CE strings !!

[julian egan]

Hi Peeps, my new CE medium nylon strings have just landed. Ive never changed banjo strings before, let alone changed to nylon and theyre the tie-on type too. Im sure ive seen a video on here explaining how to do it but cant seem to find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction, thanks.

[Mike Moss]

Here you go!

http://youtu.be/GmshkOTd5JQ?t=4m43s

It's just a matter of tying a simple bowline knot... though I have found that a knot similar to the one used to tie classical guitar strings also works.

[Trevor Boyd]

You are in for a treat, Julian!

[Jody Stecher]

I always make a bowline. Diagram and video are here:

http://zeppmusic.com//bowline.htm

[julian egan]

Well.....................that turned into a marathon !!!!!! Had to do some fabrication of the thingy ( saddle? ) that holds the strings at the base of the instrument as it looks as though it has been dropped at some stage and bent! Then cleaned fret board with lemon oil, then tightened the skin, then fitted strings. Problem 1 ... grooves in nut are too shallow to hold strings in place so had to deepen them. Problem 2... grooves in bridge too shallow so strings keep jumping out. Will have to sort it out tomorrow now as im setting off to work in ten mins. Please feel free to add comments as i will read them on my break at work. Cheers for now, Jules ( note the use of my informal name !!! as i think we are all getting along like houses on fire !!! ).

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Julian,

 Don't go at it too drastically  deepening nut grooves! The strings should sit so that they are still slightly proud of the top of the nut. The nut groove should also slope "slighty" downwards towards the peghead. 

Don't file too deep as you may get buzzes on the strings!  The grooves in the bridge should not be too deep either and should have a round bottom so the strings sit correctly.

Make sure that there are no rough edges on the tailpiece that could cut the nylon strings.  You will find that nylons take a few days to stretch and settle and you will be re-tuning all the time.

My advice..  small adjustments.. slowly slowly! 

[julian egan]

Here are the pics from yesterdays shenanigans !! This was obviously a friday afternoon Bjo. Thrown together with a catapult. It must have been dropped at some stage although not by me. The tailpiece has grazed the skin when it got damaged so i dont know how long it will last. As you can see by the pic of the kitchen towel, the lemon oil shifted a lot of dirt from the fret-board.

I think i have sorted the jumping-string issue, i had not adjusted the tail-piece correctly, so it wasnt holding the strings down onto the bridge.

Anyway, its back together now and im liking the sound of the nylon, its very mellow and much less zingy!

[thereallyniceman]

I had a banjo fitted with a stamped tail piece, like this one, and found that the nylons were cut by the sharp edges of the hooks that hold the strings.  I managed to fix it by stripping a short length of plastic insulation off a piece of electrical flex (1/4-3/8" long) and slid it onto the string before I made the knot. The insulation goes under the hook and the string inside it is protected from the sharp edges, so does not get cut into. I hope that you don't have this trouble!

My advice.. keep your eyes open for an older, better quality classic style banjo...  you won't regret it and it will always be worth what you paid for it, if you do come to sell it at some time.

[julian egan]

Hi Ian, thanks for the advice, i will do the same to mine even tho it will mean a de-string. And as soon as i manage to sell one of my kidneys i will relieve some-one of a nice bit of kit !!!