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banjonz - Posted - 09/03/2024: 15:24:45
The other night my brain decided to ask the question "who made Framus banjo heads in the early 60's. Having owned two different models over time, seen and played many more, I never really thought about it until now. These head always came with a shiny top (assumed bottom frosted or made from white Mylar) and with the Framus logo.
Any thoughts?
tdennis - Posted - 09/03/2024: 17:41:28
I've had similar thoughts about my Framus heads. They seem to be very thin white mylar, & different from anything produced by REMO. I see similar thin white heads on children's drum sets from Asia.
banjo bill-e - Posted - 09/03/2024: 18:25:57
That is a most oddly strung banjo.
Culloden - Posted - 09/03/2024: 19:43:56
quote:
Originally posted by banjo bill-e
That is a most oddly strung banjo.
It looks like a banjitar with the first string out of the notch in the bridge. But I could be wrong.
banjonz - Posted - 09/03/2024: 19:54:25
quote:
Originally posted by Culloden
quote:
Originally posted by banjo bill-e
That is a most oddly strung banjo.
It looks like a banjitar with the first string out of the notch in the bridge. But I could be wrong.
You ain't wrong. A close up inspection reveals that the top E string has slipped out of the 6 string bridge.
lucas73b - Posted - 09/04/2024: 00:41:23
White mylar, no frosting.
Helix - Posted - 09/04/2024: 10:28:38
Hello Wayne, Yes it is hot in Arizona, so hot that we have reached the 2nd Farenheit derived 3 digit record year in a row. That means we and others I know have lived here since 1986. Not I, nor them have ever experienced 115. degree days at all here in the "Valley of the Sun," except the one 122 deg. day where real airliners at "Sky Harbor" airport could not take off until after dusk would be the only way to do so at all.
Some old timers I know who are still younger than me lived in the same valley as children back in the early 50's.
They say it was always 115 and hotter in those days because the humidity was always 7-10%
The only way conditions changed were that cotton and many other "row" crops were then introduced for $$$ production with necessary irrigation. The only and still the only problem in this valley is that irrigation of any kind is unnatural in this ecological biome.
If irrigated, then the desert granite that is naturally pulverized then turns into "CALICHE'."
IT IS AN INDESTRUCTIBLE LAYER OF CEMENT-LIKE GRANITE that can NOT be drilled for chainlink fence posts or cable TV installation by only using dynamite = TNT.
Then when Caliche' forms, the crops are moved to new desert land and tract homes are now built on top of then.
It's so hot here today some human being will surely die upon the street if only underhydrated. There is a heat warning of 106. Only because the humidity may be above 26%
For Framus, I have actually visited Mark Neu Kirchen in former East Germany. I believe that Framus is an E. German product or at least a post NAZI war manufactured banjo-like instrument with cheap thin aluminum non-tempered one piece flange, the thinnest head possible and all the stove bolts necessary to hold it together.
Some of the innovations are absolutely brilliant in my personal opinion. They still are revered like a YUGO you won't be able to repair with both hands and a map of your own ARSE. They actually made real 25 fret longnecks. I feel they should be studied by real engineering students to see how people did something beautiful with the least resources available.
wileypickett - Posted - 09/04/2024: 13:14:20
That's quite a veer there Larry!
Most of the Framuses (Framii?) banjos I've come across (10 or 15 over the years) have heads like the ones described above, i.e.: some kind of thin white mylar.
But I picked up a tenor banjo a week ago (from the '60s) that has a semi-transparent head, looks and feels a bit like a Renaissance. I don't think Renaissance heads existed in the '60s (anyone know?), so I'm not sure what this is made of.
If it wasn't for the Framus logo screened on it, I'd have assumed it was a replacement head.
Emiel - Posted - 09/04/2024: 15:48:21
quote:
Originally posted by Helix
For Framus, I have actually visited Mark Neu Kirchen in former East Germany. I believe that Framus is an E. German product
The new Framus company is located in the former East-Germany. The original Framus company was in the former West-Germany (in Bavaria).
wileypickett - Posted - 09/04/2024: 16:47:16
quote:
Originally posted by wileypickett
That's quite a veer there Larry!
Most of the Framuses (Framii?) banjos I've come across (10 or 15 over the years) have heads like the ones described above, i.e.: some kind of thin white mylar.
But I picked up a tenor banjo a week ago (from the '60s) that has a semi-transparent head, looks and feels a bit like a Renaissance. I don't think Renaissance heads existed in the '60s (anyone know?), so I'm not sure what this is made of.
If it wasn't for the Framus logo printed on it, I'd have assumed it was a replacement head.
wileypickett - Posted - 09/04/2024: 16:48:21
"Made in the heart of. . . ."
wileypickett - Posted - 09/04/2024: 16:49:34
"Made in the heart of. . . ."
tdennis - Posted - 09/04/2024: 20:02:14
Forget about Framus, I want to hear more about local droughts, cotton, caliche, row crops, granite, desert lands, chain link fences , tract homes & dehydration.
