Carberry's String Gauges???

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Irish Tenor Banjo

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From keelermatt77 on 2/26/2013 11:14:41 AM

So I got my Framus tenor banjo about a month ago, and I'm loving it. I love the sound, resonance, volume, and look of the instrument. I like how heavy it is. It doesn't feel like it's going to break in my hands, a real war horse of an instrument!

I started off using octave mandolin strings, as per mumblepeg's suggestion, capoing them at the second fret to get the 17-fret scale and reduce tension on the neck from the higher gauge. They sound great, but they are hard to play.

I have trouble with the attack. I'm constantly getting hung up on the strings with my triplets, especially on the lower strings.

I do have an unorthodox approach to triplets, favoring them to begin on an upstroke. It's pretty much the only way I can do them consistently at present! I thought I was maybe the only player in the world who did this, but then Michael Keyes told me that Angelina Carberry favors the upstroke attack, too, so the problem isn't necessarily in my technique. Perhaps I have an advantage.

So I'm studying Carberry...I searched to see what kind of string gauges she uses, and I come to find that she buys single guitar strings in whatever gauges she needs, but I find no reference to the actual gauges she prefers. Does anybody happen to know?

She's a heck of a player, and I can actually make sense of her approach because I do it, too.

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