What kinda axe you got?
There are such a wide variety of banjo styles and types out there, and it’s always fun to get to meet other banjo pickers out in public and trade instruments for a song or two to see how the other person’s banjo handles. So I’m curious to know what you are playing out there in banjo land.
I play a Gold Star
I‘m actually on my third Gold Star banjo. It only just struck me as I’m typing this paragraph that there may be some kind of jinx or curse on me regarding Gold Star banjos, but I’ll remain positive and hope that there isn’t.
I blogged before about the fact that I had a Gold Star banjo vandalized and ruined in 2009 (to read the blog post, click here.) That was pretty devastating because I really liked that banjo.
The trouble with my Gold Stars started in the mid 90′s when I had a Gold Star…one of the original batch of Gold Stars when they were fantastic banjos…stolen from my car. How’s that for a sick thief? Usually they break a window and throw more in. But no, they stole mine. So now I’ve had a Gold Star stolen and a Gold Star smashed and unuseable. Hopefully I can protect my latest Gold Star better.
What do you play?
I‘m curious to know what my readership are playing these days. Do any of you have high-end banjos that would make the rest of us drool? Anyone have my dream banjo: the Huber? Are any of my readers Gibson players? Deering players? Louzee players? (Yep! That’s a brand of banjo!)
Please leave comments at the bottom of this blog post and share your instrument of choice…or instrument of the moment, whatever the case may be. Did you get a good deal on the banjo you are playing? Does it have any historical or sentimental value? Do you have one for sale that you’d like to mention? Please consider sharing with us below. And if you email me pictures, I’d even do a blog post featuring a gallery of my readers banjos.
Thanks everyone! Looking forward to learning about your instrument. Take care, come back and see me again, and oh yeah: pick ‘em if ya got ‘em!
Banjo Paul
“Wunse, I coodn’t even spel bango pikker…now I are one!”
www.banjosrule.com (main site)
www.mybanjolife.com (blog)
Click here: Ultimate Metronome
I had to chime in. I’ve got a Louzee (not lousy) banjo. It is a Walnut-Chrome made in 2003. I traded it for a 2009 Deering GDL I had purchased new.
After tinkering with the Deering for nine months, I just couldn’t get the tone I wanted. I also have very small hands and wanted a slimmer neck. My Louzee is all the banjo I have ever hoped for.
Even though I went “backwards” in retail value, I feel the Louzee is a far better banjo for me, and my style of playing. The trade was well worth it. The only thing that could be better than having this Louzee banjo, is to someday have an additional one, in Maple.
Hey Tim, thanks so much for chiming in! I appreciate knowing what you are playing. I’ve put my hands on a few Louzee’s, and they seem to be fine instruments. The main thing is that it makes you happy and works for your style and abilities. It’s a match made in heaven! Stay in touch and keep on pickin’!
Hi. I’m a guitar player who always wanted to try the Banjo. Well I’m about to commit the Cardinal sin in a banjo forum of admitting I bought a 6 string banjo (from Luna) since I didn’t want to start all over again in the learning curve. It is a beautiful instrument, but I had to do some modifications to get it to play well (the bridge was way too high and placed in the wrong spot). I also had mis-tuning as I played up the neck (like one of your readers). So I measured the distance to the 12th fret from the nut and doubled it and found that the bridge was off 7/16 inch! So I moved it. Also I had to laugh because I had the same problem as one of your commentors, the banjo neck kept sinking in my lap cause the round banjo rotated (a guitar player isn’t used to that!). So I got some strap pegs from Stew-Mac and put on a strap. That kept the banjo neck from sinking.
Anyway, after all these changes, it now plays beautifully! I am now learning “The Hesitation Blues” on the banjo. Has anyone else played around with a six string? And why is it such an anathema to play a 6-string banjo?
Hi gitpaws, thanks so much for taking the time to put a reply on this blog post. Welcome!
I have several thoughts for you. You asked why it’s anathema to play a 6-string banjo. The short answer is that it’s not. Music of all kinds is wonderful. Buy a zither. Buy an accordian. Buy a gitjo. Buy a piano. Play ‘em all and have fun. Music is God’s gift to us and don’t let anyone stop you. However…decide what you are doing and then seek out the appropriate APPLICATION for what you are doing.
What if you loved the Beverly Hillbillies theme song and took several weeks to get really good at it on your…gulp…ACCORDIAN?! No harm in that really, unless you decided to then take your accordian to a bluegrass festival or a stringed instrument jam session. The accordian is the wrong application for bluegrass songs and bluegrass jamming.
