Comment by thereallyniceman on February 10, 2010 at 8:26
Well Jody,
Now I am confused... You mention "Bluegrass Musicians"

....is that an oxymoron??

:-)
Comment by Jody Stecher on February 10, 2010 at 18:12
trapdoor wrote about tone rings: I myself have never been able to hear the difference from one to another.

jody responds: pulling tone from a bluegrass banjo is an acquired skill. Hearing the difference when the banjo is played by some one with this skill is not. The difference is immediately perceptible. When the banjo is played by someone lacking that skill, one bluegrass banjo sounds like another and they all sound like a chain saw with emphysema. But that's the fault of the player, not of the banjo, the genre, the listener, or the tone ring maker.
While the difference is immediately perceptible, agreement on which is preferable is not universal. In general I prefer "arch tops" to flat heads and ball bearing tone rings to arch tops. But there are some flathead mastertones whose tone is dark and velvety with plenty of high end "ping" whose upper notes each have a halo or sheen around them, and which are utterly lacking in the "trashy overtones" one often hears in other banjos that look similar.

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