Mandolin accessories you actually need

Buy strings and a proper pick first. Together they cost about ten dollars more than nothing and they change the sound more than any other purchase available. This is the honest priority order for a mandolin and it is not the order people buy in. On a budget instrument the factory strings are routinely the worst component fitted, and the pick that came in the case is usually a thin guitar pick, which physically cannot drive four pairs of steel strings. Both are cheap. Both are transformative. Neither looks like an upgrade.

Every pick states its Starter Path band, and we have not played any of them — the method is on how we pick. Gauges, materials, model numbers and lengths come from D’Addario’s and Dunlop’s own pages, cited at the bottom.

1. Strings, the cheapest real upgrade on the instrument

A mandolin at the beginner end of the market is built to a price, and the easiest place to take cost out is the set of strings fitted at the factory. They are frequently dull before the instrument is sold, because it has been sitting in a box.

D’Addario EJ74#ad is the pick because it is the reference set in the category. D’Addario publishes the full breakdown: medium 11-40, plain steel .011 and .015 trebles with phosphor bronze wound .026 and .040, round wound, loop end — which they describe as a universal fit — and list it as ideal for bluegrass and folk. Buy these if the mandolin is more than a few months old or was bought used, which covers nearly everybody. Skip them if your tailpiece requires ball-end strings, in which case the EJ70 is the set — look at the tailpiece before ordering, because loop-end strings will not seat at all on a ball-end fitting.

One warning: eight strings is a slower job than six, and mandolin tailpieces are fiddly. Change them in pairs, keep tension on the bridge as you go, and remember that the bridge on most mandolins is not glued down — it is held by string pressure, so taking every string off at once means it falls over and its position has to be found again.

2. A pick stiff enough to actually move the strings

This is the accessory most mandolin beginners have never considered and the one with the highest ratio of improvement to cost.

A mandolin asks a lot of a pick: four pairs of steel strings at high tension over a short scale. A thin, flexible guitar pick flexes instead of displacing them, and what you hear is pick noise and a thin attack rather than the bright bell tone the instrument is capable of. Beginners reliably attribute that to the mandolin.

The Dunlop Primetone Triangle Smooth, 1.4 mm#ad is the pick. Dunlop publishes it as model 513-140 in Ultex with three hand-burnished sculpted beveled edges, which they describe as giving a quick release — and the bevel is the part that matters, because a square-edged pick scratches across paired strings. Being a triangle, each pick has three usable points. Buy these if the player is using whatever came in the case. Skip them if they already have a stiff mandolin pick they like — picks are the classic duplicate, and a player who has settled on a shape has settled for a reason.

3. A clip-on tuner, which earns its place here more than on a guitar

Eight strings, tuned in four pairs, G-D-A-E low to high. Each pair has to be in tune with itself as well as with the other three, and two strings a fraction apart do not sound like a chorus — they sound out of tune in a way that is hard to localize.

That makes tuning a mandolin roughly twice the work of tuning a guitar and a far more frequent activity, especially on a new instrument whose strings are still stretching.

The D’Addario Micro Headstock Tuner#ad is already our pick elsewhere on the site and it suits a mandolin well: it clips to the headstock and reads vibration rather than room sound, so it works in a noisy room or at a jam. It is small enough to leave attached. Buy this if there is no clip-on tuner in the house. Skip it if there is — a clip-on tuner is instrument-agnostic, so a guitarist’s spare works fine. Our page on how to tune a mandolin covers the pairs.

4. A strap, and why a guitar strap will not do

Mandolin straps are a genuinely different product, and this is the accessory new players most often do not know exists.

Plenty of mandolins have nowhere to attach a conventional two-button strap. The answer is a cradle-style strap that loops around the instrument instead of clipping to it. The D’Addario leather mandolin strap#ad is that: leather, cradle style, adjustable from 36.5 to 46 inches through multiple holes, in black or brown. We have not quoted a width, because D’Addario’s own page gives two conflicting figures and we would rather omit a spec than publish one we cannot stand behind. Buy this if the mandolin is played standing, or the player’s left hand is holding the instrument up rather than fretting. Skip it if they only play sitting down and are comfortable.

What to skip, or buy later

A case, but only for now. It is a real purchase and it is further down the list because it changes nothing about how the instrument plays. Once the mandolin leaves the house it matters, because the thin bag most beginner instruments ship with is dust protection rather than impact protection.

A capo. Mandolin capos exist and are fiddly, and a beginner playing in two or three keys does not need one. Later, if they are accompanying a singer.

A tone-gard or arm rest. Real products that stop a forearm damping the back of the instrument. Audible to a player who already has a good tone, inaudible to somebody in their first months.

Coated strings. They last longer and cost noticeably more. On a budget instrument with a beginner playing it, two sets of uncoated strings over a year is the better spend.

A pickup. Only when there is a band and a PA, not before.