From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  09:02:30

Here is is his first few licks with out a resonator! a friend of Arthur's came into shop so there is some talking in the background on some.

youtube.com/watch?v=3x2A6As9wPI

youtube.com/watch?v=WRIwB31lCxQ

youtube.com/watch?v=Zwwjt7L1fLk

youtube.com/watch?v=UOn3K5YcpLk

youtube.com/watch?v=tgtyB1Mu2z8

Much more coming. Have to get to work.

ken

chuckv97 - Posted - 07/22/2019:  09:09:35

Super! Love it!

Mooooo - Posted - 07/22/2019:  09:36:51

Amazing videos and picking. Thanks Ken and Arthur and Kevin. I'm looking forward to more.

jlsorbit - Posted - 07/22/2019:  11:06:43

That banjo sounds good. Thanks guys.

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  12:10:31

Computer is cooperating, here are 4 more:

youtube.com/watch?v=vFK-F-MukmM

youtube.com/watch?v=hIJggtuvrC0&t=2s

youtube.com/watch?v=FHm2jke4Pos

youtube.com/watch?v=UoI_nKO223s

warpdrive - Posted - 07/22/2019:  12:28:15

Thanks for all the flowers guys....

I only hope i can figure out why my laptop ain't cooperating with me anymore.

In the 72 hrs that have passed since my initial set-up down at Arthur's , i changed out the first 3 strings and went around the head about a 1/4 turn on each bracket and i bet she's tripled in volume and tone.....i mean she is opening up so much faster than i've expected...

It's been a great number of years since i've had a banjo that was this new....the other banjos i've had....even the one's i bought from Sonny, had been kept and played a bit before i took possession of them, so they were not exactly "brand new" having only been together a couple of days..not like this one.

The volume of this banjo is crazy loud....i can't remember owning a louder banjo, and really can't remember even playing a louder banjo....and I've played thousands. The banjo is so loud...i've not even capo'd up since returning to the hotel room, i'm afraid if i capo up and play it....it will bust out the window!

This banjo is doing everything i'd want a new banjo to do....hell.....it's doing everything i'd want an old banjo to do, Arthur Hatfield really outdone himself on this and in such a short amount of time when you think about it.

Now i hope ya'll will pardon the flubs and mistakes i make on these video's....sometimes trying to get ahold of a new banjo and getting it where you want it .....its a lot like trying to catch a greased pig, just about the time you think you got a good hold on it....it's slips away, i promise i will get better.

For the sake of description here are the specs on "Serena" that's her name...i'll let Ken explain why i named her that....y'all are more likely to believe him....
"SERENA"
Custom Hatfield Banjo...Based on the Celebrity Model Maple Banjo
Straight Grain Maple Neck...... (so ordered by warp)"thin profile to fit Warp's biscuit grabbers
Ebony Fingerboard....Hatfield Snowflake Inlay ( so ordered by warp)
Curly Maple Resonator
Jimmy Cox Three Ply Rock Maple Rim
Arthur Hatfield Tone Ring....loose fitted....yes i agree with that!
Hardware....not sure where Arthur get's his hardware....
Tuners...I'm guessing Gotea
Banjo is spiked at A,Bflt,B,C
Guardian Case

"i might add the banjo weighs a blue ton" and she plays like butter!

Ok gang....
in the coming days ....when i am feeling up to it,...i actually just came back from a quick doctors visit....my gizzard is trying to act up again....nothing serious for now!
I will try to get the bugs out of my laptop so i can post some vids of how she is opening up....

Thanks again to Ken, and everybody here on the hangout and others that were apart of the generous gift from the GFM....you've all but cured my cancer, and certainly are helping it be more tolerable.....all of y'all are my friends, and anything i can do in the way of helping you in banjo land , please feel free to contact me and if there is something i can do for you.....i will do my damnedest to try and help.....just remember.....i'm just an old Hillbilly, if you want professional help, there out there, but they also charge money.... i won't !

Y'all have a gooderin...till next time
Warp!

dmiller - Posted - 07/22/2019:  13:01:01

I'm going to have to look at those videos again to find all those "flubs and mistakes" you say you made.  I sure didn't see or hear any the first two or three times through the videos!  That banjo sure sounds good, and you are doing it proud.  Hey, if Serena gets too loud for you - - - put a towel under the head like Bobby Thompson did.  Just a thought.  Congrats on the banjo and here's wishing you happy picking!  

Mooooo - Posted - 07/22/2019:  13:22:41

Mistakes are to be expected. Recovering from them so gracefully as Warp does comes with experience and talent. I think I get more pleasure from hearing a mistake that gets played through professionally than a perfectly played break, it gives me hope, because we all make mistakes.

yeoldbanjoguy - Posted - 07/22/2019:  13:31:25

Great stuff!!!! Thanks for the post

Bruce

warpdrive - Posted - 07/22/2019:  13:35:15

I sure appreciate the input guys...i really do

As far as mistakes go....one of my favorite quotes on mistakes....

