I’m in the middle of a switch away from Ernie Ball mandolin strings towards another brand. D’Addario is one of the few manufacturers who make their own strings, so I’m trying their mando strings for our next few gigs.

I don’t like bronze or phosphor bronze strings on my mandolins. The tone sounds thin and weak to my ears, and the volume is conspicuously lower than what I get with nickel or steel. It all results in the plinky, piddling tone that too many mandolinists have. I like a more vulgar sound, which I can get from nickel or steel.

With that in mind, I’m presently using D’Addario stainless steel mandolin strings on my resonator mandolin. The tone is pretty good, and the volume is acceptable. I have one complaint, though, and that’s the choice of guages. According to D’Addario’s website, these stainless steel sets are only available as a .011 - .040 set. I really prefer to have a .010 for my ‘e’ string and a .014 for my ‘a’ string. I’m less picky about my ‘g’ and ‘d’ strings, though I prefer about a .026 for the ‘d’ and either a .036 or a .038 for the ‘g’. So the D’Addarios are heavier across the board than what I usually like to use.

I bought extra D’Addario .010 strings as singles, and replaced the .011s in the set with those. That made the instrument play a little easier, but the guage is still heavier than I like. I could throw away the ‘a’ strings as well, but by that point, I’d only be using half the strings I bought anyway, diminishing the usefulness of buying a set.

D’Addario favors heavier guages than other manufacturers. Most mandolin players I know are using .010 guage strings, or even .009s (veering dangerously close to the dreaded .008 guague Yngwie J. Malmsteen territory). D’Addario doesn’t offer anything other than bronze and phosphor bronze strings in lighter guages — no steel or nickel wound strings. Given my past problems with tendonitis, I need lighter strings.

That said, the strings sounded good and held up well for the short set, no freaky breakage. My next set will be assembled from custom guages, although this will double the cost of each set: .010, .014, .026, .038. I need a string endorsement.

Previous posts:
The great mandolin string odyssey, continued
Why I won’t use Ernie Ball strings any more