resonance (lack of sustain)

[Jwh warwickshire]

I am having a problem getting my notes to sustain on a 4 string Irish tenor banjo.

Could the problem be the skin in too tight?

Any comments welcome 

[xgsjx]

Have you tried throwing it in the river?  Worked for my bagpipes. 

[Phil Starr]

I rarely play my banjo nowadays but I don't think of it as a sustaining instrument, that big old skin moving in opposition to the strings is going to damp the energy fairly quickly. Harmonically the banjo is complex and the skin is going to be tuned higher as you tighten it. I can only imagine that tightening it will just shift the resonance so the sustain would be shifted to different notes. 

 

The general concensus seems to be that increasing the mass of the bridge or the skin will increase sustain, at the expense of volume. Theres a a thing called Mikes Banjo Mute which might help. It might also be worth looking at how your strings are sitting in the nut movement there will kill the sustain. How old are your strings?

[miles'tone]

6 hours ago, Jwh warwickshire said:

I am having a problem getting my notes to sustain on a 4 string Irish tenor banjo.

Could the problem be the skin in too tight?

Any comments welcome 

Your doctor will prescribe some cream for that.

[SteveXFR]

6 hours ago, xgsjx said:

Have you tried throwing it in the river?  Worked for my bagpipes. 

 

I know someone who's bagpipes were blown up by the bomb squad. That didn't help sustain but made their least unpleasant sound. 

[Dan Dare]

Phil's right. A banjo is not an instrument that sustains. Its construction - effectively a small drum/large tambourine with strings stretched across it -  ensures notes decay swiftly. You could try different heads (an old style, thick head will deaden notes more), a heavier bridge as Phil suggests, experiment with string types and add a resonator if it doesn't have one fitted, but the nature of the beast will mean it won't sustain like, say, an acoustic guitar.