This weekend I took @MissMaggie 's lead and changed my strings.
Back in the day I played Dean Markley and Stelling strings. There were times I would try other brands but these were my strings of choice. Last year when I started playing again, after 30+ years, I tried several different sets of the GHS strings. I settled in on the PF135’s. I tried the PF140’s but they are too light for me. Some of the others GHS strings didn’t make an impression.
I week ago I was impulse shopping at “The Store” and put a set of the 135’s in the cart but my gut said, “get the Stellings”. So I thought of @Archie and also purchased a set of Stelling Medium Heavies. The RED pack.
Last night I put them on, tuned, checked the bridge, tuned and played a little. They went flat so I tuned and played some more. I could tell they were stiffer and sounded different but not that much. The Twanger still had the pop. Then I noticed that the B note (4th fret) on the G string was not as sharp as usual.
I found the KORG tuner and tuned the banjo as perfect as possible. When I played the B note (4th fret). It was only slightly sharp, about 5 cents. With the PF135’s I am always sharp on the 4th fret 20 cents. I have checked this on three banjos in recent months. Two with PF135’s and one with a set of Yates’ strings of similar weight. I came home from work today to check it again. 5 cents sharp worst case.
I picked up another banjo with the lighter strings and checked it. 20 cents sharp. I made sure I was fretting straight down and as light as possible. Still Sharp. In my limited experience, with every banjo I have played, the 4th fret, G string is sharp to some degree. But I was amazed with the Medium Heavies. I guess the stiffer string doesn’t bend as much.
I am curious to the experiences others have had. I am a little bit of a tinkerer but a banjo player has to be? Right?
@MissMaggie was right. A new set of strings are good for ya. As for the motivation, I am currently losing it because the cookie smell from the kitchen is over taking my self discipline and will power.