"if you don't make mistakes...You Aint Trying"
B.B.King!

Warp!

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  15:08:33

The computer keeps working (we have had the tech out twice this past week) so here are some more: Yeah boy. some serious good stuff here!!!

youtube.com/watch?v=InRtgD0bbK...=5s 

Yes we talked about Stover on the way down.

youtube.com/watch?v=4PAy_xe-jjQ

youtube.com/watch?v=PYrJ9aKq3o4

youtube.com/watch?v=wHDgkyZ4Q5w

youtube.com/watch?v=sb9L1Qt0_vk

I look at Arthur's shop and want to go back! Ain't nothin but banjos born, bred, played, and said here!

Edited by - From Greylock to Bean Blossom on 07/22/2019 15:12:26

warpdrive - Posted - 07/22/2019:  16:34:46

Ken,
You know we talked about how the banjo sounded from behind when you play it, like it does when your in front of it.....i would be happy if it never sounded any better than that...after getting to hear it now from your side of the fence....but you won't believe me....probably....so i'll have to find a way for us to get together again..but as of oh...i don't know....a hour and a half ago when i put it up after hammering on it an hour or so.....those videos don't even come close to what it has now....i'm serious.....it's just a "BEAST!

Warp!

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  16:38:33

quote:

---

Originally posted by warpdrive

Ken,

You know we talked about how the banjo sounded from behind when you play it, like it does when your in front of it.....i would be happy if it never sounded any better than that...after getting to hear it now from your side of the fence....but you won't believe me....probably....so i'll have to find a way for us to get together again..but as of oh...i don't know....a hour and a half ago when i put it up after hammering on it an hour or so.....those videos don't even come close to what it has now....i'm serious.....it's just a "BEAST!



Warp!

---

Edited by - From Greylock to Bean Blossom on 07/22/2019 16:39:40

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  18:35:03

Here are the last 6 from Arthur Hatfield's banjo shop. Doesn't it make you want to be in Glasgow? Thank you Arthur and Kevin. These will get played a lot.

youtube.com/watch?v=9Rj6zbKV0U8

youtube.com/watch?v=jJH3Kw_x85U

youtube.com/watch?v=iSKnyxQRoms

youtube.com/watch?v=3wPt9JegGgs

Getting into cheat a keys

youtube.com/watch?v=9KKGAT_QZn8

youtube.com/watch?v=qCxURwi5faI

ken

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  20:06:49

Arthur and Kevin,

Arthur Hatfield & Kevin (Warpdrive) Hendrix

Arthur Hatfield and Kevin (Warpdrive) Hendrix

KD Banjer - Posted - 07/22/2019:  20:08:10

Great playing (and banjo), warpdrive.



It was a pleasure watching those videos and hearing you play a banjo the way it is meant to be played (especially one of Arthur’s banjos).

(And thanks for filming and posting the videos, Ken).

Edited by - KD Banjer on 07/22/2019 20:09:31

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/22/2019:  20:16:38

Hey Folks,  I have one more from a different camera!

youtube.com/watch?v=4ScEFlOsJms

KD, AS you can imagine, the pleasure was all mine. thank you.

ken

warpdrive - Posted - 07/22/2019:  20:54:39

Ken,
you did a good job of videographer , maybe with my gift for story telling, we should combine these video shorts into a "documentary" call it something philosophical like..."A hillbillies journey to find himself" All we need is narration telling the story, use the music for some of the content, we might have something that could be published and aired on a PBS station ....you never know...

Warp!

KatB - Posted - 07/23/2019:  03:08:51

Ken, Thanks for all the videos. I put them all in 

ONE BIG PLAYLIST on YouTube.

:)

Edited by - KatB on 07/23/2019 03:10:43

warpdrive - Posted - 07/23/2019:  08:14:08

KatB

That was a very nice and kind of you to do thing....Thank you so much.
Warp!

arnie fleischer - Posted - 07/23/2019:  08:42:50

For sure your touch is still there, Kevin. It's so much fun to watch you and the banjo get acquainted from video 1 to video 26. You clearly get more and more comfortable and your playing becomes more nuanced as you get used to how the banjo responds to your picking style. The banjo sounds great, and to my way of thinking 90% of that is because you really know how to draw tone and bring out everything this banjo is capable of.

Congratulations!

warpdrive - Posted - 07/23/2019:  09:39:42

Thanks Arnie
it's been so long since i've had a banjo of this caliber...to set it up to wear i want it and could start concentrating on touch and the little nuanc's that really make the tone of a banjo stand out.

For the last couple of years...my Rk was and still is in such bad shape...the only thing i could do is approach it from a "cave man's" point of attack, and i'm alway going to be i think a bit more "heavy handed" that is just in my natural way...but a banjo like this makes you want to change the way you pull tone....and i've got a long way to go yet....but it still very surreal picking it up each day and realizing i don't have to stick 1/2 and much hand in it.....but my gosh....its like sitting in the drivers seat of a car that has 500Hp under the hood....you just want to hit the gas all the time.
Warp!

