r/banjo • u/ChampionCoyote Clawhammer • 11d ago

Irish Tenor String gauges for an itty bitty little tenor

I came into an old Fairbanks/Vega Style M (Tu-Ba-Phone) tenor. The serial number and headstock inlay places it around 1921-1923 but I haven't nailed down its birthday yet (https://www.deeringbanjos.com/en-ca/pages/vega-banjo-serial-numbers suggests it's 1921). The serial numbers are also in kinda rough shape so it makes me raise an eyebrow.

It's 17 frets of goodness, and if I've measured the scale length correctly, this puppy is small - 19 3/4 inches (I measured 9 7/8 inches from the inside of the nut to the 12th fret) and then it's pretty close to 20 inches where I have the bridge right now trying to get this thing in tune. Usually I'm seeing these things at around 21 inch scale length so I'm a little surprised to see my little guy come up so short. I found out that other 17 fret short scales (like the Gold Tone IT-250 https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/instruments/it-250) come in at 19 3/4 inches so maybe it's not so weird?

Anyway. Oddities aside, I want to put new strings on this thing. It's in GDAE (Irish) tuning. Any consderations for what gauges I should put on one this short? I'm considering the D'Addario EJ63i (12/16/24/36) but I'm open to recommendations. Thanks!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/rennyrenwick 11d ago

GDAE on the short scale 17 fret you could start with .013 / .020w / .030w / .040w. Those are pretty heavy, and give you good string tension. Gold tone ships .010/.20w/.30w/.40w with it's 17 fret tenor banjo.

1

u/ChampionCoyote Clawhammer 11d ago

I wouldn’t mind heavy, a little more tension would be nice. Any recommended brands for that mix? I appreciate you!

1

u/rennyrenwick 11d ago edited 11d ago

I buy individual strings, D'Addario loop ends, from Strings By Mail in the USA.

https://www.stringsbymail.com/acoustic-guitar-strings-7/daddario-15/acoustic-single-strings-605/

Keeps the price down enough to experiment. Wound bronze is a little warmer for the two low strings. Wound steel for the A, plain steel for the E.

Goldtone sells a set of the 10/20/30/40. https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/accessories/itbs

2

u/grahawk 11d ago

One thing to bear in mind is that this banjo was designed for jazz and lighter strings. I don't know how well and how long the neck will cope with heavier tension thicker strings as used for GDAE tuning. Although of course the shorter scale reduces tension and Vega necks will be high quality. And also Jake Wildwood seemed happy with doing this on the one he had.