banjo-mandolin string help needed

Hi there,

I'm going down the route of using nylon strings for my banjo-mandolin (GDAE), to get rid of the harsh tones, and have selected Aquila Red series to get the D and G UNWOUND strings. However, the Red series don't offer a D string but a C (for ukelele). I think the normal white ones are different so the strings might be unbalanced.
I could go with wound D and G from a nylon set.
What do you think?

Might consider using something like a piece of foam or something as a mute rather than go string crazy. Just a thought

Having first hand experience of Aquila's 5th's tuning strings for a soprano ukulele (set 30U) on my Mahalo pineapple I'd have no reservation about suggesting them as suitable for a banjo-mandolin ... the scale length is the same (as near as d... ).

As a set, the strings are well balanced, tone and volume wise, certainly on my pineapple (a "conventional" soprano doesn't quite have the response to do the low-G string justice, IMO). However, and I may be wrong here, I get the impression that nylon (nylgut) strings deflect more when plucked than steel strings do, so there may be a risk of pairs buzzing against each other when played vigorously ... YMMV

I put Aquila red on my banjo ukuleles AND a light piece of foam under the tail end of the strings to cut down on the overtone of the strings vibrating on the other side of the bridge. The sound is great and well balanced.