I no longer play with metal banjo strings, much preferring nylon. Nylon banjo strings consists of four strings of bare nylon & one metal-wrapped nylon string - the lowest-pitched string. The main reason I've had to replace this wound string is that the metal-covering of the string is ground into each fret repeatedly while playing and unravels way before the other four bare-nylon strings give up the ghost. Sometimes the winding has unraveled after only a few weeks of playing. I have had the same problem with metal wrapped, METAL core strings as well. Here's a crude, but quite effective way to prevent unravelling & extend the life of the string by nearly double. Caution: One look at my webpage instruments and it's easy to see that I favor function FAR more than form. Continuing in that tradition.....
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The Idea: when you see wear-marks on the string, directly above the
frets, simple repositioning of the length of the string, so that the
wear marks are positioned about half-way between frets & no longer
directly over the fret, is what's needed
"Knot method": This is the crudest -- simply tie a granny-knot in the
string between the bridge and the tailpiece. While this works, the knot
weakens the string & it could break all the easier.
"Nut & bolt" method: This puts less strain on the string. Crude as hell
but it works wonderfully. Use the smallest "gauge" nuts/bolts/washers
you can find - "#2" is usually sufficient.
I've used this trick with several different instruments. Of course it
won't work on a classical guitar, unless it has a tailpiece instead of
through-the-bridge type string mounting.
Dennis Havlena Webpage at www.DennisHavlena.com