KD Banjer - Posted - 07/23/2019:  10:04:39

quote:

---

Originally posted by warpdrive

Thanks Arnie

it's been so long since i've had a banjo of this caliber...to set it up to wear i want it and could start concentrating on touch and the little nuanc's that really make the tone of a banjo stand out.



For the last couple of years...my Rk was and still is in such bad shape...the only thing i could do is approach it from a "cave man's" point of attack, and i'm alway going to be i think a bit more "heavy handed" that is just in my natural way...but a banjo like this makes you want to change the way you pull tone....and i've got a long way to go yet....but it still very surreal picking it up each day and realizing i don't have to stick 1/2 and much hand in it.....but my gosh....its like sitting in the drivers seat of a car that has 500Hp under the hood....you just want to hit the gas all the time.

Warp!

---

Hey Kevin,

Many BHO members and friends are very happy that you have the banjo that your talent and skill deserves.

You mentioned that you haven’t owned a banjo of this quality for a long time.

I’d love to hear about some of the banjos that you’ve owned throughout your life and career.

warpdrive - Posted - 07/23/2019:  11:39:04

KD
i was just about to open my case, and open the window( I may try to put a capo on today)and i don't want to blow out the window!

but for you buddy.....here goes....

Now i've owned over 100 banjos since my dad gave me his RB800 Gibson when he asked me to start learning banjo at 12 or 13...i used to always say 13 but looking back i was in the summer of turning 13..August 28th 1960..so i was actually 12.

The rb800 was not a good one...we never could get it to sound good...so we sold it and i got the top of the line Alvarez ...gold plated...it was decent...better sound that the gibson...and at that time in the banjo community Gibson's had poor quality control and you really had to cul them out.

I would go on in the next few years...up until i married at 19 and left home.... i owned several asian import banjos....i had a Aria pro 2 with the vine of life inlay..i took it to my first bluegrass festival down in Center Ridge Arkansas...The Wooten Brothers Festival...and it got played by a lot of pickers way better than i was. Most of the pickers i ran into down there had rb250's and epiphone's some fender's and the aria i had, besides being just stunning with that vine of life inlay...it had a real nice crack to it.
Sometime along the way i took possession of a Ibanez...so i had 2 banjo's laying around.
Along about my 16th birthday....one weekend we went to Harrison Ark...and i got into my first banjo contest....not knowing the rules...i got up there and before i started playing...i announced my name....and the judges were hidden and were not to know that....so i got disqualified...but i got some nice compliments from quite a few listeners and other contestants....i would not of won anyway and truthfully contest picking doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. While i was at Harrison, i saw a kid on stage playing banjo with one of the bands and he had top of the line Iida Banjo...clear head...gold plated Archtop...beautiful...sounded great and gold plated.
When i went back to work on Monday(i worked for BurgerKing and my manager let me take off for the weekend festival) after i got off work, i had to go down to the music store and get some strings, and in the window, was the very banjo that i seen the young man playing on stage at the festival....i went home and told dad that i wanted to trade, and i can't ever remember which banjo i had then, but dad said"son, your working, you can pay for it yourself, and he took me to the bank, and co-sighned on a signature loan for me, and the next year i made payments to the bank ....i think the banjo was something like 800.00 back then, but i played her everyday, as a matter of fact, it was the very banjo i won a state contest with the next year(i got runner up the first year)for Job at a Theme Park in Jasper Ark...based on the Lil Abner comic strip..DogPatch U.S.A....stupid me, i didn't take the job that at the time would pay 150.00 a week,...my girlfriend(future first wife) could not go, but i still have the contract from the job offer all these years later.

Sometime in the next year or so....dad and me went to jam at a music store about a hour and a half from us over in Osceola Ark....i was always looking for jams,,,they just were damb near non existent in the Jonesboro area at that time.
So whist at this jam over in Osceola , the store had a Ome XXX, and they let me play it for a good long time. It was good sounding enough, but i was partial to my IIda, but dad liked the Ome and he bought it outright, so it was around the house, and later on, i sold my Iida to friend in high school, and i had dad's Ome XXX..but possession is 9/10 of the law right....After i graduated high school, i was going up to Springfield Mo to pick my girlfriend up who had been there for a week training for a new job, and wilst i was out running around Springfield, i went into a music store in some little town on the outskirts of Springfield...and i ran across a banjo that had something up until that point in my life, i had never heard in another banjo, it just drove me nuts, .....i was a converted 1931 vega white lady...blonde with carved heel and it had a semi clear head on it and it had a magnesium tone ring. The banjo had been converted to 5 string by a well known guitar player in the Springfield area, a man by the name of Dudley Murphey, and i would call him later on to verify all the specs...but i traded dad's one xxx straight up for it, and dad thought i got skint , but the sound was incredible , i mean it would peel paint, i kept that banjo up until i graduated from Basic Training At Ft Sill, when i got my enlistment bonus and went back to Springfield on leave and bought a 1976 Baldwin Ode gold d that i had seen back when i traded for the vega...still sitting in the same spot in the store...5years later....i paid 1450.00 for the Baldwin Ode.

