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Just got a banjitar...

Discussion in 'Other Guitars, other instruments' started by gregulator450, Aug 22, 2020.

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  1. Aug 22, 2020 #1
    gregulator450

    gregulator450 Friend of Leo's Silver Supporter

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    I just picked this thing up yesterday...

    I have seen a lot of alternate tuning ideas, and different string suggestions, like using Nashville tuning or all plain string open G type tunings. If any of you out there have one of these banjo guitars, how do you tune it, what strings do you use, and why?

    20200821_150417.jpg
     
  2. Aug 23, 2020 #2
    jayyj

    jayyj Tele-Afflicted

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    Do you know the scale length? If it's guitar scale I'd go for lightish nickel wound with an unwound G as a starting point. I find too much tension and they sound a bit strangled. The short scale ones are a pain, you have to find the balance point between too light and they rattle all over the place, too heavy and they sound dead.

    I find the full scale ones work great in guitar tuning, short scale I'd probably try to think out of the box a bit with open tunings.
     
  3. Aug 23, 2020 #3
    gregulator450

    gregulator450 Friend of Leo's Silver Supporter

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    This is a full 25.5" scale length. It's got 9-42 loop end banjo-guitar strings on it. I have seen some chatter on the web about running 10-48 "super-light" acoustic guitar strings, and this will hold ball end strings. I thought about going this route because the band I will play it in does a lot of drop-D playing.

    I have also seen one guy string his into Nashville tuning and it sounded pretty cool. I will probably try both routes eventually. I am having fun with this dude so far, after giving it a setup this morning.

    For banjo guys out there, Frank Ford has an excellent tutorial on adjusting coordinating rods:
    http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Banjo/CoordRods/coordrod1.html
     
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  4. Aug 23, 2020 #4
    jayyj

    jayyj Tele-Afflicted

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    Your best bet is to have fun with it and experiment! If it's full scale you can basically treat it as a G banjo for the top four, so anywhere from 9 to 11 on top will work but watch for overall tension of going on the heavy side, if there's too much it starts sounding a bit muted.
     
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