New/Old Tradesman

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Enoch Banjo Group

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This is a group for people who play Enoch banjos.

116 Members, Created 1/29/2011 -

Administrators: Booger McGee (owner)

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From John Herrington on 3/8/2011 10:39:01 AM

A couple of months ago I purchased a used Tradesman. It appears to be about 5 years old and has a minimum of wear. Coming from the high humidity areas of the East coast to our high arid areas of Wyoming has presented some interesting developments. When I received the instrument I looked it over very carefully and it looked nice. It has a calfskin head and came with steel strings. I replaced these with Sands nylon and tuned them to the key of "e" ("g" tuning). To tell the truth I was not very impressed with the sound at that time. And then after a month I noticed a crack starting at the neck of the ebony fret board nearest the pot. Within a couple of days it advanced down the neck to the 7th fret and, at least for the time since, stopped there. I was sick to say the least. Here I had this highly lauded instrument which cost considerable money; it doesn't sound good; and it may be falling apart. "Quality?"

After a week or so I ran those Sands string up to key of "g" and to my amazement the sound came alive! I have been playing the thing a lot and it is beginning to come into favor with me.

My luthier is going to address the fretboard this summer. I now own one of the most highly regarded banjos in the $1000 range the quality of which in no way matches my Gold Tone WL250 and with a cracked fret board to boot. In spite of all these things I'm actually growing to like the thing. Perhaps there's future with the Tradesman.

Pretty good banjo, after all!

Old John on the Big Horn

2 Comments
	writerrad says: 2/9/2021 9:20:12 AM John I have owned GTone WL250 since 2003 and a Tradesman since 2007. I think they are both high quality banjos for the money (at least for what I paid for them back in another decade). Both stand up in quality for playing in jams, performances, and presentations I give to banjos I own that are 19th or early 20th century Fairbanks and Vegas or for taking around and picking. My tradesman, a 2007 with a cherry neck that i bought directly from Kevin, is the banjo i take on my very extensive travels, to Europe, Africa, Guatemala, and Mexico and around the USA because I am old and it is light. LOL I have even taken it from my home in Florida to Wyoming for a couple weeks we spent in Cody! I have never had a problem that was a result of its quality of construction, just problems that come from the clumsiness of its owner I think when you buy a used instrument, you dont know the whole history and how it was treated and what happened to it before you obtained it. You do not know why the person who sold the banjo really sold it.
	writerrad says: 2/9/2021 9:30:58 AM Again my WL 250 and my tradesman were for a long time about the only banjos I played and I dont have to get out of this chair to pick up either one of them. They are different in regard to how sturdy they are in their construction insofar as the WL 250 attempts to replicate late 19th century and early 20th century banjos with much heavier construction, especially hardware, tone rings, thicker neck, whereas the tradesman seeks to replicate 19th century banjos made for Dobson (we doubt if the Dobsons themselves made banjos as opposed to having others make their banjos) . The tradesman certainly requires to be treated a little more tenderly than the WL-250 , but if anything I think the quality of construction of the tradesman which is shop built by luthiers and luthier apprentices is certainly equal, and if not superior to that of the WL-250, even the one I have that dates from the era when the parts were made in Korea and the banjos were assembled in Titusville, as opposed to current WL-250s that are made in China and set up in Titusville. You would be surprised with the names of some well known banjo makers and players who I could mention, but wont who have worked in Kevin's shop, including a friend of mine who thinks he worked on the Tradesman I bought. I am sorry about what happened to you, but I think you may be a victim of whoever sold you that banjo and how it was treated before. Keep picking and I truly love both the WL and the tradesman
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