I kept the Baldwin Ode till i was halfway through my enlistment and sold it to my dad when i wanted to trade for a new RB250, then later on, i would trade for the worst banjo ever conceived by man.....the first run...honey colored Earl Scruggs model, i still have night mares about that banjo.....but later on in about 1989, i would sell it for 600.00 that would go toward funding my first pre-war a 1936-TB-1
i bought from Jim Yarboro of Gun Barrell City Tx, i would go on to buy by jim's count....13 different banjos from him, in fact, there is one of his banjos for sale in the classifieds right now, jim was a good banjo builder and there are many banjos in the world right now that he's had his hand on, in fact, i recorded most all of my stuff i did with The Bob Lewis Family on #9 yarboro banjo.

Kd, there is just no way to go into all the banjo's i've owned, and the thousands i've played, but i can tell you this..... "IN MY OPNION" banjo building is at it's finest point it's ever been at in history as far as i'm concerned!

The builders today, have really taken the time to use top materials and learn about tone woods and listen to the good pickers at what sounds they got and are looking for, it's been a real struggle , but i'm glad there are so many good banjos available today,

Ok, i've yaked on enough for now, thanks for asking...
warp!

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/23/2019:  15:48:46

Warp,

Dudley Murphey : I saw him open for Doc Watson in 75 or 76 as some room (very low ceiling, tables, & bar) in Springfield. Dudley Murphey and County Line put out an album entitled Sweet Prairie Hay, which I thought was a great album. They did some of their own songs, a few covers done in their own way. They had a banjo tune on their called Niagara Falls. I thought it was a great tune. the combination of banjo and guitar made you see the river racing for the falls with the white caps of the waves and then see the water plunge over the falls. IMO a great and under appreciated album. I greatly enjoyed Dudley's singing and guitar playing.

Could the guy in the little town next to Splfd you were talking about be Bob Ensign who later had Bob's Record Rack? He was in Ozark, Missouri and his brother in law made banjos and mandolins (one for Jesse McReynolds). His name was John Wynn.

ken

Edited by - From Greylock to Bean Blossom on 07/23/2019 15:49:57

chuckv97 - Posted - 07/23/2019:  16:03:12

Wow... I’d like to hear that one called “Niagara Falls”. I grew up 12 miles from the Falls. Might be lost in time tho... I could check discos or other old recordings outlets.

by golly, here it is, at 21:05.

youtu.be/vv8cyG_UQCo

Edited by - chuckv97 on 07/23/2019 16:06:19

warpdrive - Posted - 07/23/2019:  16:29:21

Ken,
What a small world it is indeed huh?
The music store where i got the 1931 vega whyte lady was not Ozark....i know where ozark is...my friends the Chapmans moved there.
Give me just a minute and i will pull up a map of the springfield area and i will tell you the town the music store was in.
Yeah, Dudley cut quite a swath around the ozarks back in the day, he was considered one of the best flat pickers anywhere...there were so damn few of them back then...they stuck out like a sore thumb!

BTW...the 31 whyte lady, was a arch top(i've got a video of me on VHS tape here in the room with me) it is from the show when i played on KFAL radio out of fulton Mo when i was the banjo picker for the Rooster Creek Boys
The banjo sounded a lot like the recording chuck just posted Niagara Falls.
Warp!

warpdrive - Posted - 07/23/2019:  16:37:34

Ken,
the name of the town where the music store i traded for the whyte lady is Republic Mo.
warp!

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/23/2019:  17:10:24

Warp I lived 2 year in splfd. Went to school one year there and maybe 10 years later coached there for a year. Good people and nice town. remember when the grain mills were not too far off the town square. never got over much to republic.
ken
ps Chuck, did Niagra falls tune make you see the river?

chuckv97 - Posted - 07/23/2019:  17:18:53

Yep, I could see that big roiling splashing water... nice interplay with guitar & banjo

KD Banjer - Posted - 07/23/2019:  17:24:46

quote:

---

Originally posted by warpdrive

KD

i was just about to open my case, and open the window( I may try to put a capo on today)and i don't want to blow out the window!



but for you buddy.....here goes....



Now i've owned over 100 banjos since my dad gave me his RB800 Gibson when he asked me to start learning banjo at 12 or 13...i used to always say 13 but looking back i was in the summer of turning 13..August 28th 1960..so i was actually 12.



The rb800 was not a good one...we never could get it to sound good...so we sold it and i got the top of the line Alvarez ...gold plated...it was decent...better sound that the gibson...and at that time in the banjo community Gibson's had poor quality control and you really had to cul them out.



