Yamaha Silent Banjo?

[Tom McArdle]

Not precisely true…

with my Epiphone waiting for a new tailpiece to come in ( the one on it broke two nylon strings when I tried stringing them up to pitch ) and with my Zither Banjo still waiting for me to glue up the back, I thought of this as a means of continuing to practice:

Remove the two lowest strings from my Yamaha nylon silent guitar.

Tune the four remaining strings CGBd.

Take a spare high e string, put it in the 5th spot, and tune it to d.

put my 5th string capo right behind the 5th fret.

A 5 string instrument in C banjo tuning, with nylon strings!

It works fine, so far.

 I assume this is not a new idea.

[Tom McArdle]

[Tom McArdle]

[Rob MacKillop]

Briggs outlines a method of turning a guitar into a banjo in his method book. I would quote from it, but don’t have it to hand at the moment. I could get it later in the day. Not had my breakfast yet! 

[Richard William Ineson]

No, not a new idea, Cammeyer made 5 string guitars, Freddie Musselbrook had one, they were very solidly built and didn't produce a lot of volume. Stewart made long necked mandolin bodied five string banjo mandolins, I've seen a couple over the years, again, not much volume. No doubt other makers experimented with these hybrids.

[Tom McArdle]

Hope you had a great breakfast!

Rob MacKillop said:

Briggs outlines a method of turning a guitar into a banjo in his method book. I would quote from it, but don’t have it to hand at the moment. I could get it later in the day. Not had my breakfast yet! 

[Tom McArdle]

This is meant to be quiet, but I understand how acoustic instruments would not sound much like a banjo even if strung in a similar fashion. But, apart from restringing this to practice with, the banjo had distracted me from playing it altogether!

Richard William Ineson said:

No, not a new idea, Cammeyer made 5 string guitars, Freddie Musselbrook had one, they were very solidly built and didn't produce a lot of volume. Stewart made long necked mandolin bodied five string banjo mandolins, I've seen a couple over the years, again, not much volume. No doubt other makers experimented with these hybrids.

[Joel Hooks]

I think you might be thinking of the August Pollmann mandolin banjos.  AFAIK, SSS did not make anything like that.

The best info we have now is that the Pollmann mandolin banjos were strung with wire and were played with a plectrum (at least that was the intent by Pollmann).

Richard William Ineson said:

No, not a new idea, Cammeyer made 5 string guitars, Freddie Musselbrook had one, they were very solidly built and didn't produce a lot of volume. Stewart made long necked mandolin bodied five string banjo mandolins, I've seen a couple over the years, again, not much volume. No doubt other makers experimented with these hybrids.

[Jody Stecher]

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!

[Tom McArdle]

Sounds cool! I suppose on a guitar set up for steel strings it would be easy to use the octave g from a 12 string or Nashville set. I think there are thin gauge strings available for nylon, too.

It has been nice to get in some quiet practice early in the morning and late at night the last few days. I might leave this guitar set up this was for a while yet.

unfortunately my new tailpiece went the wrong way according to the eBay tracking… maybe it will show up tomorrow.

Jody Stecher said:

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!

[Jody Stecher]

No need to break up a set. Ball end steel strings of light gauge (.007) are easily bought as singles.

Tom McArdle said:

Sounds cool! I suppose on a guitar set up for steel strings it would be easy to use the octave g from a 12 string or Nashville set. I think there are thin gauge strings available for nylon, too.

It has been nice to get in some quiet practice early in the morning and late at night the last few days. I might leave this guitar set up this was for a while yet.

unfortunately my new tailpiece went the wrong way according to the eBay tracking… maybe it will show up tomorrow.

Jody Stecher said:

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!

At least one guitarist, Alec Stone-Sweet has replaced the A string on one of his guitars and replaced it with a light gauge wire. He tunes the four strings above that in various banjo tunings and tunes the new thin 5th string and the usual wound bass string according to the key. He plays banjo repertoire using clawhammer technique on the guitar.  Good too!