Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
I'm buying a banjo
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
Q: What is the difference between a dead frog lying in the road and a dead trombonist lying in the road?
A: The frog probably was on its way to a gig.
I'll be one of them to say it.
6 string banjos tuned like a guitar are "banjitars", not banjos.
Enjoy the Banjitar. Plays like a guitar, sounds like a banjo, and is an effective hybrid instrument.
6 string banjos have been around for a century so perhaps they are legit. LOL
There's a 5 string Rickenbacker electric "Bantar." Model 6000. Incredibly rare, apparently.
GT
And perfect pitch is when you toss an accordion out a window into a dumpster and it hits the banjo that's already in there.
Truth be told however, I think an accordion is a pretty awesome instrument. Especially the button variety when played by the likes of Sharon Shannon or Ian Watson .
Last edited:
To any trombone haters out there...two words: Fred Wesley!!!
And three more words: PASS THE PEAS!!! I love how Fred is playing off the one as a way of emphasizing the one:
And three more words: PASS THE PEAS!!! I love how Fred is playing off the one as a way of emphasizing the one:
These TB folks complain about the weight of a P bass. Have you ever picked up banjo? A dwarf star is close.
Years ago there were replicas of primitive banjos at The House of Musical Traditions. Wish I'd bought one. Skin head on gourd body and fretless!
And light!! Don't have near the weight of a bluegrass banjo.
A lot of the old minstrel banjo method books gave attention to the low-tuned banjo, in C.
So you're finally giving into peer presure to get a banjo, huh?
I never considered getting a guitjo(or bantar) but as a teen I had a 5 string and could play stuff like Foggy Mt. Breakdown, among a lot of other bluegrass songs.
People joke about banjo music but Earl Scruggs was a phenomenal picker... I loved learing all the varied finger picking techniques.
There's also tenor banjo which is in another class and goes unappreciated by many. I used to play in a group where the BL was a multi instrumentalist, and tenor banjo was one of his mains. Their original music sounded like a the 20s mixed with the 70s... Very eclectic sound.
I say whatever you're moved to play is what you should be playing. We don't choose instruments, they choose us... and there are no bad instruments.
I never considered getting a guitjo(or bantar) but as a teen I had a 5 string and could play stuff like Foggy Mt. Breakdown, among a lot of other bluegrass songs.
People joke about banjo music but Earl Scruggs was a phenomenal picker... I loved learing all the varied finger picking techniques.
There's also tenor banjo which is in another class and goes unappreciated by many. I used to play in a group where the BL was a multi instrumentalist, and tenor banjo was one of his mains. Their original music sounded like a the 20s mixed with the 70s... Very eclectic sound.
I say whatever you're moved to play is what you should be playing. We don't choose instruments, they choose us... and there are no bad instruments.
Thank you. I think I'd found that site before; shipping costs from Europe were problematic. Maybe I should take a second look.
EDIT: I take it back. Looks like it's not prohibitive. Can't afford it at the moment, but this is hopeful.
Last edited:
I'm going to take it on faith that you know it is a three-stringed instrument.
In regards to that, archtop guitars are designed to be loud, Orville Gibson, probably the first to make one, was basing the design of off mandolins, which he knew a little bit about. The idea was to increase the "power" which it does, for a while they weren't that popular, Martin and others reigned supreme. But, when people started switching from banjo to guitar, because of big bands, and moving away from "traditional" and "hot" jazz in lieu of smooth big band dance music, the archtops came in handy. This is due to how they are like an upright bass in a way, to the player, the tone is very I guess you could say small, but move in front of it, and up to twenty feet away (if set up properly) they are fantastic, people still call them banjo killers, and if set up properly, I bet they could. So, yeah, they are kind of like an upright bass, if you know what that's like, playing is way different from feeling it and hearing it being played by someone else!
Also, a lot of people set up acoustic archtops with lighter gauge flatwounds, and set the action low. It results in not driving the top enough, which sounds awful. For big band guys like Freddie Green, Carl Kress, and Allan Reuss, they set the action very high, and used roundwounds. By the '70s, Freddie Green (Count Basie's Band, if you are interested) set his action so high, that between the 12th fret and low E string you could stack 4 pennies! James Jamerson of guitar I guess.
Last edited:
I remember those from the '68 catalog...
I'm surprised that Roger McGuinn didn't do much, if anything, with it.
