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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on July 10, 2016 at 12:43pm

Octave mando strings go from .012 to .046 (approx) and may work with 24 3/4 scale. They run about 15 bucks a set so I usually go with 2 sets of light acoustic guitar strings and use the A,D b and e strings. The A string tunes down to G and the b string down to a.  It's tuned an octave lower than a mando so a .014 should easily tune to that A note (a 220) It would never reach A 440 on that scale length so hopefully that's not what you're trying for. 

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Permalink Reply by Adam Sikes on July 10, 2016 at 1:56pm

Thanks for the reply!

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Permalink Reply by Titch the Clown on July 11, 2016 at 9:42pm

Mandolin scale length is around or just under 14 inches. That is a real stretch of scale length. The harp makers have rules of thumb about string lengths and breaking strains which basically say that the string will break dependin on the note you get out of it in a way that is independant of the diameter. Volume and other considerations are why strings are thicker. 

Other oddities in this set of equations are that steel and nylon have very similar string breaking characteristcs. Brass is different but i dont know if it would help. I expect you will have lots of breakages trying to tune that scale length to mandolin tuning.

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Permalink Reply by JL on July 11, 2016 at 11:48pm

when in doubt, consult the book of knowledge (google) ...in this case, the D'Addario String Tension/gauge guide, this page talks about how to pick the string, and has a link for the full data-sheet on diameter/tension/pitch.

http://www.daddario.com/DAstringtensionguide.Page?sid=71e2adcc-1237...

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