Page 1 of 1

Clunky G string

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:50 am
by normholifield
Hi. I have a very nice Oakwood short scale tenor tuned e a d g. I 've been playing for about six months. Have changed the strings a couple of times in that period for the same gauge as the originals but I have never been entirely happy with the G. Although the tuner shows it is in tune it always sounds a bit lifeless compared to the others.
Any tips would be appreciated.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 2:19 pm
by benhall.1
Not that I know anything about banjos but ...

... you're pretty close to me, Norm. Do I know you? :)

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:18 am
by dyersituations
Short scale tenor banjos or octave mandolins have issues with clunky strings. It's because the neck isn't quite long enough for the a stable GDAE with standard strings (or least that was the case with standard octave mandolin strings on my short-scale octave). You might consider heavier gauge strings. Here's a discussion on 17 fret banjo strings: https://thesession.org/discussions/30915. Last week I played a friend's custom 17 fret banjo, and while the strings were definitely looser than on my 19 fret tenor, I wouldn't have described the strings as clunky.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:03 am
by s1m0n
Post your question to the mandolin cafe tenor guitar/tenor banjo forum.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 6:36 am
by carloslarge
[Thread revival. - Mod]
normholifield wrote:Hi. I have a very nice Oakwood short scale tenor tuned e a d g. I 've been playing for about six months. Have changed the strings a couple of times in that period for the same gauge as the originals but I have never been entirely happy with the G. Although the tuner shows it is in tune it always sounds a bit lifeless compared to the others.
Any tips would be appreciated.
Chat to a luthier about installing a bridge with mother of pearl slots on the bridge, can make a difference

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:27 pm
by awildman
I use a 40 gauge G on my short scale, and it is still a bit flabby. I've read of others going up to 44.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:22 am
by DaveVisi
Most hollow body instruments have a natural resonance tone. If it happens to land square on a fretted note, that note will suffer.

I had to sell a really pretty guitar that had that problem. The only real fix was to have the body altered in some way, usually by changing the soundhole. It wasn't something I was willing to do, so off to eBay it went.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:25 pm
by Thomaston
I’ve gone as high as 46 by using octave mandolin strings. Another alternative is to tune it up to an A. I believe I read about someone well known doing this but can’t remember who.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 8:10 am
by brewerpaul
Thomaston wrote:I’ve gone as high as 46 by using octave mandolin strings. Another alternative is to tune it up to an A. I believe I read about someone well known doing this but can’t remember who.
Enda Scahill plays his tenor banjos tuned ADAE. Maybe other players do too.

Re: Clunky G string

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:47 pm
by Thomaston
Yep! Enda is indeed who I was trying to think of. I tried that tuning for a while but when back to G.
Too many tunes to learn alternate fingerings for, it makes that low C# inconvenient to play, and I like to hit that G as a drone for G tunes like Kesh.