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BanjoDuster - Posted - 07/14/2009: 14:06:05
While playing a song at a "fast" tempo, I "popped" the second string, a GHS L12. Fortunately, after locating a replacment string, I was back in busness within a matter of a few minutes. I have no fault with that string or its manufacturer. Has anyone else ever broken a string while playing the banjo?
Edited by - BanjoDuster on 07/16/2009 15:19:00
Banjov1 - Posted - 07/14/2009: 14:29:08
I was just thinking about this the other day. I've played for just over 2 years now and I can't recall breaking a single string. Maybe I need to pick harder 
Tony
bigfeller - Posted - 07/14/2009: 14:51:37
I don't think I have ever broken a string either, not while playing anyway. I have been playing for about 2 years also, probably closer to 2 1/2, and I can't remember breaking a single string.
jimh269b - Posted - 07/14/2009: 14:52:40
ted i have broken a lot of them in my time could be fault in some the strings they make now
jim reed
The KIDD - Posted - 07/14/2009: 15:22:09
Hey Ted,where did it break? Alotta times during the summer,the humididy will cause strings to rust on twist above the loop. You cant even see it (maybe a kid with 20/15 can. ). Speshally under a tailpiece flap that could be holding moisture after a damp nite.That can often be the culprit.
Man,I can honestly say that during my 131yrs of playin, Ive never broke a string, or had one break... I seen Doug D break 3 in 3 tunes.
http://www.myspace.com/johnkuhnbluegrass
Banjo John C - Posted - 07/14/2009: 15:23:46
Never broke one while playing. Broke a few before i learned how to pay attention while tuning. Bad things happen when you turn a tuner while sounding a different string.
Old Tyme, all the time
mike gregory - Posted - 07/14/2009: 15:26:51
quote:
Originally posted by The KIDD
Hey Ted,where did it break? Alotta times during the summer,the humididy will cause strings to rust on twist above the loop. You cant even see it (maybe a kid with 20/15 can.). Speshally under a tailpiece flap that could be holding moisture after a damp nite.That can often be the culprit.
Man,I can honestly say that during my 131yrs of playin, Ive never broke a string, or had one break... I seen Doug D break 3 in 3 tunes.
http://www.myspace.com/johnkuhnbluegrass
Wow! Good thing you were too young to be drafted into the Civil War! They do break. Sometimes when playing, sometimnes when tuning, sometimes when the banjo is dropped. I've only been at it half a century, but I never kept count of the breaks. =):{ ) Mike Gregory, Banjo Maker Infraordinaire When I say my instruments are as good as anything Gibson or Martin ever made, I mean MEL Gibson and DEAN Martin! My banjos can be seen on my own website http://littlebanjos.lunare.netSee me & my SQUARED EEL banjo on the Y''all tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97EfvhFgRBY
BanjoDuster - Posted - 07/14/2009: 16:00:15
The break occurred a few inches from the tuning peg; the strings were changed about a month ago and they are medium lights.
Edited by - BanjoDuster on 07/14/2009 16:29:59
fretlessinfortwayne - Posted - 07/14/2009: 16:15:47
If you want to hear a trainwreck in the making, listen to me playing and singing "Elkhorn Ridge." And, yes, that was my fifth string that popped at the very end of the song.
http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango...usicid=11106
Dean
"Each one''s got to have his own style. It''s all creamed potatoes, just fixed a little different." -- Benton Flippen
RatLer - Posted - 07/14/2009: 16:18:27
Never broke a string in 30 some odd years whlie playing, a couple when tuning...
RatLer
CUDavidO - Posted - 07/14/2009: 17:36:12
I've been guilty of leaving strings on waaay past their useful life. One night late into the evening while vigorously picking away, the second string broke, the lower half recoiling back and pierced the top of my right hand. I looked down and noticed the string sticking out of the back of my hand had punctured the vein that runs down between my second and third fingers. Didn't really hurt, but I tend to have a high pain threshold. I pulled the string out of the top of my hand and wondered about tetanus. There was blood on the banjo head that night my friends. Absolutely true story.
CUDavidO
Pasadena, CA
mike gregory - Posted - 07/14/2009: 20:37:42
CUDavidO, it sounds like you had a perfect album title staring you in the face.
fretlessinfortwayne - Posted - 07/16/2009: 08:30:21
You've heard of the song, "Blood on the Saddle." How about "Blood on the Banjo?"
