Certainly. It all depends on the scale length of your mandola. ( I presume you mean an octave down from mandolin ).
The ( old ) standard mandola had a scale length of about 41 - 41.5 cm, and so the normal strings for it were usually about a guage heavier than mandolin strings, consequently when I was asked to look over one of these european mandolas strung with mandolin strings it was too slack, and gave a much pleasanter sound tuned up a tone to DAeb. (Busy buying time while looking for relevant documents ).
If you have a good shop near you check with them, especially if you have a non-standard mandola. The newer, longer-scale, mandolas could well be strung with tenor-banjo strings, but the guages I can find quoted seem too light to take you down an octave; 12, 16, 22 or 24 wound, and 36 wound, seems a bit light to me. Try going on line to Hobgoblin - no, I don't have shares in the company !
In Britain and most of Europe yes, in America and Canada depends on whether you mean going up or down up no down it would sound bad but it is possible.
Since I can't find the data I had accumulated re mandolas I waffled a bit; There are now strings available, obviously, for the modern mandolas - current ones seem to be made, ie by Stefan Sobell and others, as ; mandola CGda about 50cm scale; octave mandola EAdc about 60cm; and of course bouzouki is usually about 66.5 cm.
Stefan Sobell mandolas etc DO sound awesome - well worth the wait if you have the money, but I will keep waffling on about Red Henry-type bridges, which improve the response of any floating-bridge instrument, refer back to the link in the reply to my question back in January re improving bouzouki bridges ( sorry, computer semi-illiterate, can't pull it out myself ) , and get whittling on a piece of maple.
As I understand it, although Andy Irvine has a Mandola about this scale length he has it tuned FCGC and always uses it with a capo on the 2nd fret so that he is using a tuning of GDAD.
Mandola tuning
Mandola tuning
Can a mandola be tuned GDAE ?
What are the strings gauge for this tuning ?
# Posted on July 25th 2005 by azo
Re: Mandola tuning
Certainly. It all depends on the scale length of your mandola. ( I presume you mean an octave down from mandolin ).
The ( old ) standard mandola had a scale length of about 41 - 41.5 cm, and so the normal strings for it were usually about a guage heavier than mandolin strings, consequently when I was asked to look over one of these european mandolas strung with mandolin strings it was too slack, and gave a much pleasanter sound tuned up a tone to DAeb. (Busy buying time while looking for relevant documents ).
If you have a good shop near you check with them, especially if you have a non-standard mandola. The newer, longer-scale, mandolas could well be strung with tenor-banjo strings, but the guages I can find quoted seem too light to take you down an octave; 12, 16, 22 or 24 wound, and 36 wound, seems a bit light to me. Try going on line to Hobgoblin - no, I don't have shares in the company !
# Posted on July 25th 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Mandola tuning
In Britain and most of Europe yes, in America and Canada depends on whether you mean going up or down up no down it would sound bad but it is possible.
# Posted on July 26th 2005 by Why Bother?
Re: Mandola tuning
Andy Irvine tunes his Sobel Mandola GDAD and it sounds awesome
# Posted on July 26th 2005 by ecidralla
Re: Mandola tuning
Since I can't find the data I had accumulated re mandolas I waffled a bit; There are now strings available, obviously, for the modern mandolas - current ones seem to be made, ie by Stefan Sobell and others, as ; mandola CGda about 50cm scale; octave mandola EAdc about 60cm; and of course bouzouki is usually about 66.5 cm.
Stefan Sobell mandolas etc DO sound awesome - well worth the wait if you have the money, but I will keep waffling on about Red Henry-type bridges, which improve the response of any floating-bridge instrument, refer back to the link in the reply to my question back in January re improving bouzouki bridges ( sorry, computer semi-illiterate, can't pull it out myself ) , and get whittling on a piece of maple.
# Posted on July 26th 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Mandola tuning
I have a Mandola scale length 410mm tuned DAeb.
As I understand it, although Andy Irvine has a Mandola about this scale length he has it tuned FCGC and always uses it with a capo on the 2nd fret so that he is using a tuning of GDAD.
# Posted on June 29th 2007 by petershelper