Newbie

[David Gillespie]

Greetings from the US. I am new to this forum! I am wondering how to find the tablature for the Georgia Melody on the YouTube channel? I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I play claw hammer only but would love to learn how to play classic style. Thanks to the nice man! I wish I knew your name to thank you personally! David Gillespie 

[Jody Stecher]

I was talking about a set as described by Richard in which the THIRD string was .017. 

Joel Hooks said:

Jody, .017 work great on standard size banjos.  Very loud and clear with excellent dynamic control.  

Many “modern” players who were weened on wire think they need heavy strings to simulate what they are used to.  I would argue that the classic banjo is a different instrument for the “old time” banjo.

It is this thinness that lead people to falsely believe that their original Vega nuts were cut for wire.

[Joel Hooks]

Yes, there is evidence that .016 was the size for larger banjos like the FVE 28.5.  BTW, I have three of these FVE banjos and I use .017s on those too.

[IAN SALTER]

W E Ballantine, in his tutor book, said that for banjos with 5, 6 and 7 strings, the 3rd string should be a violin 1st, E string, (which is certainly 'thin') and the 4th string should be violin 2nd, A string

The book does not have a publication date, but based on his preface and description of tuning for the three different string sets, it strikes me that it is a fairly early work. Maybe before 1890? He said that "the 1st should be a fine Banjo string D" and 'the 2nd should be a fine Banjo string slightly thicker than the first'. I find it interesting that he specified actual 'Banjo' strings and that they were thinner than violin strings.