I would go on in the next few years...up until i married at 19 and left home.... i owned several asian import banjos....i had a Aria pro 2 with the vine of life inlay..i took it to my first bluegrass festival down in Center Ridge Arkansas...The Wooten Brothers Festival...and it got played by a lot of pickers way better than i was. Most of the pickers i ran into down there had rb250's and epiphone's some fender's and the aria i had, besides being just stunning with that vine of life inlay...it had a real nice crack to it.

Sometime along the way i took possession of a Ibanez...so i had 2 banjo's laying around.

Along about my 16th birthday....one weekend we went to Harrison Ark...and i got into my first banjo contest....not knowing the rules...i got up there and before i started playing...i announced my name....and the judges were hidden and were not to know that....so i got disqualified...but i got some nice compliments from quite a few listeners and other contestants....i would not of won anyway and truthfully contest picking doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. While i was at Harrison, i saw a kid on stage playing banjo with one of the bands and he had top of the line Iida Banjo...clear head...gold plated Archtop...beautiful...sounded great and gold plated.

When i went back to work on Monday(i worked for BurgerKing and my manager let me take off for the weekend festival) after i got off work, i had to go down to the music store and get some strings, and in the window, was the very banjo that i seen the young man playing on stage at the festival....i went home and told dad that i wanted to trade, and i can't ever remember which banjo i had then, but dad said"son, your working, you can pay for it yourself, and he took me to the bank, and co-sighned on a signature loan for me, and the next year i made payments to the bank ....i think the banjo was something like 800.00 back then, but i played her everyday, as a matter of fact, it was the very banjo i won a state contest with the next year(i got runner up the first year)for Job at a Theme Park in Jasper Ark...based on the Lil Abner comic strip..DogPatch U.S.A....stupid me, i didn't take the job that at the time would pay 150.00 a week,...my girlfriend(future first wife) could not go, but i still have the contract from the job offer all these years later.



Sometime in the next year or so....dad and me went to jam at a music store about a hour and a half from us over in Osceola Ark....i was always looking for jams,,,they just were damb near non existent in the Jonesboro area at that time.

So whist at this jam over in Osceola , the store had a Ome XXX, and they let me play it for a good long time. It was good sounding enough, but i was partial to my IIda, but dad liked the Ome and he bought it outright, so it was around the house, and later on, i sold my Iida to friend in high school, and i had dad's Ome XXX..but possession is 9/10 of the law right....After i graduated high school, i was going up to Springfield Mo to pick my girlfriend up who had been there for a week training for a new job, and wilst i was out running around Springfield, i went into a music store in some little town on the outskirts of Springfield...and i ran across a banjo that had something up until that point in my life, i had never heard in another banjo, it just drove me nuts, .....i was a converted 1931 vega white lady...blonde with carved heel and it had a semi clear head on it and it had a magnesium tone ring. The banjo had been converted to 5 string by a well known guitar player in the Springfield area, a man by the name of Dudley Murphey, and i would call him later on to verify all the specs...but i traded dad's one xxx straight up for it, and dad thought i got skint , but the sound was incredible , i mean it would peel paint, i kept that banjo up until i graduated from Basic Training At Ft Sill, when i got my enlistment bonus and went back to Springfield on leave and bought a 1976 Baldwin Ode gold d that i had seen back when i traded for the vega...still sitting in the same spot in the store...5years later....i paid 1450.00 for the Baldwin Ode.



I kept the Baldwin Ode till i was halfway through my enlistment and sold it to my dad when i wanted to trade for a new RB250, then later on, i would trade for the worst banjo ever conceived by man.....the first run...honey colored Earl Scruggs model, i still have night mares about that banjo.....but later on in about 1989, i would sell it for 600.00 that would go toward funding my first pre-war a 1936-TB-1

i bought from Jim Yarboro of Gun Barrell City Tx, i would go on to buy by jim's count....13 different banjos from him, in fact, there is one of his banjos for sale in the classifieds right now, jim was a good banjo builder and there are many banjos in the world right now that he's had his hand on, in fact, i recorded most all of my stuff i did with The Bob Lewis Family on #9 yarboro banjo.



Kd, there is just no way to go into all the banjo's i've owned, and the thousands i've played, but i can tell you this..... "IN MY OPNION" banjo building is at it's finest point it's ever been at in history as far as i'm concerned!



The builders today, have really taken the time to use top materials and learn about tone woods and listen to the good pickers at what sounds they got and are looking for, it's been a real struggle , but i'm glad there are so many good banjos available today,



Ok, i've yaked on enough for now, thanks for asking...

warp!

---

Thank you, Kevin.

You have had an adventurous Banjo life.  :)

Thanks for taking time away from your banjo playing to share your banjo history with us.

