Fred Van Eps' string gauges

[John Cohen]

Eli Kaufman has a flushfret that was last strung by Van Eps, and he measured the gauges with a micrometer.  They are:

.016

.018

.022

.024w

.016

These are clear nylon.

I was under the impression that Van Eps used lighter strings with a .011 first.  Anyone have input on this?

[Jody Stecher]

For normal clear nylon (which my computer spellchecker vehemently wishes to be clear "nomad") these are very small gauges. Very very light. Van Eps is said to have sometimes used fishing line or leader. The composition of these materials is somewhat different and made to withstand a powerful fight from a fish. It's like using modern day PVF and the like. Much smaller diameters (which my spellcheck insists is "smaller diabetes") produce much higher tension than clear nylon of the type used for music string.  I would not be surprised if he used .011 inches diameter for his first string when using fishing leader. But for clear nylon this would be too light unless the scale was a yard long or more.

[John Cohen]

Exactly, but I've been told Van Eps played with high-tension strings.  the .016 set in clear nylon on a 28.5'' scale has nearly identical tension to the .019 LaBella sets on a 26.5'' scale (I did this experiment myself).  You yourself have said the LaBellas are wimpy, so Van Eps' gauges would be too light feeling for you as well?

[Jody Stecher]

I would guess they would. 

John Cohen said:

Exactly, but I've been told Van Eps played with high-tension strings.  the .016 set in clear nylon on a 28.5'' scale has nearly identical tension to the .019 LaBella sets on a 26.5'' scale (I did this experiment myself).  You yourself have said the LaBellas are wimpy, so Van Eps' gauges would be too light feeling for you as well?

[John Cohen]

Interesting.  Thanks for the info.

[Trapdoor2]

Yah, I worked with Howard Weilmuenster a few years back, his flush-fret FVE has the strings FVE put on it in 1959 (perhaps we're talking about the same banjo?). He gave me the string diameters and I found very close equivalents in fluorocarbon...which are high-tension, very thin.

I put a set on my Flesher and they were unplayable (my opinion only). Like playing spider-silk, I kept pulling them out of the bridge grooves. I would need a deep-slotted bridge to make them work. They sounded quite faint too...but I was using one of those Cole-type maple bridges, which are a tad heavy.

I just did not like them and Paul decided to keep the original set on the banjo. Again, that was some years ago.