of EADG), so you can kinda play upside-down guitar chords... Fun!

or string it lefty and play it righty?

*head explodes*