So how about the 6-string banjo? Well, it’s as different from 5-string banjo as the accordian is. If you want to play 6-string banjo in some scenarios that it fits in, fine and dandy!! Have at it. (It sounds great in some of Keith Urban’s music for sure.) But…if you are going to frequent bluegrass jam sessions or even hang out on a website like mine, well that’s the wrong application for the gitjo. We have nothing in common other than we play round-bodied insruments with strings. The technique isn’t the same, the sound isn’t the same, the songs I learn typically aren’t the songs you learn. You are learning the “Hesitation Blues”? Never heard of it but if it’s blues, well that’s different than bluegrass.
You spent an awful lot of time and effort to set up your gitjo, laboring under the idea that you didn’t want to have to start over again in the learning curve. Based on the instrument you are playing and the material you are choosing, I hope you don’t think that you are becoming a “banjo player” this way. You just playing a novelty guitar. By banjo player I’m referring to the most popular flavor of that term, and that is the bluegrass based player of banjos flavor. You aren’t wrong to enjoy the gitjo gitpaws, so please everyone don’t write me and criticize me for picking on gitpaws here. I’m just being very very literal is all. The instrument you are spending time learning is not one that I or my readers can relate to much. If it makes you happy, well heck…that’s beautiful! But understand that you aren’t a banjo player just because the instrument is round and has strings.
The gitjo does have it’s place of course, but if you try to hang with a local group of acoustic bluegrass pickers, playing your gitjo, well now you know why you might be getting shunned. Just remember to take the gitjo into gitjo-appropriate settings and applications, like country or rock or blues. To say “I just love the sound of the banjo and so I picked up a gitjo” is a flawed statement. You aren’t playing banjo. You are playing a specialized unique instrument, and the two of us will end up moving in very different musical circles.
Hope that helps clear it up! Thanks so much and don’t hesitate to converse more about this if you like.
Ouch, I guess I’m in the wrong place. I’ll take my novelty guitar elsewhere, I can take a hint. PS. Its a good thing Harvey Reid doesn’t play a six string Banjo, cause this darn thing he’s playing sounds as beautiful (maybe more) than any banjo I’ve heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbpHOlaYP5k&NR=1
Well gosh gitpaws, my little declaration of how gitjo’s and banjo’s are different certainly wasn’t meant to be an ouch moment. If you were following my site as an accordian player and asking questions and making comments, I’d say “well, accordian doesn’t really mix with the focus of this site”. The same goes for the gitjo. It doesn’t really mix with the focus of this site. But you and everyone else are welcome to be here and take part regardless! I’m glad to have you.
By the way, that video you showed sure was great. That picker sure does play his gitjo like a 5-string banjo though. That isn’t the usual application of the gitjo for sure.
Well, just found this site and am adding to my list of favorites. As far as my banjo, by the end of this week I am expecting to have my Gold Tone BG-250F. I heard its sweet tones and have fallen in love. Man, am I anxious to start plucking it!
Have a Morgan Monroe Cascade with a Fults Parallel tailpiece. Very powerfull banjo.
Well,… the only one that I bought and haven’t touched is a Morgan Monroe MGB-1. I like the sound (especially after switching to Med Light strings…) and I have…six that I have built and three more that are in various stages of completion. Three are open back and one is electric. They all have different sounds and lately I have been playing around with different heads (Ren head, Fiberskyn head, Hide head, etc) to see if I can improve or change the sound. What can I say, I like to tinker….but Banjo Paul got me started a few years ago…but that is a different story!
Started with an entry level instrument, but it failed to put me off. Now have a Deering Sierra, (pricey, but I might as well spend my money before the tax man does!) which I am sure that I will play one day! Last 12 months have had some medical problems, but hope now to be on the mend and get down so some serious banjoing. Will keep picking and get there. Best to all.
When you opened up this topic, I was a little intimidated to hear what everyone else might be playing compared to my chosen, er, afforded, instrument. I started out several months ago on a pre-war…open- back Beltone. I gave 10 bucks for it in a junk/antique store. A good friend of mine kidnapped it with my wife’s help and rebuilt it. My family “regifted” it to me last Father’s Day. I started learning to play it and fell in love with the banjo. I upgraded to a Fender FB-54 recently since the price was in my ballpark. While I may not yet have the Gibson RB250 I dream about, I know the Fender is more banjo than I can handle yet. With Banjo Paul’s help and patience, my prayer is that I may someday be able to play a tune that someone will be able to recognize.
Hey Bill, thanks for sharing! You know, based on what I’ve heard on the recordings you’ve sent me, you are well on your way and doing fine. You sound great so far. I know some of what I had you work on has been a step back for you, but consider a step back in order to “tune up” your picking, making the harder stuff easier when we come to it.
