My Harmony banjo arrived today. For something essentially made of plastic, with a brown-painted neck, it sounds great.
Category: banjo
DO NOT WANT
Old Man Luedecke: banjo dude
You might like Old Man Luedecke as much as I do.
a narrow escape
I nearly fainted at the guitar store; they had a Vega Folklore long neck banjo on consignment — eep! After playing it a bit, I asked how much they wanted for it. Seems that the seller thinks it’s the Pete Seeger model, and is asking about what I can get a new Vega Woodsongs for. No thank you!
(anyway, two new banjos in a week would not be fiscally sound.)
cruel and unusual
Black Eyed Suzy (files a domestic) [MP3]
(and yes, that is a banjo playing)
more banjo
Got another banjo last night: an old Harmony Reso-Tone. These were the volksbanjos of the sixties, and though cheap, have a pleasant mellow tone.
The one thing I will have to get used to is its very narrow neck. But hey, if a “Steel Reinforced Neck” Reso-Tone was good enough for Lee Hammons …
I’m planning to put nylon strings on it for that backwoods tone.
a demented dimension
There’s a banjo-uke on craigslist described as: “… it has that banjo twang that just makes people smile! … Add a new demention to your music.” Ah yes, banjo-uke players are a bit demented.
subliminal banjo frenzy
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SUBLIMINAL LEARN BANJO (MP3)
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high steppin’ old time craziness
Sheesham & Lotus are good. But I wish they had a better website.
how does he do that?
*loud* banjo
I just got a Jump Lead from Troubadour in the UK. It was designed as a clip-on tuning pickup, but it can work really well as a general acoustic pickup if you put it on the right place on the instrument.
I discovered that if you clip it to a Fielding-Cutler Mute on the bridge, the sound is great: warm, mellow, very little acoustic feedback, but lots of chunky overtones. I like it!
that’ll learn me
… to buy so many CDs at the Midwest Banjo Camp. I’ve spent the last couple of hours keying in track listings for The Old Time Banjo Festival, Erynn Marshall & Chris Coole, and Neil Woodward. Please, please please don’t let me have to do the same for the Uncle Dave Macon set, ‘cos then I’ll be here all day.
last morning of Banjo Camp
Well, just two more sessions to go at banjo camp. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned so much. I do need to get my chord skills down, but even my half-formed frailing did garner compliments.
The concerts were great. Last night we had Wade & Julia Mainer perform some gospel numbers. Wade turned 100 this year, but you wouldn’t know it to hear them play.
So it’s a long drive back, but it was worth it.
it’s official – i suck at banjo
okay, I need to work on my basic G chords and getting to know the standard jam canon. I knew none of them at the slow jam tonight – no Boil Them Cabbage, no Cripple Creek, no Buffalo Girls. I might know a bunch of modal tunes, and one in F even, but can I fret a C chord … ?
and i wish and wish again
Fully installed at Midwest Banjo Camp at East Lansing. It’s green, there are chipmunks, and many, many banjo players – oh, and Clif Ervin, bones player extraordinaire.
quit it!
“boing twang”, as Arnie would say
I’m going to the Midwest Banjo Camp this summer! W00t!
(and yes, I’ve set up a Banjo Hangout account. It’s like myspace for banjo nerds.)
whee!
It was the Banjo Special last night. There was much frailing, picking, and whatever it is that Irish Tenor players do.
failing to sail away
I just can’t get the B-part of Sail Away Ladies down, so the ladies will have to stay on land for now.
Anssi, not ANSI
Note to IKEA: while cheese has many excellent qualities — nutrition, sustainability, yumminess amongst them — it is not a suitable material for making nuts and bolts. While building an Anssi bar stool, I managed to round out just about every fastener, despite using good tools.
Building the Anssi was especially frustrating, as it’s the only IKEA piece I’ve ever built that had such poor tolerances that everything needed slackened off in order to make the next part fit. It’s built now, though, and hasn’t imploded from internal stresses (yet).
I bought it as a banjo seat, for while I was at Casa Wakefield in Missouri the other week, I noticed how good a bar stool is for comfortable playing.