Strings for zither banjo

[Pär Engstrand]

Hi all,

I'm about to buy strings for my zither banjos now and are looking at retailers for keyboard instruments (mainly harpsichord). I would be interested to try copper or bronze strings.

Has anyone tried that? Would it be recomended?

[Pär Engstrand]

My bad. Not copper. Brass strings it should be.

[Jody Stecher]

I've used copper wound bass strings. But z-b always must have a mixed set or it will not respond well. Metal wound on filaments for bass, gut or nylon for third and the other 3 very light gauge metal, usually steel. Brass would be very dull. Spring phosphor bronze might sound good though.
For some reason my letter are appearing very tiny. Is this a Ning Thing?

[Pär Engstrand]

Thanks Jody.

Yes, was thinking about the three metal strings being made of said material.

If I order some, I'll let you know.

[Pär Engstrand]

I did order three bronze strings. Cost 14€ each. At 2,5 m per string I could get six strings out of it. Still not very cheap (actually more expensive than gut strings...) So, what's the verdict?

Well, I tried to put on two strings today. The thicknes I ordered was about 0,08, 0,09 and 0,10. Pretty thin. Both the 0,08 and 0,09 just broke off, snapped, before I even remotely reached the note d of the first string. And here I thought I would revolutionize the whole zither banjo world! :-)

Lesson learned from this? Yes! Don't try to reinvent the wheel! The guys back in the days probably already tried all kinds of different material for strings and landed on something that worked. And to be honest. The regular steel strings sound fine on a zither banjo well set up, so why go and try to change it?  Well, that's just me, I guess.

I'm still perplexed that the strings broke at such low presure, or rather pull, rate though. Is the harpsichords really strung at such a low preasure point? I will have to call the guy on monday and ask a few questions.....

So, if you don't know what to do with all the money you have laying around, my sugestion is to try out new and different strings for your instruments. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I managed to get rid of lots of those pesky little euro/pound/dollar bills that way.... :-)

It's a pitty though. Maybe if I...... :-)

[Rob MacKillop]

LOL. At least you tried, Pär. It's the best way to learn anything. 

[Richard William Ineson]

Another thing you could try is using unplated steel strings for the 1st,2nd,and fifth string. This is what Cammeyer used and sold, he claimed that the plating altered the tone of the strings.

Pär Engstrand said:

I did order three bronze strings. Cost 14€ each. At 2,5 m per string I could get six strings out of it. Still not very cheap (actually more expensive than gut strings...) So, what's the verdict?

Well, I tried to put on two strings today. The thicknes I ordered was about 0,08, 0,09 and 0,10. Pretty thin. Both the 0,08 and 0,09 just broke off, snapped, before I even remotely reached the note d of the first string. And here I thought I would revolutionize the whole zither banjo world! :-)

Lesson learned from this? Yes! Don't try to reinvent the wheel! The guys back in the days probably already tried all kinds of different material for strings and landed on something that worked. And to be honest. The regular steel strings sound fine on a zither banjo well set up, so why go and try to change it?  Well, that's just me, I guess.

I'm still perplexed that the strings broke at such low presure, or rather pull, rate though. Is the harpsichords really strung at such a low preasure point? I will have to call the guy on monday and ask a few questions.....

So, if you don't know what to do with all the money you have laying around, my sugestion is to try out new and different strings for your instruments. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I managed to get rid of lots of those pesky little euro/pound/dollar bills that way.... :-)

It's a pitty though. Maybe if I...... :-)