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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on July 11, 2013 at 12:32am

E'rybody has his or her preference, but I use the middle four strings from a 6 string set. That would be the ADGB strings. With those 4 I can either tune in D6 (like a baritone ukulele) as ADF#B (chord charts for this tuning is easy to find online). Or the tuning could be changed to GDGB. One could also try a set of tenor banjo strings for CGEA tuning.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 11, 2013 at 4:11am

Yep, second Ted's advice. I use the middle 4 from a phosphor bronze medium set, and usually tune either GDGb, or ADF#b. You can even go ADGb, like a regular git, and keep a lot of already-learned fingerings.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Epstein on July 21, 2013 at 6:30am

I am also considering what strings to use on my 4-string resonator. I've got extra lights from CB Gitty on there now. Don't know who makes theirs. The .010 and .014 are nice for the D or E and B tuning for the top two strings; real twangy and loud. But the wound steel .022 for the G is dull. (I'm waiting for the post to attach my .030 wound bronze for my low D, so I don't know how that will perform.)

Recently saw that D. Addario has a chart showing the tension for all of their guitar strings, assuming a 25.5-inch scale among others. http://daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf I'm thinking of trying to find strings that have similar tension so that the tension across the bridge (where I have a rod piezo installed) will be consistent.

As with everything cbg, I suspect that there is no "right" set of strings. Some folks argue for buying separate strings rather than sets. I'm going to try that next.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on July 21, 2013 at 8:48pm

middle four strings (10's)  is the way to go if you're not sure what tuning you'll be using, plenty of room to experiment! (-:

i use 32-24-16-13 GDGb

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/four-string-cigar-box-guitars

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