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- Choosing strings
- Changing strings
- Tuning the banjo
In the really old times banjos had gut strings. But metal strings became popular during the early 20th Century and today only classic and some "old-time" banjoists use gut (or nylon). The zither banjo is a bit unusual in that it combines the two: the first, second and fifth strings are metal while the 3rd and 4th are nylon/gut.
Choosing the right strings used to be important, but with modern production methods there's not that much quality difference between the various brands.
Metal strings
Metal strings are usually referred to as "steel strings" although that isn't strictly speaking correct. The light strings in the set are nearly always made from plain Swedish steel wire. Usually there's little or no difference between the various makers and brands there.The heavier, wound strings are made from a steel core wound with a (usually bronze or steel) thread. There's more variety here both when it comes to quality and style:
- Thread alloy
- Bronze: Round, full tone - different copper/zink ratios produce different sound.
- Brass: There are no such thing, but some brands incorrectly call their bronze strings "brass."
- Phosphor bronze: Round, full tone but still with plenty of brilliance.
- Silver-plated steel: Bright, clear tone with emphasis on the treble range.
- Nickel/tin-plated steel: Slightly mellower than silver-plated.
- Steel (without plating): Rather dull with little low range.
- Surface
- Roundwound: Bright, clear and loud sound with lots of overtones.
- Flatwound: Slightly mellower sound. Smoother playing surface.
- Polished: Soft and mellow sound. Smooth surface.
- Coated: Soft sound with less overtones. Extremely smooth surface.
- Core diameter
- Thin core: Flexible strings.
- Thick core: Stiffer strings, but with a bit more volume.
- Core shape
- Hex core: Stiff strings.
- Round core: Flexible, very responsive strings. Round core strings are more expensive to make than hex core, so they're only used for high-quality strings.
Thread alloy
The thread is usually made from fairly standard 80/20 phoshpor bronze (80 percent copper, 20 percent zink) often with a tiny amount of phosphor for added brilliance, but some brands choose slightly different ratios or even adding other metals to the alloy to get different tone qualities. More copper usually means a mellower sound, more zink more brilliance.Five-string banjo strings are often wound with nickel-plated steel instead. This works very well on the five-stringer where the focus is always on the unwound strings, but on other banjos they can easily sound too dull.
Surface
Banjo strings are usually "roundwound," that is the thread is left as it is, but every now and then you can come across polished, flatwound or coated banjo strings.Polished strings are exactly as the name says: polished down for a really flat surface. This gives the strings a very "smooth" feel and more or less eliminates all fingernoise (that scratching sound you get when you move your fingers along the strings). It also reduces the tone of the string considerably.
Flatwound strings have had the thread mechanically compressed (flattened out). They are in every way a compromise between regular and polished.
Coated strings are covered with a thin layer of synthetics. This is really an attempt to correct a technical problem with the hex core, but it also affects the playing surface considerably, making the strings even smoother - and softer sounding - than polished strings.
Core diameter
Obviously, the thicker the core the stiffer the string. The core diameter doesn't seem to vary much between the different brands, although one manufacturers of high-quality strings have chosen to go for thinner cores than usual.Core shape
US-made wound strings always have a "hex core" with an angled profile (they call it hexagonal, although it's actually more squarish). The great advantage to this is that the thread gets a better grip on the core making it easier to mass-produce strings with a consistent quality. The hex core also makes the string stiffer, less flexible and with a harder sound. Some musicians are not too happy about that and choose European-made round core strings instead.No matter what you think about the tone and playability, the hex core has one major disadvantage compared to high-quality round core strings: Durability. The angles of the core inevitably cut into the thread wearing them out and the hex shape also causes larger gaps between the core and the thread - gaps that soon fills up with dirt and dust. To address the dirt problem, at least two manufacturers have introduced "coated strings" - sealed with some synthetic material. The coating only addresses one of the hex core's problems though and it greatly affects the tone.
Some European-made strings also have a hex core and are virtually indistinguishable from US-made strings. Other Europeans, like Thomastick, Rotosound and Newtone have chosen to stick to the traditional round profile core.
Round core strings require a much higher level of precision during the winding process and are therefore a bit more expensive - at least if you want good strings (and thankfully cheap round core strings seems to have vanished from the market). Many musicians feel however that the extra flexinility and durability and the rounder, better defined tone are worth the extra cost.
Gut and nylon strings
These are hardly ever used for Celtic music (unless you play a zither banjo and want to go the really traditional way), but for the sake of completeness:Just like metal strings, a gut/nylon string set has plain and wound strings.
The plain strings are nearly always made from nylon these days. Genuine gut strings do have a lovely and very unique tone, but nylon strings have more volume and tonal flexibility, are much easier to handle and cost much less. Recently there have been attempts to make synthetic gut strings from sepcial materials developed to emulate the tone, look and feel of gut as closely as possible. Whether these will catch on remains to be seen.
The wound strings are usually made from a core of silk threads or silk-like synthetic threads wound with a thread made from some bronze or silver alloy.