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Double Bass Well...I laughed.

Neither one. It's usually some uninvited "guest" who decides to join along and steer the train wreck.
Alleged true story....I gig occasionally with a drummer who toured for decades with a DC based/ national blues band. They did a gig as the warm up band for Stevie Ray Vaughn. He was talking with SRV and asked him why he tuned down a half step. He replied "so harp players can't sit in". Brilliant.
 
As someone who has spent many hours on stages with banjos, bagpipes and accordions, I have heard all the jokes, way too many to list here.

Here's a banjo you won't see too often:

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Yup. It's fun ripping other instruments.

Just remember though, the unknown double bassist jokes are just as well loved among band mates and non-big-bowed orchestra sections.

It is a little refreshing though, at least most of the double bass jokes aren't so generic that any other obnoxious instrument can use them.

:smug:

"Why did the double bassist name his bass?" "So hopefully at least one of them would be remembered."
 
As someone who has spent many hours on stages with banjos, bagpipes and accordions, I have heard all the jokes, way too many to list here.

Here's a banjo you won't see too often:

View attachment 3965623
That actually looks cool. Cool like the ‘guitar’ my banjo playing friend showed up with many decades ago. It was an absolutely beautiful wide body Gibson tenor guitar from the ‘40s.

It sounded like rubbish.

Poor banjo players are always pressed to learn guitar. Often by misunderstanding band leaders. It just does not seem in a true banjo players DNA.

Another banjo man I played many years with got worried he would be replaced by guitar. So instead of getting a tenor guitar like Eddie Condon or my friend above he commissioned a guitar luthier. The result was a very expensive 4 string banjo tuned small guitar looking thingie he proudly called a ‘bangar’.

It also sounded like rubbish.
 
On a serious note (if you can find one on on a banjo), much of what other instrumentalists consider obnoxious about 5-string banjos is all in how they are played. Many 5-string banjo players have no idea what pulling tone or being volume-sensitive means. As someone who has spent half a century working on and teaching tasteful banjo tone and appropriate dynamic volume on banjos, I can say it can be found. That said, to really get a taste for these qualities, a banjo player needs to spend serious time working in genre other than bluegrass, because a lot of the time bluegrass just wants loud, fast and brash from the banjo. Not that I don't like bluegrass for what it adds, but broadening the genre scope can really help with how a 5-string banjo sounds.

For today's aspiring 5-string banjo players, spending a little time listening to Bela Fleck can provide some real insights about this.
 
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