New Strings
In my last post, I made mention that I was unhappy with the tone being produced by my banjo. Just the week before, it was near perfect! Obviously, something changed. I said I would let you know how the banjo sounded after I replaced the strings. You may recall me saying the banjo sounded out of tune even though the electronic tuner said it was right on the mark. Well, I've replaced the strings and the banjo now appears to sound in tune.
When strings become oxidized, and after they have been repeatedly stretched from tuning and bending during play, they start to produce more overtones than they do when thay are new. As Ron Block says, they lose their "snap." In particular, I always notice the third string (G) seems to go "dead" before the rest. Several people have told me that they experience more problems with the B string, including Cia Leigh Cherryholmes.
This time round, I put a set of lighter strings on the banjo because they were the only banjo strings in stock at the music store. The smaller string guages tend to be brighter than the medium strings I am used to. The lighter stings also have a different feel to them, not only on the fretting hand, but on the picking hand also.
Right now, the banko sounds "in tune" but it is a bit on the bright side and has a little more "ring" (as in, listen to that old banjo ring) than I like. I do like bright, but this may be a bit too bright.
I think the banjo head needs to be loosened; however, now that I know where most of the stretching occurs during the tightening process, I'm not really comfortable with the loosening it. If it needed more tightening, I would be fine with that.
Before I touch anything, I'm going to make an attempt at determining what note the head is tightened to. Steve Huber, on his "Killer Tone" DVD, shows how to tune the head to a certain note. With my banjo, I seem to have difficulty discriminating between notes, so I'm going high-tech. As Steve demonstrates, I'm going to tap the head with my finger picks while muting the strings, except, I'm going to record the audio produced. Once I have an audio sample recorded, I'm going to analyze the audio with a spectrum analyzer. I'll let you know how successful I am.
When strings become oxidized, and after they have been repeatedly stretched from tuning and bending during play, they start to produce more overtones than they do when thay are new. As Ron Block says, they lose their "snap." In particular, I always notice the third string (G) seems to go "dead" before the rest. Several people have told me that they experience more problems with the B string, including Cia Leigh Cherryholmes.
This time round, I put a set of lighter strings on the banjo because they were the only banjo strings in stock at the music store. The smaller string guages tend to be brighter than the medium strings I am used to. The lighter stings also have a different feel to them, not only on the fretting hand, but on the picking hand also.
Right now, the banko sounds "in tune" but it is a bit on the bright side and has a little more "ring" (as in, listen to that old banjo ring) than I like. I do like bright, but this may be a bit too bright.
I think the banjo head needs to be loosened; however, now that I know where most of the stretching occurs during the tightening process, I'm not really comfortable with the loosening it. If it needed more tightening, I would be fine with that.
Before I touch anything, I'm going to make an attempt at determining what note the head is tightened to. Steve Huber, on his "Killer Tone" DVD, shows how to tune the head to a certain note. With my banjo, I seem to have difficulty discriminating between notes, so I'm going high-tech. As Steve demonstrates, I'm going to tap the head with my finger picks while muting the strings, except, I'm going to record the audio produced. Once I have an audio sample recorded, I'm going to analyze the audio with a spectrum analyzer. I'll let you know how successful I am.
posted by Michael Floyd at 12:53 AM
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