Keep it up bro! God bless and I’ll talk at ya soon.
You know Paul , my Washburn B-18 it is is all most 30 years old and the tone & reticence are out standing and it so loud it is unreal so you never know what you have till you play it & now that I have been playing for about 8 months I get so much more from it than I did in June .
Thanks for Banjo Paul web page it has been a big help for me.
Keep picking to keep us picking.
Ken N
Hi Ken, what an uplifting message you left! Thanks so much for sharing that. I know you’ll do well at the banjo so keep it up!
Hi Paul, this is Sundance. I’m a 7 year old Golden Retriever and PickinChick is my pet human. She left the computer on and I’m writing to inquire as to why you didn’t tell her to buy a Gold Star because it would be either stolen or vandalized by now and I wouldn’t have to bite your leg Saturday when she has another futile lesson. Oh yeah, first I had to put up with endless mangling of Cripple Creek on that &*$!! Recording King Pro she came home with. Why, oh why, couldn’t it have been a man?? At least a man would take me for car rides or hunting or something…And then, THEN she figures out the RK doesn’t play in tune up the neck–not that it matters any, everything she plays sounds like a cat caught in a power outtake of a combine–THEN she walks in with this Stelling Sunflower! That thing is so LOUD it could wake the dead! And she doesn’t play any better than before! At least I could howl and drown her out with the other banjo. Now I have to listen to nonstop loops of Theme Time accompanied by neighbors throwing rocks at the aluminum siding. Couldn’t you, maybe, sorta tell her that her playing will always sound like a gaggle of wild turkeys on LSD and maybe she should just stick to the drums? At least they don’t give me indigestion. And if you can’t convince her to give up the banjo, could you at least try a little harder to teach her to play better? Geez….I..oh no, here’s Theme Time again..your leg is dog meat on Saturday, buddy..99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALLLLL, 99 BOTTLES OF BEER…TAKE ONE DOWN AND PASS IT AROUND, 98 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALLLLLLLL…
Hey Sundance, thanks for the message! Your concerns and banjo prejudices are duly noted. I’d like to keep my leg intact so is there any way I can make it up to you?
I have only owned 2 banjos since I began playing. My first was a $150 Hondo that was terrible. The neck weighed more than the pot and I spent most of my time wrestling with it to stay upright. For the last 5 years I have owned a GoldTone OB-250. I upgraded to Keith Tuners, put on a Fults 1934 tailpiece, and changed over to a Snuffy Smith bridge. I use GHS pf-160 strings. These additions all helped a lot. I’ve been very happy with it since then, but I can’t seem to get the action low enough to make fretting up the neck easier. I’ll e-mail a picture. George
Hey George, thanks a lot for commenting. I find it really interesting to see what people have. Sounds like you really souped up the Gold Tone and made it quite a nice banjo. I received your pic but can’t attach pics to these comments, so I’ll hang on to it and maybe get it onto my main site. Thanks again!
I play a Washburn B-11, which is a mid-priced banjo made by the Washburn company located in Ilinois (they also make guitars). Its a beautiful and well-toned instrument. Mostly Mahogany. It was the only one in the store within my price range and it was almost half-off (list is $720) Hanging by its lonesome on the rack, it was love at first sight. It was my Christmas present this year.
My fantasy banjo is the Dobro banjo on featured on Ross Nickerson’s website. That’s in another league altogether. Right now I’ll have to learn to play the banjo I have now but man, someday…
Hey FlyingHighFish, thanks so much. I am not familiar with the Dobro Banjo; I’ll have to check that out. I appreciate you reading my blog though and thanks a ton for taking the time to comment. It’s nice to know you are out there and it’s interesting to know what people play! Keep in touch.
I have Washburn B 18 arch top , if ever progress in my playing I would get a Sullivan Historic Vintage 35 , but at 66 and still inside of a year at leering might not happen @ this time in my life. Just keep pik’n & and wishing .
Ken N
Hey Ken, thanks for leaving the comment. You know, you are never too old to dream, so don’t say “never”!
I play a Silvertone, and it’s from the end that makes the high end possible. It’s a nice beginner banjo, and the price was extremely right. I mentioned to some friends that I wanted to learn to play the banjo and they gave it to me. It looks like an open-back with a resonator attached; there’s no tone ring, so it’s more like an old-timey instrument than a bluegrass model. It got me started, but lately I’ve been looking to upgrade. I’ve been scoping out the Gold Stars at Elderly but after reading your post, I dunno…
Hey Terry, thanks for sharing! The Gold Star is a nice banjo for the price indeed. I recommend them.