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tomberghan - Posted - 06/19/2013: 20:42:14
Bill Monroe's monumental classic Bluegrass tune "Jerusalem Ridge," the place he grew up. Bill said he used to go hunting up on the ridge when he was young.
Tom Berghan - Soprano Banjo & Laurence Diehl - Guitar
The Soprano Banjo: My soprano banjo is somewhat unique in that it has an 11 inch diameter rim. With such a short scale, this places the bridge close-to-center and results in a sweeter (but softer) sound from that of the typical 8 inch rims of the early 19th century soprano banjos that had extremely bright timbre and could cut right over the top of an orchestra. I call my little banjo "Sweet Pea," and she is very fun to play.
We hope you enjoy our performance (and it is such a pleasure for me to play with Laurence!) . . . and if you do like it, please press the like button.
Thanks, and Best Wishes, Tom and Laurence
Wills Creek - Posted - 06/20/2013: 05:19:59
Nice ! Great rendition I enjoyed it and impressed with the soprano banjo. Great guitar work Lawence!
BanjoFlyboy - Posted - 06/20/2013: 05:26:49
That was simply great! Thanks for posting!!! 
alprice - Posted - 06/20/2013: 06:37:54
Sweet!
JanetB - Posted - 06/20/2013: 07:08:51
Vintage T & L. Smooth as can be. It's fun to have a banjo wardrobe, isn't it, Tom!?
Laurence Diehl - Posted - 06/20/2013: 08:11:15
Enjoyed it Tom!
Glad we got to showcase your soprano banjo, which has a very sweet sound. Question: how does the tuning on the soprano compare to say, a mandolin?
tomberghan - Posted - 06/20/2013: 08:52:19
quote:
Originally posted by Laurence Diehl
Enjoyed it Tom!
Glad we got to showcase your soprano banjo, which has a very sweet sound. Question: how does the tuning on the soprano compare to say, a mandolin?
The tuning is GDAE - identical to both mandolin and violin tuning. It sits one fifth higher than a tenor banjo. This is very convenient because one can read directly from fiddle tune books, and its short scale makes it very easy to play.
People often say "Oh, then it is a banjo-mandolin?" No, it is not - because the soprano banjo has single strings, whereas the banjo-mandolin has double strings (referred to as "courses"). It is just the next size up from the tenor banjo in the consort of four string banjos (family) that were popular in the heyday of the banjo orchestras a century ago.
jimh269b - Posted - 06/20/2013: 09:07:16
great playing tom and laurence
banjo hollow - Posted - 06/20/2013: 09:52:24
Really unique, sounds great!
Paul Roberts - Posted - 06/20/2013: 12:09:53
Very cool! Perfect for a hot summer day.
chickenpickin - Posted - 06/20/2013: 15:11:55
That is fantastic!!.......The recording is superb in every way!!
Tim
f#dead - Posted - 06/20/2013: 16:29:06
Thanks for posting Tom. Wonderful!
tomberghan - Posted - 06/20/2013: 17:48:04
Thanks everyone so much! Laurence and I are very pleasantly surprised and pleased at the response.
And Tim - I will have to try one of your Purcell bridges someday soon! The little soprano really deserves a better bridge, and I'm sue one of yours would be perfect! I know Laurence really loves his!
Best Wishes, Tom
Don Borchelt - Posted - 06/20/2013: 20:36:54
Very fine picking, gentlemen. A great sound. Imagine the improvement to bluegrass music if Bill Monroe had used a soprano banjo instead of his Gibby F5. I'm just sayin'.
tomberghan - Posted - 06/20/2013: 21:39:04
quote:
Originally posted by Don Borchelt
Very fine picking, gentlemen. A great sound. Imagine the improvement to bluegrass music if Bill Monroe had used a soprano banjo instead of his Gibby F5. I'm just sayin'.
Thanks Don! Well, if someone took a fire iron to a soprano banjo, as actually happened to Bill's Loar F5, then replacing a banjo head is no doubt 100,000 times easier than repairing a splintered carved spruce soundboard! Woo Man! I saw Bill's famous F5 in the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. It looked great! What an amazing repair! But yeah - Banjos Rule!!!
Bill Rogers - Posted - 06/20/2013: 22:53:08
Great stuff, as always. Thanks for the continuing collaborations. I'd always heard instruments like Tom's called "melody banjos." Not uncommon around 1900-1920 or so. And they did have the larger head size.
SCclawman - Posted - 06/22/2013: 17:30:58
Jerusalem Ridge is one of my favorite songs. You guys just gave Tony Rice (my favorite version) a run for his money on this one. Great dynamics, back and forth, and loved the unison turn too.
That was awesome!
tomberghan - Posted - 06/22/2013: 17:56:12
quote:
Originally posted by SCclawman
Jerusalem Ridge is one of my favorite songs. You guys just gave Tony Rice (my favorite version) a run for his money on this one. Great dynamics, back and forth, and loved the unison turn too.
That was awesome!
WOW! That is pretty high praise! Thank you very much! Of course I do not really consider myself worthy to even clean Tony Rice's out-house! Tony is one of my hero's for sure! But again - thank you very much - I am pleased you enjoyed it that much! Best Wishes, Tom
Laurence Diehl - Posted - 06/22/2013: 22:18:11
Funny you should mention Tony Rice, Travis. I was listening to his version before I cut the guitar part - might have borrowed a lick or two.
