What's your guilty pleasure?

[Joel Hooks]

The reason I ask is most of us post videos where we are playing period banjos.  Various American and English makes, even new copies of them, usually none in current production and most built from 1880-1920ish.

 

I've always kept a Saga SS-10 laying about.  I put a calf head on it but that's about it.  Three octave neck, etc.  But I have never liked the machine tuners, 5/8" bridge height, and how friggin' heavy it is.  I'm on the road a bunch all over Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and the Saga was almost always with me.

 

Recently I bought for very little money a Gretsch banjo made in the mid 1960s from a ad on Craigslist.  I've seen these before, but only in music stores and for way too much money.

 

This is an interesting banjo and I have my suspicions about the builder.  Made in New York during the "folk scare" it should conform to the standards of the era, right?  This one seems to predate the Bacon/ Gretsch whatever (I'll let Ed Britt have at all that) and made by a guitar company.

 

Here is what's neat... It seems like the builder was from a different era.  Dowel stick, no steel truss (I strongly believe that those stifle vibrations and kill tone), Thick ebony fingerboard, friction pegs, 1/2" bridge height- this thing is a "classic banjo" in disguise.

 

I've have looked at others online, and the quality seems to vary, the later ones- post Bacon, look lower quality.  Mine has a thick maple neck and four ply rim of bird's eye maple.  It is a really nice banjo and is almost untouched.  I tossed a calf head, proper strings (the nut needed no altering, they fell right into place), one of my reproduction wood tailpieces (I'll be putting these up for sell later) and Stewart style bridge.  That's it! It plays like a dream and sounds great.

 

The Saga is for sale, nice banjo, but I like this one better.

 

Were these made by a former R&L builder?

 

What do you folks keep laying about to grab?  Goodtimes? Gold Tones?  Buckbee tubs?

 

These Gretsch banjos would be great inexpensive banjos (I paid $150) for beginners as they need no altering, just setup.  They get my endorsement.

[Trapdoor2]

I have a short-scale Lyon & Healy which performed yeoman duty as my 'BBQ banjo' for many years. The head recently exploded (antique calfskin) and needs to be replaced. It is a crappy little banjo but was very cheap (ebay) and works great while waiting for the coals to get hot. I have it strung with telegraph wire...but I don't play respectable music on it. ;-)

[Jody Stecher]

I don't have any banjos like that but I have a perfectly round (banjo shaped or skillet shaped)  mandolin from Vietnam that I won on an eBay auction for a modest price even with shipping and setup costs. It's sound is not beautiful. It is LOUD. It's the instrument I take to outdoor wedding gigs, to office parties, to anywhere I've been hired to play mandolin where there is lots of noise and no sound system. Now I also have a Vega Little Wonder mandolin-banjo and it's also loud but with very light strings the sound *is* pretty. These instruments have a bad name because they are usually badly set up and sound awfully brash. But if you get the right bridge and either use light strings or tune standard strings below pitch they can sound great. It's the same with Zither-banjos. They have a bad name amongst those who have never heard one set up properly with the right balance of strings.

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Joel, great to see you back! Over here in the UK we don't need to buy a cheap new banjo as there are loads of great original Clifford Essex banjos available at good prices. My favourite for practice and for playing is my Clifford Essex Wood-hoop Special, and this cost under £500. CE banjos often are sold for less than this too and I have never seen a bad one. I would prefer to pay £300-£500 for an old CE than £200 for a modern far east made banjo.

 

Ian

[Joel Hooks]

The States were inundated with "store tubs" from the Buckbee firm, and those tend to be all one finds for affordable  knock around banjos.

 

The Korean banjo that I used to keep was what I bought to learn on, and we all learn from our past experiences, I was green.

 

One problem with using old banjos for knock around is hide glue.  It melts at 140f (60c).  Here in Texas we've been hitting 107-110 every day.  Though, I run the AC when I am driving, I sometimes have to work, so I leave the windows down.  Even then the glue could creep.  It's just too dang hot.

 

This Gretsch that I picked up will now be my knock around, and she was made in  New York and not in Asia, but I guess that does not matter cause the job of making banjos for Gretsch is long gone.