Do you have a favorite brand?

As a banjo player you have a fairly wide choice in banjo strings, but your available local options may be limited by geographical considerations or retailer decisions on what brands they want to sell. For this reason, the world wide web has become the banjo player’s best friend when it comes to strings and supplies, so really, the sky is the limit!

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My personal favorite is GHS

Banjo Paul recommends GHS strings!

I‘ve tried a few different brands of banjo strings over the years, but I settled in on GHS fairly early on and became quickly satisfied with them. I have to admit that I haven’t made deep clinical comparisons on all the brands, but like I said I did try a few, but for my money GHS work the best. And as the old saying goes, if you find something you like, you stick with it!

The GHS line is a very popular one, and they sell a lot of strings in the U.S. If you look at their product offerings, you can see a few string models endorsed by, and named after, a couple of the world’s best banjo players: Sonny Osborne and J.D. Crowe. That’s a pretty big reason to love these strings for sure.

I like GHS because the price is right, which is a big consideration, but also because they sound good, have great tone,  they offer a wide range of string guages (that’s not exclusive to GHS, but still important), they don’t seem to wear out quickly, string breakage is surprisingly minimal for me, and for me, they just “feel right”. String breakage for me, in fact, is so rarely encountered that when it does happen to me on stage or in a jam, it actually raises eyebrows. My fellow musicians often have a “hey, wow, I’ve never seen you break a string…” type of reaction when it happens.

Much of why I like the brand falls under the “gut feeling” category, but for me, my gut feeling is important for sure. The strings just flat out work for me and keep me satisfied. If you don’t have an established relationship with a retailer of banjo strings, I’d sure be honored and appreciative if you’d consider going to my online store and ordering from me. To access the Banjos Rule! Shameless Commerce Division, click here.

What banjo strings do you like?

Many of you have established favorites that aren’t GHS…I’m curious as to how you based your opinion on that. What is it you like about your favorite strings? Have you compared them to GHS, and if so, what did you not like about GHS, or what did your favorite brand add in addition to what GHS strings offer? I’m always trying to increase my knowledge base and so I may learn something from this discussion. I’m aware of a handfull of banjo string brands out there, such as:

• Vega
• GHS
• Martin (banjo strings)
• Black Diamond
• Elixir

I know that’s only a partial list; likely I’m missing a dozen more brands, but in my west Michigan area, these are the brands that I’ve seen offered or that I’ve run across. I’d love to learn about others!

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Please reply with your favorite banjo string brand below!

I‘m hoping that you’ll consider leaving some comments on this topic at the very bottom of this blog post in the comments section. I love interactivity with my blog readers, and we can all learn from each other in this manner. Perhaps you’ll educate me enough to force me to look at your favorite brand of strings, or maybe we’ll give some other beginning banjo players something new to consider. Thanks so much for spending some time with me on this topic, and as I always say: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em!

Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
www.banjosrule.com (main site)
www.mybanjolife.com (blog)
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