Specialty Single Strings
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About Specialty Singles
Specialty singles cover the instruments where a broken string is hardest to replace and the gauges hardest to find. Banjo, mandolin, pedal steel, classical, and anything that takes a loop end.
Loop end or ball end
This is the thing to get right. A ball end string has a brass ring crimped into the end and is what a standard guitar or bass uses. A loop end has an open loop instead, and is what banjos, mandolins, most lap steels and many resonators need to sit on their tailpieces. The two are not interchangeable. We stock plain steel in both.
What we stock
| String | Gauges |
|---|---|
| Plain Steel, ball end | .008 – .026, including .0095, .0105 and .0115 |
| Plain Steel, loop end | .009 – .017 |
| Pedal Steel plain steel | .009, .010, .011, .012 |
| Mandolin phosphor bronze, loop end | .024, .026, .036, .040 |
| Banjo stainless wound, loop end | .020 – .032 |
| Banjo nickel wound, loop end | .020, .024 |
| Classits plain nylon, tie end | 1st .030, 2nd .033, 3rd .041 |
| Classits silver wound, tie end | Medium .028 .035 .040 — High .030 .037 .044 |
| Classits Elite silver wound, tie end | Medium .028 .035 .040 — High .030 .037 .044 |
Pedal steel
Pedal steel players break the third string more than every other string combined — the E9 tuning puts it under a raise, and it fatigues. Our pedal steel plain singles are stocked in .009 through .012 for exactly that reason. Buying four of one gauge is normal here, not unusual.
Classical
Classical singles are sold by string position rather than by gauge alone, because the tension matters as much as the diameter. Silver wound basses come in medium and high tension, and in both our standard Classits and our Classits Elite grade. The nylon trebles are the same in either.
Made in the USA.