Edited by - KD Banjer on 07/23/2019 17:26:17

arnie fleischer - Posted - 07/23/2019:  17:30:35

Not to change the subject, but speaking of Niagara Falls:

youtube.com/watch?v=JuMpcSTlB70

phb - Posted - 07/24/2019:  07:47:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by warpdrive

Now i've owned over 100 banjos

---

Others blow their money in bars, you spent your money on banjos... I can sympathise with that!  

warpdrive - Posted - 07/24/2019:  09:05:12

Phillip,

you know buddy, that doesn't paint a real pretty picture of my mental capacity, based on that analogy, i can't even blame being drunk on spending all that money on banjo's(although most of the banjos were in trading...full retail was mostly "not" involved in price"!)

I guess you could say..."Banjo pickers be crazy"
warp!

chuckv97 - Posted - 07/24/2019:  09:23:55

My problem WAS blowing money in bars, and ending up playing cheap Asian banjos for years...lol. Got 3 decent banjos now,,, still on the prowl for another one or two. Yup....crazy.

Edited by - chuckv97 on 07/24/2019 09:24:41

warpdrive - Posted - 07/24/2019:  10:06:11

Chuck,

Lets not cheapen our view of "asian banjos" the sad fact of that is during the 70's because of Gibson's poor quality....the Asian's ruled the banjo market....

I remember when Stelling first started marketing sometime around 73,? i remember the music store that i purchased at least 2 banjos through...getting a mailer from Stelling talking about there new "wedge fit" tone chamber, and we were really interested...but it was just such a un heard of concept that we poo poo'd it......and everybody had already heard of many of the asian manufactures, and they were considerably cheaper.

There were other american builders...Ome. Ode, Liberty, Imperial, and Fender, but they were not readily available ....seemed you could go into any small town music store and find a Asian banjo hanging on the wall, and quick availability is a huge selling point!
Warp!

chuckv97 - Posted - 07/24/2019:  10:24:53

Yep, that was it for me in my town, Warp,, availability. First a bottle cap El Degas, then a better Iida, then an Aria and an Ibanez. The Iida and Ibanez were pretty good.

warpdrive - Posted - 07/24/2019:  11:41:16

Chuck,
That is the thing about most any banjo....you never know...(within reason of materials used in construction ) how they are going to sound.....i've played old gibson banjo's that didn't sound any better than some of the asian banjo's, and there was nothing that could be done to them that would greatly improve them....Earl ....i think says in his book...."why get so technical, either a banjo has it or it don't.. and that should be the bottom line....but i must admit from experience that there is no greater a let down than spending hard earn dollars for a banjo that doesn't have it.....should be a hanging offense!
warp!

warpdrive - Posted - 07/24/2019:  17:22:03

Wednesday, July 24th, Urbancrest Oh, 7:57 pm

Good Evening,

Well, as you can read from the previous post, i'm doing pretty good right now, i seem to be recovering for the better from the last chemo treatment, and am looking forward to the next couple of weeks of hoping continued feeling good.

If things go as i've been told they are to go(did that sound right?) funding should be in place to keep me here in the extended stay until i finish my treatments in september....at least i've been told this, but i'm not out of the woods until the check hits the desk down stairs....i've got until saturday morning...so i'm a bit apprehensive still yet, so keep the good thoughts coming my way....if you don't mind!

We've had a nice break from the hot temps the last couple of days, although i've not been out much, when i did go out, i was pleased that the temps weren't in the 90's like last week.

On the banjo side of things.....i'm going deaf.....yes, old warp is complaining about how loud the New Hatfield is....something in my life time i thought i'd never say, but my ears ring extra loud after each session with the new "Hatfield Howitzer".
This banjo has really made me re-think the decibel threads in the past, i just can't remember in my past when i've had a louder banjo in my hands...and the tone continue's to get better each day....i could not be more pleased, and i am only sorry i don't have a way to post the progress as i've not solved the video issue's with my laptop yet.

I just finished a good hour session, i had a earlier session just after noon but as i said, my ears get to ringing so bad, especially in this small room, it actually hurts after a bit.
For what ever reason, i found a old set of national picks i've not had on in a long while, so i put them on and noticed a big difference in my cleanliness and the tone was a bit different, not better or worse, but different, i think i will keep using them for the next few days and see if they stick, funny how a new ax will make you try different things....this i'm not complaining about!

Ok gang, time for me to think about settling in, besides, my internet is getting ready for it's nightly routine of making me re-register, so it will cut off until i do so.
Thanks again for all the PM's and thread interaction

Until next time
y'all have a gooderin
Warp!

phb - Posted - 07/25/2019:  05:17:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by warpdrive

Phillip,



you know buddy, that doesn't paint a real pretty picture of my mental capacity, based on that analogy, i can't even blame being drunk on spending all that money on banjo's(although most of the banjos were in trading...full retail was mostly "not" involved in price"!)



I guess you could say..."Banjo pickers be crazy"

warp!

