Comment by Jody Stecher on October 7, 2014 at 13:33

Thank you, John. The specs are in the next paragraph, below. You can find out more about Eric's banjos and also see/hear 4 more videos of its music by searching this website. Eric is no longer building banjos but he still plays, and plays beautifully. When this banjo was new he posted a video of Rag Pickings played on this banjo. And then when I received the banjo I posted Gryphon and Star. Sometime later I posted 2 videos of a practice session with Bill Evans and Scott Nygaard. In one of them we play Hard Times and Pensacola in which I play this banjo. In Ragtime Episode, Scott Nygaard plays a second banjo part on my Stefanelli.

The tone ring is a tubaphone type built by Bill Rickard. 12 inches. The setup is as Eric Stefanelli set it before he sent it to me except that I slightly adjusted the string gauge for my own playing.  The tailpiece is the cam type No Knot.  The 2 footed maple half inch bridge was made by Eric. The head is a natural vellum. Eric put on several until he decided he had found the right one. If I remember correctly, the rim is slightly thinner than average, with the intention of decreasing sustain and increasing the suitability for ragtime music. The 4 unwound strings are Savarez Anciens and the bass is Aquila. Gauges as follows

1 Saverez anciens NN58  .58mm/.0228”

2  Savarez anciens   NN64  .64 MM/ .0252”

3  Savarez anciens  NN 72  .72MM/ .0283”

or NN74  (.0291) or NN77

4  from a set of Aquila banjo strings

5  Saverez anciens NN58  .58mm/.0228”

 

Comment by Jody Stecher on October 7, 2014 at 14:31

John, the scale on my banjo is 28 inches, quite long. The gauges you are using would bind down the sound. The pictures of your Bill Bowen Banjo (BBB) —note the thin 2 footed bridge—  look like the scale might be shorter than that and your gauges might well be ideal. However Van Eps would have used much lighter strings than you are using. In my opinion an SS Stewart pot does not respond well to plastic heads but they generally sound very good with natural vellum.  On these pots, much of the character is lost with a Weatherking head. They sound somehow generic and characterless. This is the opposite of what happens on an Orpheum for instance.

Comment by Jody Stecher on October 7, 2014 at 15:26

27.5, no kidding! Not much different than 28. Sure, experimenting is the only way to find out what is the best match of player and components.

Comment by Thomas Edgar on October 10, 2014 at 5:30

Jody, Great piece and I really enjoyed your rendition.  Thanks!  And I appreciated your gaff at the start.  Unfortunately, I do that continually through most pieces that I play! :-))  And yes, a classic sound as well.

Comment by skip sail on October 18, 2014 at 6:34

I've already got the mistake bit down pat,now for the rest of the tune...:)

lovely playing Jody

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