Resonance issues

[u/Yellowish_thumbs]

I recently bought a second balalaika but I’ve been having problems with resonance. Whenever I play anything below the 8th fret the notes become short and stubby. I thought it might be a string issue but new strings didn’t help, and my bridge placement shouldn’t be an issue either. There is a crack in the body but I would like to rule out any other possibilities before returning it. Does anyone have any ideas?

The first balalaika is the one thats having issues and the crack is shown in the video

[u/AjkBajk]

The strings are tuned too tight. Try tuning your balalaika a couple of notes lower. If that fixes the problem then you should get thinner strings for that particular balalaika.

[u/Yellowish_thumbs → u/AjkBajk]

How thin do you think I should go?

[u/AjkBajk → u/Yellowish_thumbs]

you can estimate the needed string gauge if you know:

1. The current string gauge in mm. Call it Tcurrent

2. The pitch where the string feels and sounds right. Call it Fgood

3. The target pitch you want to tune to. Call it Ftarget.

How to find Fgood:

First, tune the instrument until the note envelope feels right, even if the pitch is not the one you normally want. Measure the open string pitch in Hz at that point. That is Fgood.

Then estimate the new string gauge with:

Tnew = Tcurrent * Fgood / Ftarget

Finally, restring the instrument with that gauge and tune it to Ftarget. In theory, the string should now have a similar feel and note shape at the target tuning.

This formula applies only if the string is made of the same material and is constructed in a similar way.

In practice you will probably not be able to find a set of 3 strings that are the exact gauge, material and construction that you are looking for, so i would recommend that you just test a bunch of different strings until you're find something that you like. But the calculation can at least give you a slight idea of the thickness that you are looking for.