String gauges to tune mandolin in 12-string type tuning

[Tom from Texas (The Tom Risner Fund for Deserving North Texas Guitarplayers is not liable]

I've posted on rmmga that I'm experimenting with a mandolin tuning so the string pairs are an octave off. I have in order from high e to low G: .024. .011, .040, .016, .046, .024, .053, and .040

It is working fairly well for the e and a pairs but the low d and g are too lax. What would yall suggest? Maybe .050 for low D and .056 for low G?

Tom from Texas

[Nick Odell]

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 10:03:15 -0700 (PDT), "Tom from Texas (The Tom
Risner Fund for Deserving North Texas Guitarplayers is not liable"

Post by Tom from Texas (The Tom Risner Fund for Deserving North Texas Guitarplayers is not liable
I've posted on rmmga that I'm experimenting with a mandolin tuning so the string pairs are an octave off. I have in order from high e to low G: .024. .011, .040, .016, .046, .024, .053, and .040
It is working fairly well for the e and a pairs but the low d and g are too lax. What would yall suggest? Maybe .050 for low D and .056 for low G?

I'd suggest that a standard mandolin scale is probably too short to
accommodate the low octave strings - I've been doing some experiments
recently with a view to making a five-string and come to the
conclusion that a 20 inch mandola scale is about the shortest I could
use to get something reasonable out of a low fifth string tuned to F
(F - C - G - D - A) so I'd consider it would be more-or-less the same
if you wanted to tune it to G

The data for these mandola strings might give you some ideas:
http://daddario.com/DADProductDetail.Page?ActiveID=3769&productid=304&productname=J76_Phosphor_Bronze_Mandola_Strings__Medium__15_52&sid=f4036de7-eb0e-4b93-a027-696821c510de

Lower down on the page you can click to see the tensions for all the
strings in the mandolin family.

Hope this helps - and do let me know how it turns out!

Nick