1924 Keech Banjo Ukulele - Strings?

Boss_Holcombe

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I bought a 1924 banjo ukulele from ebay not so long ago. The strings were starting to slip like crazy so I tightened the screws in the tuning pegs and rewound the strings. Stupidly, I broke the C string in the process. I was just about to order some new ones and it occurred to me, I don't actually know what strings to buy, I believe ukulele strings come in varying lengths to reflect the different sizes of uke... Anybody think they could hazard a guess from the picture what lengths to use? It's a fair bit smaller than the concert size ukulele I used to have but I'm not sure how banjoleles measure up to normal ukes.

151537560225_1.jpg
 
Sorry, the image is tiny. Also sorry this should probably have gone in the beginners section.
 
Since the bridge is not permanently fixed on a banjolele, and measuring that will give variable results, you could measure from the edge of the nut to the top of the 12th fret, and whatever that is, then double it. The resulting number measure will tell you the scale length.

For example, if the 12th fret is 6.75" then the scale length would be 13.5" and in soprano territory

or if the 12th fret is 7.5" then the scale length would be 15" and in concert territory, and so on for ~17" for tenor and ~19-21" for baritone

once you have that measurement you can then go string shopping.

I'm pretty sure that La Bella, Aquila and D'Addario make specific strings for banjolele, but I've read here that many folks just use normal ukulele strings. So YMMV.

I've got a Zither-Heaven 'tenor' banjolele that has an 18" scale length and most tenor strings have trouble with tension at this scale in C6 tuning, so instead I use a set of Aquila Nylgut BARITONE re-entrant GCEA strings, and they work and sound just fine for me.
 
Measure the scale length from the nut to the bridge to see if it is soprano or concert. Aquila nylguts or reds seem to work well on banjo Ukes and are readily available. Martin Uke strings are also readily available and they might be a little less banjo sounding if that is what you are looking for.
 
Aquila 90u
 
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