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www.robertpalomo.com
Playing Since: 1977
Experience Level: Purty Good
MrNatch3L has made 158 recent additions to Banjo Hangout 
Interests:
[Jamming] [Socializing] [Helping]
Occupation: Tech writer, web developer
Gender: Male
Age: 59
My Instruments:
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
Just a few of many: NGR, Carrie Newcomer, Rice, Trishka, CS&N, Dave Mason, Fogelberg, John Hiatt, Joe Walsh, Mahavishnu, Santana... and this very weird guy
Classified Rating: +1
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Visible to: Public
Created 1/17/2004
Last Visit 2/9/2012
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011 @7:17:35 AM
Just kiddin' friends and neighbors! I've been picking away with 3 fingers and resonator banjos for quite a while and I wanted to give clawhammer a try with an open-back banjo. Also wanted a more plunky, woody sound for some tunes of my own. I was watching the BHO classifieds RSSfeed and several dealers, thinking about kind of thing I'd like to pick up.
 Then one day comes an ad for an older Vega tenor for sale in Europe that seemed to be in pretty nice shape. At least it looked a lot like a Vega. But even if it's not, it seems to be a decent older pot and the price was good enough I started thinking 5-string conversion.
With me so far? American nut case, living in Russia, finds alleged american Vega tenor banjo for sale pretty cheap in Germany. No way was I having it shipped thru Russia's Customs service (baaaad experience!), so it shipped to one daughter who lives in Paris. Where it is as of this writing. The timing was pretty good because we were plannig to visit her in October to meet the family of her boyfriend of more than 5 years. They think it's time - but that's beside the point... well, not totally.
While the banjo was in transit I start badgering BHO forums looking for a luthier in Europe who could make a 5-string neck. Got several recommendations I felt would be equally good. But it turned out that Eric Stefanelli lives just a couple of klicks off the main road we'd be driving from Paris to the boyfriend's home town. If you follow the link, you can see he does some nice open-back work, and his quote was competitive. But by that time it already was starting to have that "this is the way it's meant to be" feeling.
So are you still with me? Same American nutcase living in Russia has bought purportedly American Vega banjo in Germany, shipped to France to avoid shipping thru Russian Customs (due to previous attempt to extort $10,000 USD on a pallet shipment of old books that came from Russia in the first place, used towels, chipped dinnerware and worn kids' clothes - thwarted when wife recognized as prominent journalist... but I digress)... hires French luthier to make 5-string conversion neck.
Still working on the problem of a case for the conversion. Neither M. Stefanelli nor I can find anything available in France or other EU countries made specifically for open back banjos. He usually provides his customers with a case made for resonator banjos and does some extra padding. But this will work out. I may bring it home to St. Petersburg well packed in a box and have a case made for it here. I know several people who have had nice custom banjo cases made locally for far less than you'd pay for a good Calton or something. Maybe I'll just do that and add one more international bit to this seriously international banjo.
Recent Forum Posts
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Clone (3 days ago)
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