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dausburn53 - Posted - 03/07/2007: 15:22:47
I just read an old post on using resonator banjo for CH. One post talked about bright banjos and plunky ones. Can y'all explain the differences between bright and plunky? I have always played with a resonator, just recently changing to CH from 3 finger style. To me CH sounds more like the banjo sound I like listening to.
maxmax - Posted - 03/07/2007: 15:41:23
Plunkyer banjos have more bass and usually don't ring as long. And brighter banjos are more metalic sounding and... well, brighter
.
Best,
Max
RCCOOK - Posted - 03/07/2007: 16:11:56
I play a "rowdy" clawhammer style as Dave Macob, Dave Aikman and Grandpa Jones. I have always played a Gibson resonator banjo. The crowds I have played for are loud and you would never hear a plunker. I also play without the resonator on another banjo. Its all in the ear of the listener I like all of the clawhammer sounds. I guess its in my blood, thank god for Ira Clay Price, my Papaw from Weston, WV.
The Banjo is a Happy Instrument so pay as you are able , enjoy it and stop worrying ...........have fun.
Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/07/2007: 16:17:22
Plunk has nothing to do with resonators--or bass. [The bassiest banjo I ever played was a 30s top-tension Mastertone--the bass just boomed on that one.] I used to have a later Supertone, with a pseudo-tone ring and resonator. I had it strung with high-tension nylon., Was a fine clawhammer banjo, and very definitely plunky rather than bright. One problem with "plunky" banjos: If set up badly, "plunk" becomes "dull thud." My Essex (at left) is pretty loud & bright -- but it has little sustain (that's the long-rilnging quality). It definitely has a somewhat metallic "pop" to its sound--a favored characteristic of an Electric-style tone ring.
Bill
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 03/07/2007: 18:07:47
One man's bright is another man's plunk, A month or so ago, when I mentioned my Ramsey Special as a "ringy" banjo someone couldn't believe I would call so "plunky" an instrument, "ringy". While I admit it is a lot less "ringy" than a Mastertone, it is about as "ringy" as I want - and I use some stuffing in it at all times.
I remember back in my melodic days I was talking one night with Ken Perlman, Hank Sapoznik, and another player who's name I've forgotten. All were (at that time) melodic players too and all three of them were using and extoling the virtues of Tu-Ba-Phones. At the time I had a White Ladie 10 7/8ths which they all considered too "plunky".
I later went southern in my playing but continued t use the WL for stage work, although with a little more stuffing. It was the only banjo I owned that projected enough sound to the microphone without having it practically touch the head. I was even considering adding a resonator.
Instead I went to a mic inside the banjo and once I got used to it started using my Supertone on stage - and is was heavily stuffed. At that time I was going for the hot modern festival sound best exemplified by Ritchie Stearns in his Bubba George/Horseflies mode.
I've backed off that sound a good deal too but still want a solid "Pop" on the strike followed by a very fast decay when I'm playing in a medium sized group. For duets with my wife I use less stuffing, keeping the pop but getting more sustain to fill in for the lack of backup instruments. Late night solo noodling I tend to go with my nylon strung banjo - little "pop", fairly long sustain (if you are close to it) and a gentle almost guitaristic tone.
One banjo player - many sounds. I think most of us tend to change with circumstance.
The Whiskey Before Breakfast variations and a few tunes in "F" tuning are now available on the web at:
http://home.thegrid.net/~fjbrad/id20.html
Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/07/2007: 20:21:09
My ideal sound would be the loud clear "crack" of an archtop Mastertone, with almost instant decay. That I haven't found yet. Perhaps an acoustic impossibility.
Bill
oldtimer - Posted - 03/08/2007: 01:51:51
quote:
Originally posted by Bill Rogers
My ideal sound would be the loud clear "crack" of an archtop Mastertone, with almost instant decay. That I haven't found yet. Perhaps an acoustic impossibility.
