relativ - Posted - 11/17/2009:  13:24:20

I've been working on the details of a song to practise my tone and try to get a better sound ("Battle in the horseshoe" from Mike Seegers DVD). When I play the melody I find that all the strings resonates and makes the sound really cluttered. I am hitting the melody notes clean and distinctive. But it's the strings that isn't beeing played that makes the irritating noise. In some parts of the tune I can make a dampening percussive stroke on the "dit". Is there any other techniques I can use to mute the ringing strings? (The banjo is a GT WL-250)

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 11/17/2009:  14:41:19

Some will find this insulting, but I never play my MM150 (essentially the same pot with different inlays on the same neck) without some sort of stufing inside the head. There are all sort of degrees of stuffing and I change mine constantly, but my standard is a linen table napkin folded up between the head and the top rod. at the tailpiece end of the banjo.
I also got rid of the Gold Tone tailpiece. My favourite replacement for it has been a Rickard "No-Knot" style.

That Gold Tone tailpiece is bad news, cheap pot metal that easily cracks. If you really need the down pressure get a Stu-Mac Kershner.


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Rocket Science Banjo - Advanced Clawhammer Techniques for beginners and long time players alike. Plus videos and 25-40 EZ Clawhammer Tunes.
& check out "How To Mold A Mighty Pinky" at:
http://www.pricklypearmusic.net
banjo brad's great banjo site

PF. - Posted - 11/17/2009:  19:52:54

id agree with owc, some sort of cloth in between the dowel and head is what i use, gives it more of a nice plunky tone, just dont place it to close to the bridge

majikgator - Posted - 11/17/2009:  20:14:39

yes and one more vote ,although i use this on my Goldtone i have seen a large percentage of openback banos in all price ranges and various makers that could use that cloth IMHO, i use a tye dye kerchief and although i don't recomend it a non tye dyed one may just work as well. i also go with don't place it by the bridge mine is LOOSELY not tightly jammed in place near the neck other people have used things like foam rubber, socks, for me my arrangement after experimentation worked best, this cuts down on the overtones, some people just love that sound, i am not among them, sounds like it's coming out of a garbage can to me. Too tight a fit can overly mute andd muffle the banjo though so again don't tightly jam anything in there to press too tightly against the head just barely should be enough and make a huge difference in the sound. And don't feel like this is some sort of weird thing a lot of professional players do this on their very expensive banjos.

jk

relativ - Posted - 11/18/2009:  03:03:55

Actually, I already have a sock stuffed in the pot. It's not the tonering that is ringing, it's the strings that isn't being played. They pick up some frequencies and start vibrating. When I listen to other players they seem to have ways of dampening unwanted sounds while playing. But how?

//Anders

banjered - Posted - 11/18/2009:  09:15:03

Ditto the stuffings - experiment. How a string sounds has a lot to do with how you strike it, what part of the nail, whether you glance off the string or follow through and mute the next higher string. I use my index to "bumm" but I have my other fingers curled along side of it and depending on the sound I want, I will either muffle/mute the other strings with them or I will rotate my hand so that the pinky is further away from the head and only the index is striking the bumm string. This mute or not-mute is just another tool in the CH toolbox to alter the sound as you prefer. You can even dampen the bumm string with the fleshy base of the thumb and if you combine that with the fingers dampening, you can really get a "drum" effect going. If I were singing a song, in a part I may want to dampen the banjo down and emphasize the words but keep the rhythm going. Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun! TC

majikgator - Posted - 11/18/2009:  17:22:16

well if you already have stuffed the head and it isn't the overtones you are talking about but as you did actually ate at first it the other strings sounding, then it isn't your playing there is something wrong with either your banjo setup or your banjo, i just walked over to my banjo gave the third string a good hard strike with only my finger being anywhere near the banjo, not even holding the banjo and my other strings although i'm sure they vibrated some were not audible. so you may have to look at what could be thst is causing this maybe the bridge or tail piece what knid of banjo do you have. at any rate it doen't sound like something you want to compensate for in your playing, sounds like your banjo's the one with the problem.