String Sing-Along (Sympathetic Vibration) Is Not the Key to Banjo Sound

Abstract

Among instruments that do not sport explicit sympathetic strings, banjos produce particularly strong sympathetic and other secondary sounds arising from interactions among the melody strings. That certainly contributes to the characteristic timbre and is easily demonstrated and explained. However, a sampling-synthesis experiment suggests that it is not an essential feature of what distinguishes banjo sound from other acoustic, plucked instruments.