trickcyclist - Posted - 12/06/2025:  02:32:50

Hi all, I had the option to buy a 1902 Fairbanks WL with the 28" scale and 11 13/16" pot gor a great price, so I did. It's a No 2 and has been replated and refinished, which helped with the price I guess. I'm as happy as I could possibly be with it. It was tuned to standard open G with nylon strings with a would 4th when I tried it, and sounded great. It also coped fine with being retuned to sawmill and double C. A few days after buying it I tried capoing to D and tuned the 5th string up a tone. It snapped. I took the capo off and put on an Aquila 5th, tuned it back to double C, and that snapped after a couple of minutes of playing (fortunately with enough left to reuse it). So now I've tuned to double A. Honestly, it sounds great but I want to play in standard tunings. My question is, was this banjo tuned incorrectly and should it have been tuned lower? My understanding was that even the long scale Professional Artist Whyte Laydies were still commonly tuned to open G back when they were new, and it was banjos from the 18th century that had lower tunings as standard, inasmuch as any standard existed then. Is that wrong? And if it's right, can somebody suggest a set of nylon strings that will work? (I've bitten the bullet and bought a banjo highway 5th string capo so won't be tuning up again).

Edited by - trickcyclist on 12/06/2025 02:33:42

Bill H - Posted - 12/06/2025:  03:18:22

I wouldn't think you would have any trouble with standard tunings. I have a Fairbanks Electric with an 11 1/2" pot and 27-inch scale. I don't think i have ever broken a string. Nylon strings are very resilient in my experience. Could a 28" scale make that much of a difference? I wouldn't think so. Be sure to check for any sharp edges on your tuners or tail piece.



For strings, I have been using nylon strings from Joel Hooks sized for vintage banjos. I have two: an 1895 Bay State and the 1898 Electric, and I like the sound with the Aquila strings he offers. Both banjos are clear and bright with good volume and I have never broken a string.

 

banjothimble.com/classic-era-banjo-strings

csacwp - Posted - 12/06/2025:  04:52:35

Your Whyte Laydie would have been strung with very thin gut strings and silver-wound silk fourth. It would have been tuned to standard tuning (gCGBD). Today, you can buy nylon strings in the correct gauges from Joel Hooks, or you can make your own set by ordering singles from LaBella, Pyramid, or others. The gauges you want are .017", .019", .023", .024" wound, .017". I personally prefer a .023" or .022" wound fourth on some banjos, but most people seem to prefer the .024".

banjoboyd - Posted - 12/06/2025:  06:55:03

I use .017s (LaBella pack from Joel Hooks) on my 27" banjo and have never had issues with breakage. If you're mostly playing clawhammer, you might prefer slightly heavier, like in the .018-.020 range for a 1st/5th string (the standard pack of LaBella "17s" are actually .019). But for fingerstyle, the .017s are great.

trickcyclist - Posted - 12/06/2025:  10:35:02

Thank you all, that's exactly what I thought. It's just that google searches suggested lower tunings were the current norm. I'll put it down to a duff string and try some of the ones suggested.

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 12/06/2025:  11:18:33

Since no other posters mentioned it, and since you broke your 5th string twice, I wanted to relate my experience with Aquila Nylgut strings. I put their 4th Red Series on a banjo and had similar breakage issues. I then went to a different set with no red strings. Those lasted a little bit longer, but still broke. It was always the 1st or 5th string that broke.
I did some reading here and elsewhere and from that I learned that nylon strings are particularly vulnerable to breakage by any scraping or other damage caused by burrs or sharp edges.
I got a set of nut files from StewMac and opened up the slots to better fit each string. Then I got some very fine sandpaper (600, then 800, then 1200) and carefully smoothed the slots in both bridge and nut with just a couple gentle passes with each grit.
This all took place about 6 or 7 months ago and the strings are holding up with only one break of the 5th string on the banjo I play most (every day). I attribute that breakage to violating the cardinal rule against using RR spikes on nylon strings.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 12/06/2025:  14:06:40

Jon Borcherding , slight correction. Because the trade name “nylgut” causes confusion, these strings are made of polyester, not nylon.

Nylon is quite resistant to cutting, which was a major feature as to why it became the standard material for fishing line.

Polyester “nylgut” will rip at the slightest nick. The “red” strings are worse as the additive to try and simulate wire strings makes the already weak extrusion much weaker.

For the entire history of the banjo as we know it today, the 4th string was wound. This was done for a reason, Aquila did the banjo community a huge disservice with the unwound 4th.

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 12/06/2025:  14:27:13

quote:

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Originally posted by Joel Hooks

Jon Borcherding , slight correction. Because the trade name “nylgut” causes confusion, these strings are made of polyester, not nylon.



Nylon is quite resistant to cutting, which was a major feature as to why it became the standard material for fishing line.



Polyester “nylgut” will rip at the slightest nick. The “red” strings are worse as the additive to try and simulate wire strings makes the already weak extrusion much weaker.



For the entire history of the banjo as we know it today, the 4th string was wound. This was done for a reason, Aquila did the banjo community a huge disservice with the unwound 4th.

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Thanks Joel, 

I stand corrected.  

RE: the wound 4th string, I tried a set of Aquila Classic strings w/ a wound 4th a while back and they sounded pretty bad, but that was on a cheap beginner instrument so now I'm wondering if I blamed the strings for the shortcomings of a cheap banjo.  That was the first time I tried switching to plastic strings and I quickly went back to steel because they were so unresponsive and dull.

My "banjo ear" has also evolved since that time too.  It might be time to go back and do a reassessment of plastic strings with a wound 4th.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 12/06/2025:  14:48:13

You were very likely using the wrong bridge.

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 12/06/2025:  15:03:16

quote:

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Originally posted by Joel Hooks

You were very likely using the wrong bridge.

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Definitely!  It was the 3 foot el cheapo that came with it.  But I have switched one of my plastic-strung banjos to a 2-foot and while it produced a better tone with the 2 foot it wasn't an earth shattering difference.  Would it make a bigger difference on the Ibanez?  I dunno.

At any rate I'm just gonna slap the resonator back on the Ibanez and find some kid to give it to.  I don't really play it anymore and I don't feel like it's worth the trouble of dealing with flaky people on craigslist to sell it.

John Yerxa - Posted - 12/06/2025:  18:56:05

What sort of 5th string tuner does it have? If it is the planetary type, it eats Nylgut strings. The stretching of the string causes it to bulk up inside the tuner until it cuts the string. Ask me how I know. Also, I've been using railroad spikes with Nylgut without a problem, just make sure the profile isn't sharp. I use Medium Nylguts with a classical guitar D string for fourth. In general I've found that the Nylguts sound great in the thin rolled rim banjos, (my Stewarts, not so great on my Tubaphone or my own, block rim ones.