Strings

Banjo strings come in three main gauges or thicknesses. Light  Medium Heavy. Each string will in its own package and labeled.

 The normal life of a string is 30 days or less. When strings go bad the banjo will have less punch. A rough black film will cover the strings. This crud causes the string to oscillate in chaotic manner which corrupts the sound wave it produces. Thus you hear impure tones. So the fresher the string the cleaner the sound. To Care for  your strings use a product like fast fret. It's an oil that is applied to the strings before  putting your banjo in its case. The oil coats the string and prevents the salts from your hand and the moisture in the air from oxidizing the string and lessening its life.

 After putting on a new set of strings remember that a new string will stretch. This process is called elongation. Essentially a new  string is made up of molecules that haven't  had a chance to align them self yet. When a string is tightened the molecules start getting in line with each other end to end. Then when you get the string in tune these molecules still are re situating themselves for a better alignment  until they get to  a state which they are all in line. If a new string has been tuned enough to hold a pitch for long period and not stretch any more then it has been elongated.  The process of stretching a string then the molecules aligning an relaxing  until the string is staying in tune is called lower elongating. So when putting on new strings play your banjo and keep tuning for an hour or two  then the strings on your banjo will stay in tune.