Restring banjolin to play as uke?

[artycrafty]

Hi there I'm new & I saw some old posts where someone was going to restring a mandolin & tune it to play as a uke - now cant find the post & wondering how they got on. So maybe they will read this or someone else have some useful ideas?
I'm a uke player & I have just been given a lovely very old banjolin. It is steel strung & had 8 strings in pairs.
I'm wondering if I could try stringing & tuning it as a uke & could I try nylon? I could just learn to play it as a banjolin- but to be honest I would probably get confused with the uke, & being in a small ukulele group it would be far more useful to me as a uke for now.
I have by the way got very small hands & for me the very narrow neck & close frets are good.

 

[Arcy]

Ask your favorite search engine to look for mandolincafe.com GCEA and you should find recent (and not so recent) threads with specific string suggestions.

You’ll probably want to stick with steel strings, at least for a mandolin (I have no experience with banjo), as the top will be very stiff for nylon.

The skinny neck might not be happy with nylon courses either. My nylon stringed GDAE soprano uke plays very differently from my mandolin.

 

[kypfer]

Aquila (used to?) make a set of "reds" strings gauged specifically for a banjolele, which is what a re-strung banjolin will most closely resemble. I'd suggest only one set of strings rather than pairs, the thicker strings of a ukulele may buzz against each other if too close together.
You'll also probably need to widen the slots in the nut to get the strings reasonably close to the neck.
Remember, the "plastic" strings of a ukulele need to run freely in the nut, any jamming or friction will likely lead to premature failure.
FWIW, a I find a mandolin to be sufficiently different to a ukulele to not cause problems, once the "new" fingering is learnt.
Having said that, a steel-strung banjolin in a uke group is likely to be a bit overpowering, a banjolele will be "noticeable" enough

 

[Knows Picker]

I did that about two years ago. The project was not worth restoring as a banjo-mandolin -- the finish was flaking off, the fretboard extension was broken and gone, the tuners were useless, bridge missing, banjo head broken, peg head missing inlays bits, some missing J hooks and nuts.

I replaced the old four on a plates with some regular uke tuners, put on a new goat skin head, new bridge and new nut. For strings I just used regular Aquila nylgut sopranos. I have less than $120 tied up in the whole thing but I love it.

The sound is SUPER loud and rings like a banjo should. Has more bass than a regular banjo-uke, probably because of the larger pot.

More pics on my profile.

 

[Knows Picker]

Can we move this thread? It doesn't belong here.