Well, I had a few moments today to sit down and clean out my binder of tunes. This is a three-ring binder that carries all the Classic Banjo tunes I either routinely practice, play thru or wish to work on. It has gotten to where it is overstuffed and hard to carry without dropping out loose pages or whatever.

So, I took it all apart and cleaned out all the junk I never play and then decided to arrange it by tuning, that is, all the gCGBD tunes and then all the 'raised bass' tunes. I…

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our

     best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially

     responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral,

     celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within

     the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of

     your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect

     for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of

     others, or their…

I am happy to say that my website is up and running. You can now access the music store, the podcasts, and all the reference material on the site.

Thanks for your patience during this time, especially the kind words from some of the members.

Hal Allert

• I do not know if anyone has noticed but my Classic Banjo website is down temporarily. The hosting company is working on it and hopes to have it up and running again, soon. For all of you who visit the site as the first thing you do each day, please bear with me. I will notify you when it is online once again.

 I was taking a flight out a new terminal at San Francisco the other day and was surprised and amused to see the shape of some comfortable new benches with a new shape.  Off topic because they look like plectrum banjos? No indeed, these are Zither Banjo Benches!  I'm afraid my mobile phone takes horrible quality pictures but at least the shape was captured. The wave of the future?

 …

I found this  on  a BMG ' magazine ( march,1939 )

I guess TB didn 't paid for this banjo , he had it for gift or for a low price . I am curious to know ( a regular  'new paragon is advertised for 28 £ in the same BMG ) what this  " de Luxe " could have in extra ?

Where could be this banjo today ? and if numerous one ' s like that leaved the CE ' factory ?…

Skeleton Dance : éric S , 2nd Bj .

link for D_SK here ( i hope ..  ) : D-SK 

Returning with more of that Converse 1893....hopefully up to Ian's dress code standards. :)

Thought I would check in to the Classic Banjo site at least once this year.

My apologies for being distracted by other , less important things.

So, I tried to get the Skirtlifters booked into some gigs in Europe so we could showcase at the European World of Bluegrass in the Netherlands.

The price of airfare had increased 50%, so I dropped that idea and went out by myself in May to stay maybe three weeks and recoup my expenses.

With help from some very…

Interesting banjo here if you plan to travel in Afghanistan , for example .

Because of the big hoop which pivots the rim , you gonna have this :

 …

Hi , just put  Peacefull Henry sheet music ! Page 1 & page 2.

Cheers !

Does anyone have the second part or the piano part to "Valentine" by Cammeyer? I would love to get my hands on it.

Hal Allert

When I couldn't find the vellum I wanted locally, I turned to Elderly Instruments in the States (I ordered from them for years when I was there). I kept the total under £18 so the Customs man wasn't interested and I've just received the order, 16 days after I placed it (9 days after they emailed to say it had shipped). That's a vellum head (about £5.50), a bridge and some picks and things. Shipping was $10 (about…

There's an auction in Ireland tomorrow that's got a Riley-Baker patent zither banjo in it, guide price £252 - £288. That's the one with the all-aluminium pot and neck (the fingerboard is wood). Here are some good pictures of another example from somebody's blog: http://ning.it/jjyOmt



The auction thing is kind of interesting. You can sign up online, watch in realtime and bid. Unfortunately, you have to make arrangements for somebody to pick things…

Two weeks ago, I'd never heard of a zither banjo. I spotted one in the window of an auction house and thought, "what the heck...?" So I Googled around until I learned a bit more.

Had. To. Have. One.

As luck would have it, when I tried the keywords on eBay, there was only one listed -- and the auction was just closing, and it was a beauty. Nipped in and got it (at a very good price, I think) and it arrived this morning.

So...who the heck made…