"Is it not. strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's. bodies?" William Shakespeare (Much ado about nothing)
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From rmcdow on 10/2/2015 6:51:45 PM
I have an old L&H banjo with a spunover rim (two of them actually), and just strung up the second one, which is practically in mint condition, with gut strings from Boston Catlines. I have about 10 fourth strings made by National Musical String Co. (Bell Brand), so I didn't buy a fourth string from Olav. When I was stringing up the banjo, it turned out that the National strings are so old that they are too brittle to use as they are. They break. Does anyone know of a way to revive strings that are old and brittle, or is it not possible? I'm going to go ahead and order one from Olav anyway, and my second question is should I get the copper wound gut or just gut? He has both, they both tension the same at 3.2 KG, so I wonder is there really any advantage to the wound strings except the size, which is a very minimal difference (.88 mm vs .82 mm)
This is my first set of gut strings, and the difference between the two identical banjos, both with hide heads, one with OME light strings, the other with the gut, is amazing. The gut strings are loud! The tension on both is pretty much the same, about 35 pounds for all five strings together, so it is really the gut that somehow makes a big difference. Actually I have a 5/16" high bridge on the gut one and a 1/2" bridge on the steel string one, so that is also going to do something.
Any help or pointers would be appreciated.
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