---

Hm, I hope I didn't step on your toes with my comment. I'm sorry if I did. What I really wanted to say is that you are 100% banjo and it all had to be that way. That is you and you're alright. The fact that there are people like you brings joy to pencil pushers like me. I'll never buy a hundred banjos but I also won't ever have more banjo playing in me than what is in your right ring finger.

warpdrive - Posted - 07/25/2019:  06:13:38

Phillip
i was making a joke, i forget sometimes that i'm hard to understand, so please don't be taken back by my response, your one of my favorite people to interact with....thanks for following me, i appreciate your analogy's ....
warp!

BanjoLink - Posted - 07/25/2019:  15:28:03

The one thing , out of many, that I like about Warp is that you can disagree with him (vehemently sometimes), and he never gets bent out of shape. He never takes himself too seriously, which is something we could all learn from.

warpdrive - Posted - 07/25/2019:  15:56:21

John,

People that know and have met me in real life might would say that because i've not taken any one thing too serious in life.....it's the reason that i'm in the current state of affairs with my life..(mainly my family says that).

I look at life pretty much this way now a days..... from now till the end of it, it's not going to be easy, or comfortable, and i'm probably going to have to struggle just to stay alive....knowing that, i've got the choice of either facing it with some dignity and excepting it and making the best of it i can....or.... i can be mad as hell about it, and make everybody around me miserable along the way and nothing will change, i've still got to face it....so i choose to except and make the best of it, and hope i can make some people smile along the way, life is too short to take it too serious, you here one day, and gone the next!
I'm glad most of ya'll get me....sometimes i don't even recognize me, so i guess it's better for me to think i'm the guy ya'll say i am, rather than the guy i used to be.

Warp!

BanjoLink - Posted - 07/25/2019:  20:21:30

Warp ..... we all know ourselves better than anyone else. I remember the story about a man that was running for some political office and he had been a model citizen, maybe even a war hero, and when he was introduced before a speech and given a glowing introduction. He said (paraphrase) "if you knew what I was really like you would be disgusted". Even the apostle Paul called himself a "wretch". We are all flawed!

I would not patronize you by saying things about you and your character that I didn't feel before your illness. I remember a number of times we got a little crossways during Gibson pre-wars discussions. However, it was never nasty, and although I made some sarcastic or snarky comments, you never responded likewise and usually poked fun at yourself. I think these 18 pages and the responses you have gotten should tell you all you need to know about yourself and what you Hangout friends think about you!

Prayers will continue to come your way!

Astrobanjo - Posted - 07/25/2019:  21:38:33

I don't know you Warp, Kevin, but you know your stuff and I have learned a lot from your posts over the couple years that I've been around here. I just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you and rooting for you and wish you the very best....you have made a contribution to banjo playing that I don't think you will ever truly understand. You have touched my heart, Sir, and I do not know you nor have I ever spoken to you. You have more advocates and admirers than you know

RB3WREATH - Posted - 07/26/2019:  04:07:56

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoLink

Warp ..... we all know ourselves better than anyone else. I remember the story about a man that was running for some political office and he had been a model citizen, maybe even a war hero, and when he was introduced before a speech and given a glowing introduction. He said (paraphrase) "if you knew what I was really like you would be disgusted". Even the apostle Paul called himself a "wretch". We are all flawed!



I would not patronize you by saying things about you and your character that I didn't feel before your illness. I remember a number of times we got a little crossways during Gibson pre-wars discussions. However, it was never nasty, and although I made some sarcastic or snarky comments, you never responded likewise and usually poked fun at yourself. I think these 18 pages and the responses you have gotten should tell you all you need to know about yourself and what you Hangout friends think about you!



Prayers will continue to come your way!

Well said John

Joe Deetz

From Greylock to Bean Blossom - Posted - 07/26/2019:  04:33:14

Ha Warp,

I think many of us when young considered ourselves bullet proof and were hard charging. Fact is some good things can be accomplished with that air of naivety. Fact is, it may be necessary to take on some big challenges and make big achievements like being able to play the banjo as well as you do. Yes, along the way there are some "oh crap" moments and to this day some red faced thoughts as remnants.  But bumps and bruises along the way help us to evolve. We all get more wisdom, more awareness of others & ourselves and of the relation of actions to consequences/results. Man, that is life. That is life and thankful for it.  And if we don't evolve, well, running head first full speed into that wall again hurts more now than it used to. I had a great day going down to Glasgow. As a matter of fact, I went out and bought a lottery ticket figuring to get a straight grain maple if I won.

Just a suggestion. Start playing reveille on that 5 string at 6 in the morning and see how many friends you make.

have a good one today.

ken

warpdrive - Posted - 07/26/2019:  07:15:35

You guys are best,

I can only imagine what life would have been like if i would have had such "positivity" in my life 30 years ago, not that i regret decisions i made and things i did back then.....i mean i would not be in the here and now, if it were not for the "back then"....sure it's not where a lot of people would want to be.....but i'm hanging in there, and still waking up everyday, and even on the sick days, i still find a way to say....well....i could be a lot sicker.

