Overall Comments

My latest banjo - see my homepage for pictures and a sound clip - had a lot of overtones and sustain. I thought the BanjoMate Tone Enhancer
might help. A friend and I installed it yesterday, and it cleaned up the overtones and sustain nicely. This is not a low or medium grade banjo - all top notch parts - but I added two extra frets at the high end of the neck, which moved the bridge closer to the center of the head, and seems to have created more overtones and sustain. I like the change, although I haven't played with the positioning yet. For the price I think it's hard to beat. When I initially saw them advertised I passed it off as a gimmick, but it's not. Amazing what bluegrass musicians come up with!

Overall Rating

8

Overall Comments

I recently purchased a Mitchels Tone Ring Mate and and a Mitchels Tone Arch Top Tone Ring. I have an archtop banjo comprised of a First Quality pot with one piece flange. The neck was an unfinished mahogany neck which I got from Wyatt Fawley. Originally I had a 4 hole Gibson tone ring, which always seemed to have a rather thin sound, no matter what we did to it. A friend offered a trade for a name brand archtop to flathead conversion ring, which improved the sound, but still lacked the fullness of tone I was looking for. When I replaced that with the Mitchels Tone Ring and Tone Ring Mate the banjo came alive. The notes coming from it seem large and full, the bass is fantastic, and it has power the whole way up the neck! This was what I was looking for in the first place. I think it's great! I have played about a half dozen banjos with the Mitchels ring and they all sounded great. They ranged from several old Gibsons to several of Mitchels Mitch banjos. All were nice and crisp with full notes and good bass. I highly recommend the combination!

Overall Rating

10