What do banjos sound like

Vintage banjos often sound better than newer models partially because in many cases they were built better but the science behind the composition of a piece of wood as a cellular network and how these cells age explains why even when a newer banjo is built well it will usually miss at least a piece of the magic that vintage banjos have. Remember me Log in. Lost your password? How to Use a Metronome with 5 string banjo.

Should I Refinish my Banjo? However, banjos with five strings are often called five-string banjos, to lessen the confusion. The plural form for the noun banjo is banjos; the plural possessive is banjos'. It's "paddle faster, I hear banjos". You'll have to watch the movie Deliverance to understand it They find them sexy! Did you forget that those country boys love "Dueling Banjos? The banjo is a four, five or six stringed instrument so, yes, some banjos will have four strings. Log in.

String Instruments. See Answer. Best Answer. Study guides. Q: What do banjos sound like? Write your answer Related questions. What are good banjos? Do lutes make more sound then banjos? When was Banjos banjos created? What is the Difference between banjo and a ukalla? Do banjos have backs like guitars? Hardness of the neck wood will regulate how much energy is passed on to the other parts that it comes into contact with. Maple, because it is a stiffer wood, absorbs less of the energy from the strings and thus passes more of it on to the bridge.

This increased energy allows the pot assembly to vibrate with more activity and thus give you a brighter tone. The string gauges are important. Lighter gauge strings require less energy to stimulate.

Thus using lighter gauge strings will give you a brighter sound because they vibrate with a greater energy which reaches the bridge and thus passes on, again, to the pot assembly. The pressure on the strings from the tailpiece can also regulate the vibration.

With more front edge pressure on the strings, they will vibrate less freely; sharpening up the tone of the banjo. This is why an adjustable tailpiece is a friend to the banjo player.

Maple, as we have already noted, passes on the energy and absorbs less because it is a hard wood. The thickness of the banjo head will regulate how much energy gets to the pot assembly. The thicker the head membrane, the less it will vibrate. The less it vibrates, the less energy it can transfer to the pot assembly resulting in a warmer tone. Head tension does much the same as the thickness. The stiffer the head tension, the more treble you will have. Politzer believes the twangy, loud banjo sound comes from something called frequency modulation.

You can modulate the frequency of a stringed instrument by changing the tension of the string. For example, guitar players modulate the frequency of a string when they push it sideways and get that tremolo, or shaking, sound.

The tension of a plucked banjo string changes as it vibrates. Because a banjo's drum is so thin, the pluck makes the bridge vibrate as well. So the tension of the string changes twice: once from the initial pluck and then again from the resulting motion of the bridge.

This change in frequency modulation is what gives the banjo its bright, twangy sound. You might be wondering why this doesn't happen with mandolins or other stringed instruments like violins, where the bridge and the strings move in tandem. The answer is pretty simple -- it's because those instruments are made of thick wood.