6 strings ' banjo

[marc dalmasso]

i just want to share there what i have discover by myself and which is logic , i guess .
Unfortunaly , there are not many banjo players surviving from the gold era of the classic bj , but with Carl 's blog , we can re_ discover things .
There were many 6 & 7 strings banjos , most of them were English , but US , too ( henry Dobson for instance ) . I suppose there were made for acompagniements , to have a bigger sound . If you play solo in a banjo band , you can use the regular one , it 's better but if you play lonely and you have a 6 strings ( 7 , convert to a 6 strings one like i used to do with my banjo ) , you will have more fun because more sound because of the harmonics .This , playing exactly the banjo part you play on the regular one , this even if you don t touch the extra string . Yet , you should start to play easy or slow tempo ' tunes because the 6 th bass string is not easy to master . it is an interesting experience . I will be back later with a " topo " on the harmonics .

[Jody Stecher]

In my experience it depends on the banjo and the type of string and what music is being played. I've played six and seven string banjos where the extra bass did exactly what you say, enriched the melody notes because of the harmonics coming from the lower strings. But on other banjos there are problems. Sometimes the sound gets muddy no matter what the extra basses are tuned to. And sometimes the fingerboard is too narrow at the lower end for more than 4 strings. I have a banjo that was built for six strings but I wasn't happy with how it responded so I changed the 6th string to an octave above the 5th and I have them close together, one double course, and that has worked out well. This was Paul Hostetter's idea, and he notched the bridge and nut for this. Another banjo might have sounded good with an extra bass.

[Jody Stecher]

Sorry, I meant to say I have the extra string one octave above the bass. Not one octave above the short string.

[Joel Hooks]

I picked up a six stringer awhile ago. I believe that it is also of English make. I have it tuned with the low (6th) string in "C" and the 5th string is "D." The idea was to not have to change tunings. The wide neck kind of throws me off.