Anyone wanna talk banjo?

Cafe Society
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I play upright bass, but have long considered picking up a second instrument, if for no reason other than to have something that is easier to haul around - especially as I get older. Have been playing the banjo more and more the past month or 2, and think I’ve found my 2d instrument! :smiley:

Saw this thread from some time back, and it looks like a few of you have experience w/ and opinions about banjo. Would love to hear anything you had to say on the subject.

My favorite music is old-timey - along the lines of Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ola Bell Reed, Hazel Dickens… I’m only interested in clawhammer. Have an old Goodtime Gumby I’ve been playing, but it is my wife’s banjo. If I’m going to get serious about this, I’ll probably want to get my own.

Any thoughts on brands/models? I could just go w/ a cheap Gold Star or Recording King - or my own Goodtime - and beat the shit out of it, but might step up to the $1200 area and look into a Pisgah, Bart Reiter…

Last few years I’ve been attending the Midwest Banjo Camp for bass. Figure this year I’ll take some classes on banjo as well. MBC draws an amazing collection of banjo superstars (yes, that IS such a thing! ;)). My goal is to be at least low intermediate by June (I think I’ll be there no problem!)

One good thing about MBC is one of the coordinators is an owner of Elderly Music - which is one of the nations primo acoustic music shops. So I’ll be able to try out and potentially buy just about any banjo and have them set it up however I want.

I play bass in a 5 piece band w/ clawhammer, fiddle, cello, uke. Also, my wife plays fiddle, and banjo and fiddle go together extremely well.

Oh, and as to which is harder - guitar or banjo? I find guitar chords extremely difficult. The lighter gauge and more widely spaced banjo strings are far easier for me to maneuver around. And as loud as the banjo is, my wife says it is nowhere NEAR as loud as my bass! :o

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Well, I’m a guitarist who picked up a banjo a few years ago. As I said in the previous thread, I would agree that the 4-string banjo is far easier than guitar. In addition to the strings being lighter, the spacing is a little wider. The nice part is, if you decide to start playing guitar in open G (say, for slide), most of your skills will transfer easily. The 5 string has the high pitched short string, that makes it complex to me - but then again, I started on guitar.

Similar to my opinion on expensive guitars, there might be a reason to buy a banjo that costs more than $1000, but it’s sound is probably not going to be one of them. Mine is a used Fender that I picked up for $300 with a case, and I can’t think of a thing wrong with it’s sound. It’s clear, bright, and loud.

If i can say one thing against the instrument that I also said in the previous thread: a closed back one is quite loud. If your bass can actually compete with a drum set, it’s a very nice bass. I’ve never met a closed back banjo that couldn’t compete with a drum set. The snare is easily the loudest drum on most kits, and the banjo’s using one of them for a soundboard. Again, it’s really hard to practice either while someone is sleeping on the other end of the house.

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^ Slight hi-jack: I’ve seen more than one wedding band where the only drum mic is on the snare. :eek: What’s up with that?

And now, back to Pickin & Grinnin.

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Guitar player here, don’t have too much to add as I’ve never played banjo.

But the OP had me trying to figure out why he wanted to take a clawhammer to his Banjo.:smack:

So, yeah, I learned something today. :smiley:
I read up on Clawhammer, and watched a video about how to. Damn you :smiley: now I need to find a banjo to plink on for even 5 mins to see how it feels.
bum-ditty:p

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Ya know, I’ve played many a club with no drum mics, but if they’re only going to have one mic, it’s on the snare. I kind of assume that the reason for this is that it’s the most important drum to mic, and the same mic will pick up the rest of the drum kit fairly well, even the floor toms to some extent.

So, I decided to try to find some back up for this idea. I did find a Sound-On-Sound article that says they usually just need to put some reverb on the snare to give depth, and they don’t bother with cymbal mics because the vocal mics usually do a great job of picking them up. So, it sounds reasonable, plus lower-volume places will often not have the PA system to meaningfully add any volume to the floor toms or the kick drum. But any larger place will mic the toms and the kick.

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^ That all makes sense, especially the reverb part. I appreciate your research; good article.

Thanks.

And now, back to Pickin Mah Seat at the Movies. :smiley:

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I should probably mention I briefly had a banjo my senior year of high school. Wanted to play Steve Martin’s, “Grandmother’s Song,” for the school talent show. It did not go well. Beyond that, Bart Simpson said it best: I wasn’t good at it right away, so I quit it.

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FTR, I am learning on a 5-string open back - which I assume is going to be my preferred instrument. So it isn’t anywhere NEAR as loud as a closed back - especially w/ a resonator ring. But it is often surprising at jams, when a banjo picker - even w/ an open back - really digs into it and happens to point his banjo at you - MAN does it stand out!

I agree that the 5th string takes some getting used to. For me, mainly b/c it is shorter, such that you have 5 strings under your right hand, but only 4 under your left. So you can’t just think “top” string for chording and picking.

