Mandola strings

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My wife found a great deal on a Trinity College TM-275 Irish Mandola. I’m calling it an Irish Mandola because it has a flat top and an A-style hole, just like my Irish Bouzouki. This Mandola has a 17-inch scale (the distance from bridge to nut), and I’m going to tune it to G2-D3-A3-D4, just like my Bouzouki.

The strings gauges I’m going to try first are 19-30-46-64. With the StringJoy Nickel Wound strings, that gives me string tensions of 22.7, 20.8, 25.9, 24.0 pounds, for a total neck tension of 184.8 pounds.

Mandola on Neale Pickett

Mandola strings