Vibration characteristics of cable models with friction damper are studied experimentally. Firstly，the mechanical properties of the friction damper model made of copper and steel were tested. The relationship between torque and friction force of the damper bolt was obtained. Secondly，the experimental study on the free vibration char? acteristics of the friction damp-cable model was carried out. The logarithmic decay rate was obtained from the free vi? bration decay of displacement. The relationship between the logarithmic decay rate and vibration amplitude was ana? lyzed and compared with theoretical results. The free vibration acceleration time history was analyzed by the Fast Fourier Transform and Wavelet transform to derive the change of frequency spectrum with time. Finally，forced vibra? tion tests of the friction damper-cable system were carried out. The relationship between cable amplitude and excita? tion frequency was obtained by sweep-frequency technique. The mitigation effects of friction damper on cable resonance amplitude were investigated. The test results show that the friction damper can effectively reduce the reso? nance amplitude of forced vibration under small or large amplitude excitation. Friction damper was more efficient for the mitigation of amplitude excitation.