When I tune my 25&1/2" scale banjo down to open D (dADF#A) with Minstrel Nylgut strings the tone is not as clean and clear and sounds a bit "clacky" for want of a better word. Also it goes out of tune after only a tune or two. When I tune it up two steps to open E all the problems disappear and sounds and plays great. However open D fits the range of my voice better.
So: Have you solved this problem with a 26&1/4" scale?
Or found nylon guitar strings that work for open D?
Or another solution I am not aware of? banjered
I prefer longer scales for Briggs tuning, 27" or 28".
You probably need to experiment with heavier gauge strings on the shorter scale.
Ignoring the fact that there is no such thing as "minstrel tuning".
The intervals that you provide are for the auxiliary scordatura of "elevated bass", the correct standard intervals are dGDF#A, which is what you give with the 4th string lowered one step.
Using the intervals of "elevated bass" as the "standard tuning" seems to come after Bluegrass hits post WW2. Prior to that, raising the 4th one step was only used for certain pieces to allow easier fingering. I'll add that 99% of the pieces marked "elevated bass" are easily playable in standard.
In the only banjo method that uses this pitch (it was nearly immediately abandoned for A) only two pieces indicate to use "elevated bass" (actual instruction "tune the fourth string to A").
At that time scales were quite long and the strings used were a combination of double length violin and guitar strings (with a wound 4th-- always a wound 4th).
Fast forward to 1860 and we get some pretty basic measurements:
archive.org/details/buckleys-n.../mode/1up
To put this in perspective, the Stewart Champion hanging on my office wall is 11.5" rim with a 27.5" scale with a measurement of 31" from the nut to the "extreme edge of the rim" and was made at a time when banjos were pitched to C.
The instructions in Buckley are for a banjo pitched in A, with a 14" rim and four inches longer total measurement. The scale is not given.
But we do get a scale from Converse in 1865, again we are pitched in A. 27.5" with a 12.5" rim.
archive.org/details/converse-f...5-x-24-in
For more reading on relative pitch and the banjo check out my article here:
archive.org/details/abf-5-stri.../mode/1up
25.5" is very short. I have a Gatcomb Standard that is about that length and it struggles not to buzz out in C due to the short scale. For the pitch of C, IMHO, 26" is the absolute minimum usable.
If you are using the short lived "Briggs" pitch, I would recommend a minimum of 27.5 to as much as 29" for scale.
My Dobson with ~25.6" scale does fine at "Briggs pitch" with that set.
Briggs' book, like all the earliest tutors, makes some mention of treating the notation as relative, and tuning the banjo to whatever absolute pitch suits the voice, or other instruments.
Briggs' notation ("G notation") was indeed short-lived, but Asbury's pitch here is ~dGDF#A... in 1894.
https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990032404430203776
