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Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/401112
Mueslix - Posted - 12/28/2024: 18:16:25
Hi all,
This is my first post here, but been reading for a few weeks and learning a ton from every one. I am hoping to commission a fretless banjo in the coming months. To wrap my head around CH, I strung a .10 gauge in place my guitar’s low E and have been getting so much joy finding my bounce at low tempo. Tuning-wise, I've been alternating between dDAEGA and cCFCFA. Wandering Boy, Nail the Cat Fish, Roustabout are a LOT of fun. I really enjoy using all six strings, particularly the lowest as an additional drone and wonder if I’d get more out of a six string banjo.
Are they any prolific six stringers out there? Any body of work that takes advantage of the additional range? Would love to hear your thoughts on tuning and techniques. Thank you.
Edited by - Mueslix on 12/28/2024 18:35:23
TimFoster - Posted - 12/28/2024: 18:53:13
I began playing banjo after many years of guitar as well, landing moreso in the Scruggs-style space… though I love listening to clawhammer and hope to one day broaden my horizons!
I can’t answer your immediate questions and I suppose have little to offer — but — I have a sneaking suspicion that the best route when starting out may be to embrace the more traditional aspects of the instrument and its repertoire (ie, 5-strings) and perhaps branch out from there if you feel it’s necessary?
I was a reasonably competent guitarist coming over to banjo (or at least, I had been at one point in my life) — and while much of it help me acclimate quickly to the banjo at the outset in terms of having calluses and left-hand dexterity…
at some point my guitar-centric approach felt like it was holding me back. As if I needed to let go of the conventions/habits/frameworks engrained from years of rock guitar playing, if I ever wanted to achieve an authentic feel for the instrument. That’s been my battle, and still is.
So I dunno… but my random internet guy point of view would tend towards letting go of the comfortable semblance of guitar and fully committing to what brought you to the instrument in the first place —
which probably has little basis in six strings…
Edited by - TimFoster on 12/28/2024 19:06:39
Mueslix - Posted - 12/28/2024: 20:07:27
Tim, I really appreciate your perspective. As a guitar player I think I needed to hear this. You're right that almost everything which brought me to the instrument in the first place was played on a 5 or 4 string. Noah Cline is actually the reason I was motivated to pick up the instrument in the first place and through Noah I found Earth Tones.
The only exception is this video of Noah playing Durang's Hornpipe on a six-string banjo!
davidppp - Posted - 12/28/2024: 22:12:03
Harvey Reid, world-class finger-style guitar player also plays the 6-string banjo. He can make it sound like clawhammer 5-string (youtube.com/watch?v=MbpHOlaYP5k) or Chuck Berry electric guitar. His CD, Artistry of the six-String Banjo (woodpecker.com/recordings/banj...stry.html) is a treasure and showcases these styles and more. However, Harvey is a genius, and trying to imitate him is a fool's errand. Tom Saffell designed and played an 8-strring banjo; the 8 included one short one. The only example I found on-line in a quick search was youtube.com/watch?v=SLOb_gbqDUs. I wrote to him years ago and bought a CD he recorded in 2007.
As a kid, I played guitar and them picked up the banjo (-- built one, actually). It was a long time before I got past playing it as if it were a guitar, but that was TOTALLY worthwhile. I totally agree with what Tim says above about first getting into what is unique about the banjo.
Ragarding Noah CLine's 6-string performance, many people get that sound with a low-tuned fretless 5-string. Here are a couple of examples from Michael Miles who can play any kind of music clawhammer-style. (His Bach renditions are excellent.) youtube.com/watch?v=QzG1KCxsPxk and starting ar 2:25 youtube.com/watch?v=chOZwby-BSY .
gbisignani - Posted - 12/28/2024: 23:03:05
although he is a great 5 string player I have seen Taj Mahal play the 6 string.
GrahamHawker - Posted - 12/29/2024: 00:53:54
My first banjo type instrument was a guitar banjo and I had played guitar for decades. Two things happened - I realised I wanted tio play banjo and a guitar banjo was just not doing it for me and, while I bought a banjo, I also bought a better banjo guitar. I've experimented with strings. I've never much like the thumpy nature of the thicker guitar strings for the E and A. I've put on a thin drone string instead of the E and tuned like a real six string banjo - 5 strings plus a short drone. I find here that the extra string just gets in the way. These days I keep it more standard guitar tuning but have thinner strings for the E and A which are tuned an octave higher. But really I hardly play it.
Old-Nick - Posted - 12/29/2024: 02:37:02
You could look out for a vintage 7 string minstrel banjo - 6 full length and 7 th short string drone.
I have a couple, a Temlett and a fretless Buckbee.
(Mind you I have the Temlett strung up as a 6 string and the Buckbee as standard 5 string).
Here's one
On uk ebay
Or
On US ebay
Though this currently strung as a 5 string
Edited by - Old-Nick on 12/29/2024 02:53:20
Dean T - Posted - 12/29/2024: 07:13:01
I’m not really prolific at anything, and have no suggestions, but this has intrigued me for years, as I came to banjo all backwards, from guitar. Starting with tuning my Telecaster to Keith Richards open G, over 40 years ago, getting onto slide blues, and fingerpicking. This lead to a friends banjo blind siding me 20 years ago, when I found out it was tuned the same, only high g drone instead of low G. I fell right into the banjo world with very little transition, as the concept of drones and all my chord forms where already there. At one point I even built a 5 string banjo with a full length high g 5th string, that could be played identical to a traditional 5 string, but offered some cool fretting options.
Fast foreword to just this year, when I replaced the low string on my resonator guitar, with a .010 string, and tuned it to a high g. Tuned to gGDGBD, I found I could play all my banjo country/gospel/bluegrass stuff on it (identical to a traditional 5 string) as well as all my blues/rock guitar stuff. This has me so extremely tempted (I haven’t done it yet) to buy a 6 string banjo, string it with the high g as the 6th string, tune it open G, and use it for anything I want. My guitar has already shown me that it should work great.
Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 12/29/2024: 07:56:43
When I play clawhammer, I mostly use my 5+1 that Zachary Hoyt built for me. Even when I don't use that extra low string, I appreciate the sympathetic drone it provides.
I often use a variant of Old G (gGDGAD) and open D (f#ADF#AD) as well as Double D, with an added low A.
Edited by - Nic Pennsylvania on 12/29/2024 08:01:20
Tim Jumper - Posted - 12/29/2024: 08:43:33
Davidppp is spot on regarding the skill of Michael J. Miles. His ability to play, convincingly, music of any genre, Bach, Blues, Brubeck, and beyond, in clawhammer on the five-string is nothing short of amazing.
I play both 5-string and 6-string (banjo-guitar, normally strung) and find that each produces sounds and musical effects not possible on the other; but I like seeing and hearing the results of shade-tree banjo-mechanics' experiments and inventions.
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