Hello to everyone,
This post is to reintroduce myself to the group. I began learning to play in 2017 and progressed well, but stopped after about eight months in order to concentrate on something else.
I have now decided to start again and this time, instead of working through 'Ellis's Thorough School' with my ordinary banjo, I'm using 'Ellis's Advanced School' and my Wilmshurst zither-banjo.
After a very frustrating week of chasing the intonation round in circles learning to tune it by ear, I have now pinned it down and can begin getting used to the remarkable responsiveness of the instrument and the peculiarities of the wire, gut and wound silk string combination. I have used a nineteenth century 'Eardley's Patent' tuning pipe to set the high 'Philharmonic' pitch of approximately C 540 vibrations, which equates to A 454 Hz.
I will post some photos of my banjos and hopefully, some recordings in the near future.
Kind regards, Ian.