Mandolins are stringed instruments generally plucked with a plectrum while playing. Imagine you are plucking those strings every now and then for practice and either it hurts your fingers or gets torn easily.

Will it annoy you? Or is it even beneficial for you to use lower quality sharp strings? No, right? We feel for you too. That’s why we have brought to the table some of the best mandolin strings which will neither cut your fingers nor split apart in a moment.

Let’s get going. But first, let’s know some important facts about the mandolin strings.

Types Of Mandolin Strings

The strings are an integral part of a mandolin. It can brighten up the tonal quality, mellow down a tune, and can even give a tactile feel play with enjoyment. So, buying good quality mandolin strings are a must.

Mandolins consist of two pairs of four strings, eight in total. These are generally tuned to G G D D A A E E with an end loop around the tailpiece.

There’s a major difference in the case of tunings between mandolin strings and other stringed instruments like guitar and violin. Initially, a guitarist might find it difficult to change the strings of a mandolin.

However, mandolin strings are quite similar to acoustic guitars in composition.

Having said that, you need to know the different gauges of mandolin strings found in the market first. You can use any one of the three gauges – light, medium, and heavy.

Light gauges include .10, .014, .024 and .038 strings, whereas the medium consists .011, .015, .026 and .040 ones and the heavy gauge are of .0115, .016, .026 and .041 variety.

Don’t get confused. Basically the lighter the strings, the quicker the vibrations of the instrument costing you no harm. But the heavier it gets, the more pressure is exerted on the mandolin, thereby hurting the fingers.

That is why mandolin players mostly use the medium gauged strings that create a balance between the quality of the tone projection and ease of access.

The strings are made up of different metals. Widely used alloy in the mandolin strings is the phosphor bronze.

An alloy of copper, phosphorus, and tin increases the endurance of the strings whereas, the standard bronze mandolin strings help in generating scintillating sounds.

Other metal alloys like nickel-plated steel strings and copper strings are also used for electric mandolins and bass ones respectively. But stainless steel string is most preferable for players who sweat continuously. Here also, technology plays its part and polymer-coated strings are also available nowadays.

Again, there are two types of mandolin strings based on the quality – flatwound and roundwound.  If the strings are wrapped in a wire which is smooth and flat to touch, then it’s a flat-wound string.

While a round-wound string has grooves within each wrapping and is hard to touch. Depending on the requirements, mandolin players use both these types.

Now let’s go and see what’s to keep in mind while buying long-lasting strings for mandolins.

What To Look For While Buying Good Mandolin Strings

As we discussed earlier, there are three types of gauges of mandolin strings. Each type has certain advantages and disadvantages. It depends upon your requirement.

Whether you want a light, medium or heavy gauge certainly depends on the preference of tonal quality, sustainability, volume control, and the force of playability.

Whatever be the case, you should go for one that creates the minimum damage to your fingers without compromising the sound textures.

The build material of the strings plays a major role in this case. To get a premium feel while playing out a mandolin, you should get either phosphor bronze strings or polymer-coated strings.

The question of durability and longevity comes into the picture here. Coated strings wear off after a point of time and change the sound quality too. Uncoated strings, on the other hand, do not wear off but may rust easily when you practice too often.

Again, whether should you go for a flatwound string or a roundwound, completely depends on your priorities. Flatwound strings are more expensive but more endurable, whereas roundwound strings have lower tension and can be bent easily for vibrato.

As you can see, whatever and whichever strings you choose, every type has certain pros and cons. You need to experiment and judge yourself which strings suit your needs perfectly.

To make it easy for you to judge, we have created a list of best mandolin strings available on the market.

Here we have discussed different varieties of strings from the most popular brands to give you an idea about how these strings will offer a balance between sound and value for money.

So, for those who have basic requirements and are completely fine with the benefits a budget looper can provide, let’s start out the list of best cheap looper pedals without further ado.