Comment by thereallyniceman on March 10, 2013 at 18:29

Another superb performance Mike. I am pleased that you did not have your initials engraved on the shield. When I am dead and gone I would want the banjo to be owned  and played and I just somehow feel that they would prefer one without someone else's ID on it. 

The combination of the fixed/ Weaver 'floating" style tailpiece is interesting. Any other comments on the banjo?

ps Your mic seems to have developed a slight high frequency whistle in the last three recordings... are you doing something different with the input gain or something?

 

Comment by Mike Moss on March 10, 2013 at 18:48

Yes, I thought the engraved initials could harm the inheritance/resale value and after all, it does have a serial number so it should be traceable if it ever gets stolen.

I wasn't entirely sold on the tailpiece at first (looks a bit large/bulky) but it works very well. The string spacing on the tailpiece is about as wide as the spacing on the bridge so they run in a straight line, very much like on the old CE lyre tailpieces. The strings run through tunnels in the wood and can be fastened simply by making a ball at the end.

The banjo had a "Cammeyer" bridge installed + one free Morley bridge in the case. The Cammeyer bridge is similar to the Morley but the feet are shorter and rounded and the top part of the bridge is somewhat taller -- I can't quite put my finger on it but chords seem to sound a bit richer and more harmonically complex with the Cam than with the Morley.

The neck is apparently an exact duplicate of a neck from a 1914 Weaver. It felt a bit thick at first (I was used to an ultra-thin, truss rod neck on my BG 'jo) but now that I'm used to it it feels great, all the frets are easy to reach and I was pleased to notice that the spoon heel is actually very comfortable.

The banjo is very well balanced. The 12" hoop fits very snugly under my arm and the instrument stays upright almost effortlessly, unlike with my previous banjo, which was very top-heavy.

It produces a good, loud tone and it has a "sweet spot" where the strings are particularly responsive and sound snappy almost effortlessly.

I'll write a full review of the instrument in the coming days. All in all I'm very happy with my purchase and I think the banjo is well worth the money.

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