fishing line strings?

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Long Neck Banjo

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... for those of us who prefer the tuning and singing differences the LN provides. All questions & help welcome!

273 Members, Created 1/30/2011 -

Administrators: TonyS (owner) , Gary Blanchard , pastorharry , vega long neck

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From liedja on 10/25/2012 9:39:04 AM

have seen a couple posts on this....does any long necker play with fishing line? what lb test are you using? what are any advantages? very interested as it would be a plunkier sound i immagine. also wondering if it takes from volume.

any info would be great, thanks!

2 Comments
	Sean ONeel says: 10/25/2012 10:14:36 AM If you were going to use fishing line I suggest you check Pete Seeger's "Incompleat Folksinger" book...he mentions which test to use in each position if you go with fishing line. You could just go down to the local bait and tackle and eyeball it. I have played nylon on other people's banjos and am a a long-time nylon string guitarist. As for my long neck I prefer just a good medium-heavy steel string...
	john bange says: 10/25/2012 11:15:10 AM I use fishing line on my long neck banjos. I began using it becauce the sets available were too short for the long scale. The LaBella #17 set was long enough but too light. ...very cheap in 1lb spools and it seems to last forever. the weights I use are 30lb,1st, 50lb, 2nd, 60lb 3rd and 40lb 5th. I was using the wound 4th from the LaBella 17 set which can be bought from Brenunzion as a single. I stopped using them when I found the all nylgut Aquilla set which has a heavy nylgut 4 string. I get these from Bernunzio also. It is just long enough if you tie a no knot type knot to your tailpiece...I use a kerschner and apply a small amount to down force. The down force helps hold the bridge in place and adds volume to the tone. This set up, along with a tight, white frosted head gives me a warm woody tone with a loud voice. My Vega's have a 3/4 height bridge also. The best thing is that the strings seem to last forever. I have not changed strings since I found the all nylgut sets. The diameter needs to be dealt with at the nut slots to avoid pinching...only modifications I need to do. The breaking in stretching is no longer than regular nylgut strings and I have found no downside to using them.
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