Having the thin strings set widely apart, makes both chording and picking patterns more accessible to me than guitar. Chording on a banjo’s 4 strings easier than on a guitar’s 6. And I never could get the hang of bar chords on guitar - whereas on banjo they are no big deal. Tho I agree, if you just want to pick up 3 chords and try to impress folk around a campfire, you can probably get to that point quicker on a guitar than a banjo. But the right hand use of just the thumb and one finger and only downward strums (at least to start) seems to make sense to me.

Our band’s old banjo/mando player was incredible, and he played a $400 Gold Tone. So certainly I COULD get a basic entry-level instrument and never “outgrow” it. Heck, if I wasn’t worried about banging up my wife’s Goodtime taking it to jamsg, installing “railroad spikes” to capo the 5th string, and such, I’d probly never even be thinking about another banjo.

But you know the drill of instrument owning/acquisition - I don’t want to put myself in a situation where I’m frugal with my purchase, and then for years regret not paying a couple hundred $ more (which I can well afford.) Since we have 1 entry-level banjo in the house (w/ an 11" pot), it might make sense to get a higher quality banjo w/ a 12" pot. But who knows? I hope when I get down to picking that I’ll let my ears and fingers decide. Of course, it never hurts to have a “pretty” instrument in the corner, if that gets you to pick it up and practice more often! :wink:

One of the weirdest things for me is being concerned about my fingernails! Tho you can use a pick on your fingertip, oldtime pickers generally cultivate a longer nail on their pointer and/or middle finger. I already had my first fingernail “crisis” when my middle nail broke just when it was getting where I wanted it! :stuck_out_tongue:

Re: my bass - I play bluegrass and oldtime, w/o drums. So competing w/ drums isn’t an issue. (Of course - if need be, there is always the possibility of amplification! ;)) I play outdoorsa lot, with no amplification. Just because of the wave patern of the low notes (also - my bass is set up very nicely - my wife is a luthier!), people often tell me they can hear my bass a block or more away - well before they can hear any other instruments. In a house, especially with wood floors, an upright bass is quite loud - especially when it transmits to the wood floors through the endpin. Kinda makes the whole house echo.

Having said that, my wife HAS asked me to play the banjo in a different room. To her credit, she is willing to lie and say the problem is that I’ getting good enough such that it is distracting! Bless her heart! :smiley:

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“A gentleman is someone who can play the banjo, but doesn’t.”

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I have a Recording King Dirty 30s and wouldn’t recommend it (your Goodtime is better) but it did serve the purpose of making me want to get a nicer instrument, which I eventually got from Cedar Mountain. Now that I can recommend. I have a Gold Tone BG 250 which I’m pleased with. I imagine their open-backs would be nice as well.

Bishline makes an open-back now - the Okie. They’re a little pricey of course.

But anyway, for less than two grand you can get a nice small builder instrument so it’s kind of neat that way.

My problem is my strumming wrist. It doesn’t take much to make it hurt so I have to really take it easy.

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What’s the difference between a banjo and a chainsaw?

A chainsaw has dynamic range.

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Update: I bought this one.

Isn’t it purty! :smiley:

BTW - if you are ever near Madison WI, and interested in acoustic instruments, you oughta check out Spruce Tree Music. A pretty amazing shop w/ cool owner/staff.

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That’s a beauty! As a (very amateur) 5-string picker myself, that banjo just screams credibility. Meaning just showing up with it will cause everyone to want to play with you regardless of talent. I know I need that help!

Oh, and: What’s the difference between a banjo and a trampoline? You take off your shoes to jump on a trampoline.

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And while we’re dropping in banjo jokes, since Gary Larson played as well I’d be remiss in not referencing one of my favorites of his many banjo musings.

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I’m an intermediate mando player. I’ve fooled around on the fiddle but never anything else. A few weeks ago I was at the music shop and after playing around on the various mandolins (and a mandola!) I picked up a banjo, just to quietly pick at the strings to see how they felt. I didn’t realize that “quietly pick at the banjo” was not a thing. I’m used to having to put in some effort to be heard just over my metronome. :slight_smile:

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My favorite banjo player is Noam (Pickles) Pikelny…

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It is a very pretty banjo. I don’t know if it’s just because I don’t look at too many of them, but the light finish on the headstock/fretboard is odd, kind of striking.

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I have a good one that’s a hundred years old this year basically, but I cannot tune the thing and I just have given up. Tuning a banjo and keeping it in tune can be hard. I don’t know about modern ones and innovations though.

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Hmm, my modern one is pretty easy to get in tune. Does your ancient one have geared tuners or friction pegs?

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I was interested to learn the ‘belly-dancing song’ by The Hollies (Stop Stop Stop) featured a banjo making all those wonderful sounds.