Bill
Bill has a steadfast devotion to bright sounding banjos...and bless him for sticking to his personal preference in the face of a tide of numerous devotees to plunk. I am the opposite of Bill...II like really deep , dark tone but with plenty of sustain....very bassy and mellow with no harshness.
"Plunk" is not the right word for the opposite of bright because "plunk" implies rapid decay and dullness. Usually a bassy, dark banjo like my Baugus has more sustain and richness than a bright banjo like my Whyte Laydie. Of course, I have messed with the Whyte Laydie enough so it sounds pretty deep, but Whyte Laydies and Tubaphones have inherent characteristics that are intractable.
More and more, I like the deep elemental sounds of 13" tackheads and gourds. They are distilled down to primal tones with almost no overtones and I like that simple archaic tonaliity.
Fretless banjos tend to sound deep almost universally and the recent popularity of fretless has also propagating tastes in deeper sounds. I hardly ever hear a bright sounding fretless.
Thank God for the individualiism of OT players with wide variety of banjos and preferences. Bluegrass tastes are much more homogeneous.
I remember Frank Lee saying about banjos, "I like them all ...you know what I mean?". That's a good attitude to nurture while leaning toward your natural preferences.
Best regards,
Glenn Godsey
Best regards,
Glenn Godsey
1998 Riley Baugus
1923 Whyte Laydie
Prust 13" fretless tackhead
Early Ramsey fretless
1878 Henry C. Dobson
"Time passes unhindered"
Edited by - oldtimer on 03/08/2007 01:58:52
brokenstrings - Posted - 03/08/2007: 02:11:57
Your Samoyed would probably prefer a banjo on the deeper end.
Jessy
Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!
Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/08/2007: 14:09:47
Thanks for the nice words Glenn. My fretless banjos tend away from brightness, btw. One's a spunover; the other two have simple wood rims.
Bill
oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 03/08/2007: 18:03:22
Oldtimer
I agree that plunk is the wrong word - but it is so accepted that I don't think it can really be altered at this point. When I think of really "plunky banjos I tend to think of the guys who played with locally made skin headed mountain style banjos or ancient Buckbees with such warped necks the action was over a half inch at the 17th fret. Compared to than I've never owned a less than "ringy" banjo.
The Whiskey Before Breakfast variations and a few tunes in "F" tuning are now available on the web at:
http://home.thegrid.net/~fjbrad/id20.html
haiku - Posted - 03/08/2007: 18:45:30
I can't really say something here, as I had never tried any banjo but my cheap one.
But: listening to many and more recordings, I usually say to myself "This is the sound I like". The problem beeing, well just the same as everyone here have: there's so much different banjos, and so much different tones, and I like everyone of them.
Just my opinion, so like I said based on what I heard:I like the "plunkier" banjos on solo works, they really do the tricks playing fine melodies and providing back up for the singing. On the other hand, I think I like "brighter" banjos on dance songs, working with a fiddle - both the instruments are able to keep their own "space" and do not compet with the other one.
And on the other hand (yeah, the third one), sometimes this is not true... i.e, when I listen to Frailin' music on his BHO page, I really like it. Even if he plays a bright banjo on solo work....
I'm playing a cheap alumnium pot banjo right now, and since I begun to play, I've been trying to softened its sounds - to "plunked" it if I may say so: loosening the head, seting it up with nylon strings. I was starting to feel, well, not OK with it (it's still a 150$ banjo) but feeling I have the best sound I could get.
Halas! I played for a year by my own, and now just meet a fiddler. After a couple of tunes, he told me he was think a more brighter sound would be better. And I agreed with him...
Well, I think it's a never ending story anyway - and I do think that is what made banjos and any other music instruments so great!
So, I guess I hope I'd have a gourd, a white Lady, a resonator and so on hanged on my walls!
-----
What will ya have?!
I'll have a pint!
I'll have a pint with you, Sir!
Edited by - haiku on 03/08/2007 18:47:54
