7 string banjo on Ebay UK

[Jody Stecher]

There's an interesting 7 string banjo up for auction. The seller can't spell but seems honest. Worth a look.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-SEVEN-STRING-BANJO-OPEN-BACK-ZITHER...

[thereallyniceman]

It is interesting Jody.  I have never seen one, in the flesh, so don't know anything about them.I have added a few pictures of the instrument.

Apart from having to grow two extra fingers how on earth to you play one of these?

I have trouble cleanly fretting 5 strings on my banjos and squeezing another two on without making the neck too wide must cause problems playing one... or is it just my fat fingers?

[marc dalmasso]

It would be interesting to know ,if these instruments  ( English most of time ; the 6 strings Dobson ' s beeing designed for the English market ) were used for soloing or for 2nd banjo  ' parts ?

I have experienced some tunes with mine  , solo , but my seven string was downgraded to a 6th ' one ; Coming from the regular five string , i think it 's difficult to play a seven string for two reasons : 2 strings more to manage  instead of one  ; 2nd reason : the width of the neck  ( at nut )on these banjos is OK for a 6  strings but too narrow for  7 ; i think

[Jody Stecher]

Six and seven string banjos were used mostly for song accompaniment. I say this because I have seen some tutors (instruction books) for these instruments. The idea was that the amateur player had more bass notes available on open strings.  The narrow fingerboard was not a problem because generally the player just played the usual C chord, G7 chord and F chord. My problem was that the extra string(s) make the sound of the higher strings sound muddy on most 6 and 7 string banjos I've played (which has not been many. There are too many overtones.  I think I've played 5 six course banjos and 2 banjos with 7 courses. I have one Daniels 6 course banjo. I disliked the sound with an extra bass course. So I added an octave string to the C bass. So I have 4 single courses and one double course.  It's like the bass course on a bouzouki. That works well.

[David Wade]

Interesting idea Jody, the difficulty is finding a 7-stringer with a wide enough fingerboard. I have a JAT which is comfortable and opens up interesting possibilities as a "2nd". There's loads of fun songs in the books that really should be aired again!        

[Jody Stecher]

Can you please remind us of the tunings, David?  I seem to recall that for 6 string banjo it was either gCDGBD or gGCGBD and that for 7 string it was gGCDGBD. But wasn't there at least one other 7 string tuning? I seem to remember an F string. Was it gFGCGBD?

David Wade said:

Interesting idea Jody, the difficulty is finding a 7-stringer with a wide enough fingerboard. I have a JAT which is comfortable and opens up interesting possibilities as a "2nd". There's loads of fun songs in the books that really should be aired again!        

[David Wade]

Hi Jody, no, all the tutors that I've seen and the song books that I have use the "major 2nd" tuning. I have a vague re-collection of seeing another tuning on a  web-site that was obviously wrong.

[Jody Stecher]

F to G is a major second. :-)

David Wade said:

Hi Jody, no, all the tutors that I've seen and the song books that I have use the "major 2nd" tuning. I have a vague re-collection of seeing another tuning on a  web-site that was obviously wrong.