Any banjo players out there?
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Paul Certo said: BHO members are fiercely loyal to their chosen brand of banjo, if you keep in mind two things.
One,that most have at least a fairly good case of BAS. Banjo Acquisition Syndrome is rampant.
And two, a great number have changed heads, bridges and tone rings, sometimes even resonators,hoops and necks trying to change the sound of the banjo they're so loyal to. In some advanced cases of Banjo tinker-itis, only the case is original. But, there are worse things a person could be doing. I intend to build a gourd banjo, mostly for use at Historical Reenactments. Or maybe Histerical ones. Not until I change all the woodwork in my living room. Mrs. Wanda thinks that should take priority. Since I don't pull sheets with my Reenactment friends, I'm inclined to let the Mrs. prioritize my projects. She sang & played ukulele on a couple songs tonight with me, in front of several people. It was her first time out of the house with her uke. Not exactly a gig, but I was thrilled. Nothing like having a jam partner in the house with me.
Paul
I joined BHO, too (partly from my experience here on FOTMD). It's a good source of advice - and you'll get loads of it!Noreen doesn't play, but in January she played host(ess) for a jam session - she cooked up a feast for the players. In fact, the jam was her idea. Years ago when we used to go to friends' places to make music, she'd fall asleep on the chesterfield, right beside me as I was playing banjo with fingerpicks. I guess that's a form of dedication!If I had the money I suppose I'd have BAS, but it's easy not to have it when you don't, um, have it. I have no allegiance to any particular brand/maker, except my long gone Neufeld, which was eminently playable and sounded clear and clean. That's what may, some day, get me to buy another banjo - first, it has to have string spacing that's wide enough, and it has to have a tone that I like, not what people say I should have.Then again, maybe I do have a form of BAS. I have the bluegrass banjo I got to replace the Neufeld. then I got the Orpheum to replace the fact that the bluegrass banjo didn't really replace the Neufeld (because the Neufeld was a frailer). I bought a basic wooden fretless even before I got the Neufeld, and someone gave me a cheap tenor - these two need repairs to become playable. Two other banjos were given to me but went missing from my school - an old Imperial tenor (with a painting on the head of three black jazz musicians) and an old Slingerland banjo uke. And there was my first, really cheap, banjo, now departed. My list of "the ones that got away" is huge.Tinker with my banjos? Only in the most basic ways - bridge and head. It would be a sacrilege to change the Orpheum, which is a hundred years old - although I did some simple artwork on the replacement head (wonder why we don't see more of that). However, the case is brand new.
All my other banjos that have gut or nylagut strings are low tuned on big thick strings--so this is going to sound quite different--but very warm and interesting.
