Mary's good on plectrum, but has a little trouble with the neck length.
So, as an Act of Love, I'm making her a neck which will give her a 20 inch scale length.
I imagine that regular Vega lights, at that scale, would be too loose to sound right, if tuned to CGBD.
Any of you know the Magic Formula for determining what gauge I should be using?
Start with Vega medium gauge strings and tweak it until you find what feels best.
When I was playing Dixieland with my plectrum banjo, I used the same strings i use on my bluegrass banjos which are GHS lights.
Magic Formula? Sure. I've got more than enough to go around.
I'm imagining the following. You already know the string diameters for your favorite tuning and scale length. You want to know the string diameters (for the same material, e.g., steel) to a shorter scale that will give the same tensions for the same tuning. (The wound 4th string may work slightly differently -- but this should be about right.)
The answer is to keep length x diameter fixed, or
(new diameter) = (old diameter) *(old length) / (new length)
That follows from the "ideal string equation," which is a pretty good approximation for musical strings. For example, a test is whether the harmonics have the right pitches at the right places.
(It's real embarrassing when I get these things wrong, but that doesn't happen too often.)
It's a (short) tenor scale. Standard tenor tuning is CGDA, so why not get a tenor set? The D will be the 1st string, and you just have to add a plain steel string a thousandth or two stouter than that for the B.
