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I have just started playing this week and I am trying to get the forward roll down. My friend is great player and he let me play his banjo today. He has a crow spaced bridge and light strings. It felt so much more comfortable than my regular bridge and medium strings. If I put this on my banjo would it be a mistake for a beginner?
If wider spacing and lighter strings were "more comfortable" on your buddy's banjo, then the same would most likely apply to your banjo.
Anything that makes playing feel more comfortable is a good thing, especially for a beginner, so I would say "no" it would not be a mistake.
If your banjo is more comfortable, then it will probably make you practice more, and that's also a good thing.
It may not be a case of the bridge, but the strings. Light gauge strings are much easier to play, especially for a beginner.
As a beginner I tried the Crowe spacing, believing my fingers were too fat for standard spacing. (I’m always shocked at the really large men who can play a stringed instrument well!)
The fact is I simply wasn’t experienced enough at using my fingers to play the banjo.
As mentioned earlier, the neck was a bit too narrow for the fret board, which also caused trouble.
So I put on light strings & practiced a bit more.
Problem solved!
One minor reason you might not want to switch to a bridge with the "Crowe" spacing involves the width of the neck of your banjo. The wider string spacing will reduce the margin between the first string and the adjacent edge of the fingerboard. That reduced margin tends to increase as you move up the neck. If the neck on your banjo is narrow, it can be an issue. The reduced margin means that you need to be more precise when you're fretting or doing slides and pull-offs on the first string. J.D. didn't have a problem with the precision of his left hand.
A part of learning the banjo is learning what works well for you, or doesn't. No harm in trying the Crowe spaced bridge and lighter strings on your banjo to see if what you experienced with your friend's banjo is your experience on yours. If it works, you've learned something, if it doesn't, you've learned something. A win/win either way.
Bobby
Bridges and strings are cheap enough to experiment with. I went through a lot of string sets until I found what I liked the most, and have lots of extra bridges. When I started banjo, I was coming from electric guitar with a wide radiused fretboard, and a narrow flat banjo bridge gave me fits. For the first year or so I used a Crowe spaced radiused bridge, even though my banjo had a flat fretboard. It sure helped, but eventually I was ok with flat standard spaced bridges. Now my guitar feels like an aircraft carrier. There are alway going to be traditions and suggestions, but there’s nothing set in stone, and experimenting is much of the fun!
Standard string spacing at the bridge on a Banjo bridge is 42mm. Crowe spacing is 44mm. Terry Baucom spacing is 48mm. String spacing on the nut of a banjo is generally about 1” give or take. This means that the strings taper, narrowing from bridge to nut. The string spacing where neck meets 11” banjo head is about 40mm for Crowe spaced bridge and about 39mm for standard spacing. Banjo players constantly move their picking hand back and forth from about 2” in front of the bridge to the neck area to vary sound characteristics, which in itself presents a continuous narrowing and widening of string spacing under their fingers.
It’s important to find a string spacing that is comfortable for the player when playing in every position. New players should experiment with string spacings to find their preference. Personally I prefer Crowe string spacing which is similar to acoustic guitar spacing. Owning several banjos I also find it beneficial to have the string spacing at the bridge and at the nut consistently the same on every instrument. I also have 16" radiused bridges on all of my banjos (two with radius fingerboards the others with flat fingerboards) as it facilitates more accurate picking given that standard flat top bridges can sag a bit in the middle.
Edited by - Pick-A-Lick on 01/19/2025 09:31:22
quote:
Originally posted by Pick-A-LickStandard string spacing at the bridge on a Banjo bridge is 42mm.
Great info.
In this case, it's a simple matter to lift the 1st string out of its slot on the bridge, move it 1mm toward the outside and see if it clears the side of the neck notch in the tension hoop. Likewise with the 5th string. One will immediately know if a Crowe-spaced bridge will work on their banjo.
quote:
Originally posted by Pick-A-LickOwning several banjos I also find it beneficial to have the string spacing at the bridge and at the nut consistently the same on every instrument.
Great point. This is what I do. My oldest banjo, despite its 1-1/4-inch nut, has string spacing similar to what you'd expect on Gibson's traditional 1-3/16 nuts. So this banjo has a lot of room outside the 1st and 4th strings. My other banjos -- all parts banjos on which I either slotted or filled and reslotted every nut -- have the same string spacing, which I copied from my first banjo and transferred to them. Those banjos have 1-3/16-inch nuts. The string spacing feels the same under my fingers.