Dowel - Posted - 12/19/2025:  10:56:09

id be interested to hear from those how have a Tradesman (specifically the fretless)

just wondering if a nice warm / deep tone is easily achievable.

has anyone fitted a skin head & thicker strings?

KCJones - Posted - 12/19/2025:  13:57:29

Rob Stenson plays one (half-fret, 12" pot) on his Gold Mountain EP. Have a listen.

Edited by - KCJones on 12/19/2025 13:59:30

davidppp - Posted - 12/19/2025:  15:01:41

Wonderful playing!



Random: a commenter on the YouTube version says he contacted Stenson and learned it was a custom 13" head.



That recording is from 2013.  YouTube pointed me to his current postings: youtube.com/@banjorobstenson

Edited by - davidppp on 12/19/2025 15:05:14

GMB - Posted - 12/19/2025:  15:07:12

I have a fretted walnut 10 inch pot ren head with steel strings for 10 years. I find it plunky enough. Also have a moon bridge and banjo bolster Easy to play. The neck feels like it was made for my hand. I’ll never get rid of it.

Dowel - Posted - 12/20/2025:  01:08:03

He’s now got a Patreon account (and yes, states the 13” was a typo).

fredd49 - Posted - 12/20/2025:  06:07:21

I bought a fretless Tradesman from a classified ad in BHO this past March. It was one-owner new in 2020. I'm very happy with it and have had the advantage of being able to compare it to my GT AC-1FL which I had bought earlier on a whim. Both have the same type of nylgut strings, the Tradesman has a 12 inch pot, the other an 11 inch. On both the quality of the tone can vary widely, depending on the way one strikes a string and the kind of assist your finger has. By "assist" what I mean is whether or not you have a bare finger nail, shorter or longer, but also if you use a fake nail or finger pick. I prefer using one of Joel Hook's banjo thimbles, which delivers a tremendous volume and presence beyond of a single longish finger nail. In that respect I find the Tradesman is overall superior to the AC-1FL, which should not be surprising given the price difference and construction (composite vs wood.) And it feels a bit more substantial. Personally I find it easier to learn new tunes on a fretless than on my fretted banjos, mostly because I feel I'm too distracted looking for the fret instead of listening for the fret.

banjo bill-e - Posted - 12/20/2025:  06:34:07

I have a 12" Tradesman, fretted with steel strings. I've had a skin head on it and currently a Ren head. I think it has a lovely soft tone for playing solo. It is not very loud and it's output would be easy to get lost in a crowd. I like the neck. My only complaint is the lack of a slotted tension hoop which makes changing heads more challenging, but I don't notice others being bothered by that so that difficulty may be my own.

Btw, I very much liked the tone with a goatskin head from John Balch, but I neglected to adjust for changing temps and humidity and it split and I've decided to stay with synthetics.

writerrad - Posted - 12/20/2025:  09:07:40

I have owned an Enoch Tradesman 12 incher since 2007. I regularly attend the Banjo Gathering, then called the Banjo Collectors Gathering, so I heard Kevin give a talk there about developing the banjos a year or two before I bought one where he explained what his goals were in designing it. He aimed to make an easily affordable craftsperson created banjo oriented to revivalists.

I do have a 12 incher that for the lst 2 or 3 years at least has had a Balch Goatskin head, before that for a long time I had a more oridinary sheepskin head, and before that I had a remo of some kind. I probably would not have a skin head on it if I had only 1 or 2 banjos, especially as I live in S Florida where every playing opportunity seems to out of doors, and often on the banks of at least one (some jam sites we play at around here are actually on 2 bodies of water.)

I would say the Tradesman is a nice banjo for the pricem and is pretty good for old time playing. Its greatest convenience is that it is an extremely light banjo that achieves a bright tone by the sheer brilliance of its design. It can have a startlingly bright tone when the strings are not beaten in.

It is probably my most versatile banjo compared to my Tubaphone or my Electric and other tone ring banjos. It has a bright tone if the strings are changed when they need to be changed,. It is designed for frailing and clawhammer, although I find it pleasing for 2 finger playing as well. The 10 inch head models are actually better for 2 finger picking than the 12 inch head ones like I have which is great for frailing, although I have found it was pretty good for ragtime and blues 3 and 4 finger picking banjo ala Gus Cannon.

It is a nice frailing banjo too, although I dont frail much any more.

The big advantage of the Tradesman besides its fairly inexpensive price is that it is a light banjo. It achieves it fairly bright tone by great design, rather than tone rings and such. On the other hand the absence of much mass makes it a fickle banjo. It seems to go out of tune a bit more than my tone ring banjos that have a bit more mass to them.

I am 78 and have physical limitations, so the lightness makes a difference. I am sure 5 or 10 years from now I wont be able to lug around my Tubaphones and Rbs, but the Tradesman will be navigable.

I want to emphasize that especially for finger picking, a 10 inch head Tradesman is better. Paul Brown plays that and he recommended that to me years ago. Wish I had taken his advice,.

writerrad - Posted - 12/20/2025:  09:15:48

quote:I have had a skin head on mine although I bought it originally to have a  banjo with an artificial head since I live in Florida and had a terrible experience staying in a tent at an old time music weekend with two skin head banjos when it rained as it often does in Florida.   I had a sheep skin head put on it after one year and then I have had Balch Goatskins for the past 10 years or more,.  The nly thing with the Balch is that I usually get have my luthier make sure she has one in stock because often he does not have the goatskins available for her to order, so I have her have one in stock for me.  

When all heads were skin, they were not expected to last years and banjoists were expected to know how to change their own head.,

The real problem for the Tradesman as I see it is the absence of mass.  The mass of the banjo really is light compared to the pressure and tension put on the instrument by the srings.   I have gone from using medium heavy strings to lighter  strings on it for the tone I like.  However,  the banjo is much more unruly in regard to staying in tune and on pitch than my tone ring banjos .  It seems more delicate to stay in tune compared to them.

writerrad - Posted - 12/20/2025:  09:29:22

I would like to know what strings other Tradesman player put on their Tradesmen?  I have gone from the fairly heavy strings originally suggested to using the JD Crowe "Stage"  Medium Light strings 10-11-12-20-10.   I used to put heavier strings on the tradesman years ago because when I started out i was dumb and wanted it to sound like a Fairbanks or Vega tone ring banjo which it never can be.

I have since learned that each player, or at least this player, should aim a banjo to have its own particular sound and a variety of sounds require a variety of banjos, LOL sitting in a room with 7 banjos in it now.  I have had a variety of string choices on this banjo, whereas say my Gold tone WL-250 that I bought way back in 2003 has had only 1 gauge set up strings on it in 22 years.

Edited by - writerrad on 12/20/2025 09:30:22

banjonz - Posted - 12/20/2025:  17:43:48

They don't appear much here in New Zealand. However, one did turn up on FB Marketplace in a city 2 hours drive north. As I was traveling up there to visit my daughter, I arrange to see it. As a result I bought it. It was in fantastic condition. One little old lady owner who imported it from the US. I replaced the strings and set it up how I like it. It is now my go to clawhammer banjo (I have a Wildwood Troubador). I really like it as it has a wider fretboard.