Luscomb entry to Classic Banjo

[Tim Twiss]

Today I should get my hands on a Luscomb. I am sharing restoration repair fees with the owner in exchange for letting me borrow it for a while. It has nylgut strings and a skin head. I'll post a few pictures and put up some videos, and I will appreciate comments and directions from you hardened veterans. I'll be open to repertoire suggestions, as I start with overflow from my fretless material. Thanks in advance.

[Sylvia]

Bye for now, it was nice seeing you over here, stay tuned in, see you on Minstrel.

[Mike Moss]

No worries Tim... you're infected with the classic virus, anyway, so it will grow within you; frets will sprout from your fingerboards, the scale will shrink to 26", and your face will shift into a likeness of Joe Morley! (Oh, and your hair will drop off, but that is an unfortunate side-effect)

 

Just kidding. I really enjoyed your contributions, and I look forward to listening to more of your Minstrel banjo music.

[thereallyniceman]

Yes Tim,

Hair loss or as Mike described it, BRA (Banjo Related Alopecia). I warned Mike about this phenomenon and here is the proof:

This is me when I started playing Classic Style in 1980's...  and look what happened to me!

There is some bald old chap playing in my videos now...  and it can only be the banjos fault!

 

What do you say Jody??

:-)

[Jody Stecher]

Me? I had the opposite problem. After I started playing banjo I grew a cowboy hat. 

[thereallyniceman]

You must have been very poor then Jody... You could buy a banjo, but not afford a bridge for it.

This looks like a still from one of the Mauled, Mike Moss's old movies  :-)

[Tim Twiss]

Ha...you guys are too funny!  

[Jody Stecher]

This was an early 1960s hybrid pairing of a turn of the century highly inlaid neck from a long scale banjo of about 28 inches and a pot from a junker tenor banjo. I got each of the parts for pennies, and each had been long separated from their original pot and neck respectively.  The mis-matched pairing resulted in a bridge placement very close to the tailpiece. My hand is covering the bridge. Note the capo on my belt loop: quite the fashion statement for c.1961

[Jody Stecher]

Of course we are funny.  Hair on the top of the head is a sense of humor suppressant. With the onset of male pattern baldness the barriers to funniness were at first weakened and eventually they vanished entirely, hair by handful of hair. Isn't that right, Ian? Eventually the hat fell away as well. This is how I look now. The photo is mis-labeled by the way, it's not actually a photo of Claude Monet playing the banjo. 

[Sylvia]

O.M.G.   hope I don't go bald or sprout a cowboy hat........    : (

[thereallyniceman]

Sylvia, it's a man thing!  You don't have to worry.

But is it my eyes or does Jody have a massive box of Durex on a shelf behind him? ... perhaps we should all worry a bit?

:-)