This is a group for people who play Enoch banjos.

116 Members, Created 1/29/2011 -

Administrators: Booger McGee (owner)

Tradesman

From writerrad on 1/23/2013 10:26:24 AM

I've owned a tradesman (cheery neck 12 inch pot scooped fretted) since 2007.  I have four other banjos that I love dearly too, but as an all around banjo it is my favorite.  One thing I like about it is that it is LIGHT compred to either 19th century or more recent tone ring banjos.  That makes a big difference if you are in your 60s and travelliung.  I had to carry a big heavy Tubaphone from Florida to Engaldn then to Russia then to Germany then back to England and back to Germany, or just carrying it through Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta where everyone who flies Delta always had to change is a struggle.

The tradesman (or the Dobson which I consider an even nicer banjo and a further perfection of the same idea, seems really suited to old time down picking both in the brushier style or in single string style and for faster types of two finger picking.

I've reallyt been inspired with the tradesman by Ron Whistler a Florida banjoist who has won many contests and plays so well using a tradesman even though I know he has other more expensive banjoes.

I've already posted about using a skin head on a tradesman and I have already gotten Kevin's sage advice on this issue.

Another issue--one I signed onto Hangout to find out about--is head tension.  For more than a decade I didnt do anything about head tension on any of my banjoes.  LOL the heads got so loose that brackets actually fell off one banjo because they were too loose.   

I do like the bright loiudertone you get from a tight head and dont think banjos should sound mousey quiet and soupy or muffled.  Even woodies like the tradesman were not designed ot that and I dont find that traditional banjoists liked that sound at all.

What do other users do here in regard to head tension.  Does anyone use a drum gauge to measure it?  What are the pitfalls of having too much head tension--where I think I am today with my tradesman?

banjovially

Tony Thomas West Palm Beach

2 Comments
	vrteach says: 1/23/2013 10:40:56 AM I've never done much with head tension over the years. On my aluminum banjo I lowered the tension until I like the sound better--and it's been sitting like that for 25 years. The GoldTone WL-250 and the Tradesman both have the Renaissance heads which stretch. On the WL-250 every once in a while I decide I'm less happy (maybe tone, maybe tuning) and I give a half-turn to tighten the head because it's easier than changing strings. Usually the head-tightening makes me happier. I haven't had the Tradesman for very long, and at Christmas I got a wrench that fits it. I tightened it up some (because I didn't like the way I had to tune every string if I tuned one) and I liked it. I tightened it up some more and decided that it seemed to "pinch" off the tone. It just seemed less interesting, so I loosened back. Now I'm happy again, although the Tradesman is still a bit harder to tune than the WL-250, but easier than my crummy old banjos.
	writerrad says: 1/23/2013 12:06:00 PM What makes banjoes hard to tune is that so much is moving around in them, particularly as banjoes have a free standing moveable bridge. When you tune a string you are putting or removing pressure on the bridge and slightly changing its location and other things about where everything is and what tension it is under. Just picked up my tradesman in one hand and my wl 250 in the other. Quite a differencer in weight. The WL is a heavier banjo with the tone ring and other stuff. Even though it doesnt seem that way, the tradesman actually has heavier strings than a WL-250, at least if you use the strings that come with the banjoes. Much more is being shifted around and changed every time you tighten or loosen a string on a tradesman than on a WL-250. Consequently it is going to be more sensitive to tune than a tradesman. I am a very strong believer that in old time music, a person should tune the head tension to where she or he wants it, and not to worry about anything else but finding what is right for you because there are so many different styles of old time music and banjo and different sounds and different banjoes. I like a brighter sound closer to the bluegrass idea of tightening the head until there is too much resistance in the brackets. That's me. Other folks who play the banjo night like a looser bassier thumpier sound. That's cool too
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