Dean
"Each one''s got to have his own style. It''s all creamed potatoes, just fixed a little different." -- Benton Flippen
SandyR - Posted - 07/16/2009: 14:15:13
("Blood On the Strings": imaginary Starday LP of the early '60s.) This is amazing, as I've never heard of a banjo picker not breaking a string (while playing) at some point! I know I have. If it's evolving the other direction, so much the better!
connerspur - Posted - 07/16/2009: 14:36:22
I've broken the 2nd string while using D-Tuner in a song, like Flint Hill Special.
David
Thor - Posted - 07/16/2009: 14:55:03
Never. 20+ years.
stelling man - Posted - 07/16/2009: 16:53:17
I've broke many of them In the fourty years I've been pickin, I even broke a bridge doing a live radio show years ago, Right In the middle of Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms..
STELLING MAN
formertd - Posted - 07/16/2009: 17:55:58
I must be doing something wrong because I have broken a string at least 5 times during a song.
jrdew - Posted - 07/16/2009: 19:00:07
Since 1977, I've never broken a string while playing. Tuning, after a string change, is another matter. Boing!
SandyR - Posted - 07/17/2009: 00:31:28
5X during one song is as surprising as never. Yeah, there might be something to check around the bridge slot....
diarmaid - Posted - 07/17/2009: 09:30:04
yeah i broke one more than once while playin
Shimdog - Posted - 07/17/2009: 10:23:49
Here is a side story on this topic that amazed me. When I go to Nashville, in addition to bluegrass I sometimes go to hear blues music. There is a great band that plays now at BB King's fronted by a guy named Stacey Mitchhart. First of all, I highly recommend hearing him and his band..they are great.
Back to the story. Once when I heard him, he broke a string while playing a solo on an electric guitar. Unbelievably, he continued to play his solo break with only his left (fretting) hand using hammer-ons while proceeding to change the string with his right hand. I know it can only be done on an electric, but still it was very cool. So while he continues to play his break up and down the neck, he takes off the broken string, fishes around on the floor with his foot to find the correct replacement string, picks it up, gets it out from the packaging, strings it up and tunes it to pitch...and then finishes his two-handed break. It took all of 2 minutes. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
Sorry for the tangent, but I couldn't help sharing the story.
Paul
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"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Friedrich Nietzsche
flake - Posted - 07/17/2009: 13:30:18
Lots of guitar strings, even an electric bass sting, but not as many banjo strings. The last time was on stage, about two years ago during the opening C roll in "Shucking the Corn"-----the G third string. They had about four hours of playing time on them. Snapped it right at the bridge with my index finger.
I use Prestos so it only took about a minute to replace it.......but it was the World's longest minute.
mike
Less is more. Unless you''re standing next to the one who has more. Then less just looks pathetic.
The Old Timer - Posted - 07/17/2009: 13:43:32
Broken LOTS of 1st strings while playing, sure! A few 5ths I think. Over 40 years.
Broken them at the tuning peg, at the nut, at the bridge and in the tailpiece.
Old age was usually the cause, or just plain playing too hard. Rarely break one now, as I have learned to set my banjos up good to avoid mechnical reasons for breakage, also settled on GHS strings which I think perform really good. Crowes and Osbornes.
Everett Lilly used to egg on Don Stover after Everett had the EDUCATION of playing with Flatt & Scruggs. He used to yell at Don "break some strings! knock down some walls!" because apparently in those days Earl played HARD.
There are recordings of Earl breaking strings in mid-song. Notably Foggy Mt. Chimes at the Newport Folk Festival! Also on the Martha White live radio show. I've seen Ralph Stanley, Don Reno, Eddie Adcock, Rob McCoury and MANY more break strings during performances.
I can't understand why Jimmy Mills doesn't break the 1st string on EVERY song!
No shame in breaking a string while you're playing, but if you do, you'd better learn to change strings FAST! I saw Eddie Adcock replace a string DURING the same song he broke the string, WHILE SINGING.
The Old Timer, still learning!
Douch - Posted - 07/17/2009: 14:55:15
Once in my thirty years of playing. It was on Old Cutler Road in Coral Gables (Old Cutler Pub I think it was called). First song - three seconds into it. Broke the high D string and had no spare. The evening was over and I was truly embarrassed.
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