John Hartford on strings, tuning, and tone rings

[David Connelly]

I am a huge Hartford fan and came across this interview in a 1993 issue of Banjo Newsletter. I am currently restoring, or making playable, an 1890's A.C. Fairbanks. So iv'e been poking around online for lots of info, and found this. I am well aware the John wasn't a classic style banjoist, but this snippet shows that he was definitely influenced by the banjos of the era. Thought I would share this snippet:

BNL:You've done an awful lot of research on five string banjos. You've been working with a couple different banjo companies with what I'd call Hartford signature model banjos.

JH: Well, I developed a wood rim for the banjo based on the old AA Farland design from back at the turn of the century. George Gruhn got me an A.A. Farland banjo that was made in 1895. It had a wood rim and it just played wonderful. It cut down on a lot of the overtones and rings you'd get with a metal tone ring banjo. So Tom Ventriss and I built one and it worked out real well. Then we built one with Stelling which worked out real good. Then we built one with Deering and redesigned it, redid the neck and everything. It was the best banjo I had at the time. I had two of them; one strung up standard and one strung up in E. The wood rim is made from Grenadilla wood which is what they make xylophones and clarinets out of. It works real well. It's not quite as loud as a tone ring banjo but its got a good even tone. Its real good in the studio and its got a lot of mid-range. You get a little more daylight between the notes.

BNL: Do you tune low the way you have in the past?

JH: Yes, I've been tuning like that twelve years now. I got to experimenting tuning low because it sounded good to me on tape and I was getting better midrange and it fit my voice better. I thought I'd come up with something new. But I got a copy of the Frank B. Converse Banjo Method from 1871 and it shows in there the standard tuning in 1871 was third string to E. So there's nothing new under the sun. I tune down three frets to get to E tuning. I string up my present instruments as follows: 1st and 5th-.012, 2nd-.014, 3rd-.020W and 4th- .024W.

BNL: Do you use nylon on the Grenadilla?

JH: No, they're wonderful, nylon strings. I've got a Scott Didlake from Crystal Springs, Mississippi who made me a gourd banjo. Its got a great big long neck on it and I've got that strung up with nylon strings. What a wonderful sound.

BNL: I had to hunt around to find some. I found them down in at The Music Emporium in Boston, La Bella's.

JH: That's what I got on mine. One of the things that I found was, after I got on to the thing of tuning low. I would find those old open back banjos and a lot of them would choke once you tune them up with steel strings. I would start tuning them down and I would find that each one of them had a place, where they would just open up. Sometimes it was E, sometimes it was D and sometimes C.

[Joel Hooks]

Hartford knew Howard Weilmuenster, the current Honorary President of the American Banjo Fraternity (and last banjo student FVE had).  Howard told me the story of how he was able to connect Hartford with Fred Van Eps. 

FVE was moving to California to live with his son Robert.  They loaded FVE's stuff on a train car and drove themselves with a planned stop at the Weilmuenster's house.  Howard called Hartford and Hartford dropped everything to get to Howard's house to meet FVE, If I remember the story correctly.

That said, Hartford, by many accounts, was a bit of a narcissist (NOT Howard's account though, he had nothing but good things to say about Hartford).  So any historical precedence Hartford referenced would likely need to fit neatly into his own views of things or support what he had come up with.

Howard also told me that Hartford knew about classic banjo, but could not read music and I got the impression it was not really Hartford's thing. 

[Austin]

How does one become an Honorary president of the ABF?

Joel Hooks said:

Hartford knew Howard Weilmuenster, the current Honorary President of the American Banjo Fraternity (and last banjo student FVE had).  Howard told me the story of how he was able to connect Hartford with Fred Van Eps. 

FVE was moving to California to live with his son Robert.  They loaded FVE's stuff on a train car and drove themselves with a planned stop at the Weilmuenster's house.  Howard called Hartford and Hartford dropped everything to get to Howard's house to meet FVE, If I remember the story correctly.

That said, Hartford, by many accounts, was a bit of a narcissist (NOT Howard's account though, he had nothing but good things to say about Hartford).  So any historical precedence Hartford referenced would likely need to fit neatly into his own views of things or support what he had come up with.

Howard also told me that Hartford knew about classic banjo, but could not read music and I got the impression it was not really Hartford's thing. 

[Joel Hooks]

Live long enough and be an active member (show up to rallies as long as as you can).

At one time if was the “oldest professional classic banjoist”.  Farland was the first.

Austin said:

How does one become an Honorary president of the ABF?

Joel Hooks said:

Hartford knew Howard Weilmuenster, the current Honorary President of the American Banjo Fraternity (and last banjo student FVE had).  Howard told me the story of how he was able to connect Hartford with Fred Van Eps. 

FVE was moving to California to live with his son Robert.  They loaded FVE's stuff on a train car and drove themselves with a planned stop at the Weilmuenster's house.  Howard called Hartford and Hartford dropped everything to get to Howard's house to meet FVE, If I remember the story correctly.

That said, Hartford, by many accounts, was a bit of a narcissist (NOT Howard's account though, he had nothing but good things to say about Hartford).  So any historical precedence Hartford referenced would likely need to fit neatly into his own views of things or support what he had come up with.

Howard also told me that Hartford knew about classic banjo, but could not read music and I got the impression it was not really Hartford's thing. 

[Joel Hooks]

I believe that Howard is 96.

So, exercise daily, eat well, don’t vape, don’t drink, sleep well and maintain a healthy body size, and play classic banjo the entire time.

Howard told me he used the Charles Atlas mail order program of physical culture.

[David Connelly]

That tracks. John was an odd mixture of ego and humility. Tradition and innovation. That's a great story about FVE and Hartford.

Joel Hooks said:

Hartford knew Howard Weilmuenster, the current Honorary President of the American Banjo Fraternity (and last banjo student FVE had).  Howard told me the story of how he was able to connect Hartford with Fred Van Eps. 

FVE was moving to California to live with his son Robert.  They loaded FVE's stuff on a train car and drove themselves with a planned stop at the Weilmuenster's house.  Howard called Hartford and Hartford dropped everything to get to Howard's house to meet FVE, If I remember the story correctly.

That said, Hartford, by many accounts, was a bit of a narcissist (NOT Howard's account though, he had nothing but good things to say about Hartford).  So any historical precedence Hartford referenced would likely need to fit neatly into his own views of things or support what he had come up with.

Howard also told me that Hartford knew about classic banjo, but could not read music and I got the impression it was not really Hartford's thing.