Comment by Ray Jones on February 4, 2010 at 22:56

I enjoyed your playing marc. One thing about this website, is that you never know what you are going to hear. Not just the same old standard pieces. I think that this why there is now an increasing interest in the Classic Banjo. Keep giving it a go mate.

Comment by marc dalmasso on February 6, 2010 at 18:08

Thanks for your messages , chaps ; For the sound , i have got 2 Huber HR-30 tone rings on the SSS banjeaurine; it is 785 $ each one but with a single , i ,ve got the pre WW2 ' sound and all i need is the pre WW 1 ' sound ; so i adjusted one on each side of the Bj

Comment by Trapdoor2 on February 7, 2010 at 17:22

LOL! Those Huber HR-30 rings ought to make ol S.S.S spin nicely in his grave. I would think that the two would cancel each other out...but it ends up sounding just like a Stewart ought to!

Comment by thereallyniceman on February 9, 2010 at 11:49

Marc D,
Now there are three reasons that we know that you are telling lies about the Huber HR-30s on your SSS.

1. If you fitted Two Huber tone rings you would not be able to lift the banjeaurine
2. A banjo player would never have enough money to buy one Huber HR-30 let alone TWO.
3. Huber are an ignorant bunch who won't answer emails, so you would never be able to buy one!
(see how bitter and twisted I was about the last one!!)

But sounds good anyway :-)

Comment by marc dalmasso on February 9, 2010 at 16:19

yes , i found amazing this big HR30 advertising when yo open the banjo hangout site ; this proove that somme people still believe that , or worse , believe that more & more , even if there is certainly a few part of true in theses old rings ; i think we all now on our site that the sound come from all the banjo , type , woods etc , but much from the guy playing it

Comment by Jody Stecher on February 9, 2010 at 17:48

As a non-partisan banjo lover and professional musician who fully appreciates Marc D's humor and irony, and hopes he continues in the same vein, it might be useful for all to know that in the bluegrass world (where I make some of my living) it is recognized by all competent participants that *all* banjo components, the sonic cooperation between the components, and especially the player determine the tone. It is also recognized by those (such as me) who have actually heard and played superior specimens of Pre War Gibson that there actually is a characteristic complex sound that can be brought out by a player who is equal to the task. Bad specimens played by poor players will not sound good, and bad specimens played by good players will sound only somewhat better. And good specimens played by bad players will sound as bad as when they play bad banjos. I play mandolin in a bluegrass band. The banjo player recently got a new Huber banjo. It has more volume, more sweetness, and more articulation then the genuine Gibson he used to play. It doesn't sound at all to my ears like an old pre-war Gibson flat head. It just sounds good, very tuneful and musical. Anyway there *is* something to what Huber is building, some real musical virtue. But it takes a good player to harness that virtue. Now tell me, why are the preposterous claims for their banjos made by 19th century makers acceptable here but the contemporary equivalent is disdained?

Comment by Carl Anderton on February 9, 2010 at 22:11

"As a non-partisan banjo lover... why are the preposterous claims for their banjos made by 19th century makers acceptable here but the contemporary equivalent is disdained?"

Perhaps the non-partisan spirit is not always evidenced amongst the classic faithful...as a relatively small genre, the "circle the wagons" attitude is difficult to resist.

Comment by Trapdoor2 on February 10, 2010 at 1:32

As a banjo-geek/engineering-geek I love what Huber is doing. I find all the crazy testing fascinating...even though I myself have never been able to hear the difference from one to another. I'm looking forward to winning that Huber tone ring. ;-) I even have an old Gibson prewar rim to mount it on...

My current BG banjo uses a Kulesh tone ring...simply because I like that it was centrifugally cast. It is a heavy beast though...I may have to mount nylgut strings to it just to lighten it up.

Comment by Jody Stecher on February 10, 2010 at 1:44

Fair enough, but just as a point of info: most skilled bluegrass musicians that I've met, even back in the 1950s when bluegrass was itself a relatively small genre, have been interested in all sorts of music. Incorporating pretty much *anything* into the style and corpus of techniques has always been one facet of a significant portion of bluegrass musicians. I should also add, before going on too long about what might be a subject t00 off - topic for this forum, that bluegrass is mainly a genre of vocal music and well over half the professional and skilled amateur bluegrass banjo players I have known, and known of, consider themselves to be accompanists to singers at least as much as they are soloists, and often are more interested in making a good singer sound even better, than they are interested in displaying their chops. Playing "back-up" is where much of the joy in bluegrass banjo playing is, and where much of the creativity, wit, and skill is, as well. The only equivalent I can think of anywhere in the world, where an entire genre of music includes instrumentalists capable of being virtuoso soloists who devote themselves to being accompanists is the tabla players of North India. And they need to be conversant in many genres. But I digress. And I really do find all the bluegrass banjo humor displayed here to be much funnier than it is misguided. It's not always a bulls-eye but it's usually on the target somewhere. Keep em coming and circle the wagons if you must. No one's going to be shooting flaming arrows from the bluegrass camp but I have noticed that some bluegrass banjo players go hog wild over classic playing and some simply don't "get it".

Comment by Joel Hooks on February 10, 2010 at 2:28

Well, I think that it sounds great, and it is played superbly.

But, I think we all agree that it would sound much better strung with telegraph wire and stuffed with a towel. While you are at it, scoop the neck so that you can sound just like they did in the late 19th century.

Marc S., I'm gonna win that ring and it is going in my 70s Japstertone. Or I'll convert a conversion back to a plectrum and stick it in that.

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