Kenny Baker once told me....."don't measure your corn in my basket, or someone else's basket" it makes a lot of sense, you know there are times in my life, that the only reason i thought that i was doing bad, wasn't because i thought i was doing bad, it was someone else telling me....your doing bad......and i guess, based on there life....i probably was doing bad, but i could never get past that if i had just enough...it was the same as having plenty.

Right now, i feel plenty blessed and grateful for all that has transpired in the last few months, and especially in the last couple of weeks, yes, it would be very easy to only look at all the loss in my life over the last year,.....but looking backwards is no
way to live, and really takes the shine off the new, and bright future, and you guys, and others in my life behind the scene's are really making a difference, and i can only hope that someday, in someway, i can be there for ya'll and pay this forward!

Ken, i don't think reveille at "anytime of day" on this banjo is going to be welcome, truth is, "Arthur needs to issue a concealed carry permit" for a banjo as loud as this one, and yes, i believe the "straight grain maple" has much to do with it!

"yesterday i stuck a capo on it, and pointed it out the window, and took the feathers off a Jbird 100ft away"! Just like hunting squirrels with a 12 gauge, tare's em up too bad!

Ok guys, today is laundry day, and i got some down stairs in the washer that needs to be checked on now, so i will look back in on ya'll later.
Warp!

warpdrive - Posted - 07/26/2019:  15:45:12

Friday, July 26th, 5:49 pm, Urbancrest Oh,...



Ok, You Can't Make This ....UP!



I don't know weather it is a complaint or complement .....i think it's the latter..

A man, unbeknowst to me, just knocked on my door, and said "how ya doing banjo man" smiled and handed me a mason jar full of what in my experience smells like the genuine article, clear....strong....SHINE! It's either that or paint thinner.



I asked him if i was disturbing him, and he said...nah man, i'm from the eastern appalachians, is that where your from? I told him no, i was originally from the Ozarks, and he shook my hand and said this was a keep up the good picking gift, and i asked him if he wanted to come in, but he just got off work and said he needed to clean up.



Honestly, i appreciate the sentiment, and i would not mind imbibing just a thimble full (" strictly for medicinal purpose's of course"), but i don't know this man from Adam, and if i was young and foolish, i'm sure i'd have already give it some sampling , but i'm not taking chemo for my cancer....just to die from Alcohol poisoning ...although this stuff probably aint no more toxic than my chemo, but i'm sure my chemo is FDA regulated and approved, and I'm quit sure this stuff ain't!



Oh well, some other good news, it seems ole warp has a couple of gigs that have just come out of no where, and there within a hours drive and i will make decent money, i know i've driven a lot further for a lot less, in my past, and right now, a good pile of folding money is scarce as hen's teeth in my world.

I won't say my pockets are as empty as last years bird's nest, but i can't exactly practice pulling the handles on one armed bandits at the casino by pulling the gear shift down on my car and throwing single's out the window either.



First gig, my ole buddy Ray Vining has more gig than he wants to play tomorrow and just called and asked me to help out for a couple of hrs at a private function, so for a couple of hrs tomorrow afternoon i will either be doing some double banjo work with him, or helping a friend of his who is a good flat picker do some stuff.



I told Ray my only concerns was gas cash and making sure i wasn't overexposed to the sun, and he understood both, but of course, as much as i can use the money, the sun exposure is the most concerning and there will be shade, fans and canopy's so i feel i can hack it for a couple of hrs.



Next Saturday evening, my friend Ron, who runs the Appalachian Festival in Cincinnati, he has been helping a duo of guys that i've never met, and somehow or another, they have a booked set next saturday at the 7 Mile Bluegrass Festival in Greenfield Ohio.

This is only about a hr from me here in the extended stay, and he quoted me a good price to play banjo for him and this duo he's been helping....and as uneasy as i am about playing with ....how should i put this...."trainees " again...ole warp needs the money....lessen somebody on this thread thinks me lazy, so the new Hatfield is already starting to make me some money, and bring me good luck....lets take stock of my good fortune.....



People are knocking on my door and handing me MoonShine and telling me to keep playing my banjo....."did i wake up in the twilight zone this morning...?



People are calling me on the phone, and asking me to play banjo for money....again the twilight zone comes to mind



Oh yeah, people gave me a new banjo, and helped pay for me a few days lodging, and are being way too nice to me.... Make me wonder if they been talking to my doctors and know something i don't?

I mean folks, i aint one to thump a free melon, but something is terribly wrong, if this stuff keeps happening....i may spend a dollar and go buy a lottery ticket, there's been a mix up somewhere....fate has the wrong hillbilly, i mean the only way it could better is if i wake up in the morning and there is a dog in my bed with me....(no...dont go there, i know what ya'll are thinking...just don't!)



Ok gang,

i think that is all i got for now...dont know if i could stand anymore..

till next time,

Y'all have a gooderin,

warp!

Edited by - warpdrive on 07/26/2019 15:50:09