It's funny, I decided to get a long neck banjo with the intention of learning claw hammer and singing, but now that I've got it, I'm really enjoying playing Scruggs style tunes on it.
The tubaphone ring gives it a deeper and less nasal sound than my mastertone, and I don't think it gives up much in volume, even with no resonator. Taking off the capo and going down to e gives this wonderful powerful growl, sort of John Hartford-esque.
I play a lot in church with singers and guitarists who move the capo all over the neck trying to find a good key for their voice, and I think the long neck is going to make my life so much easier.
Anybody else playing 3-finger or Scruggs style on their long neck? I feel as if I've discovered a great secret (which is probably no secret.)
10 Comments |
 | Michael R says:
1/8/2017 6:26:55 AM
Try playing Blackberry Blossom in A, open.The 4th string tuned to low A and the 5th up to high A. A range of three octaves(?)
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 | wesrichards says:
1/8/2017 7:43:46 AM
Yours is a very important question, Jim. Here's the only rational answer: No rules. You play the way you like on whatever kind of banjo you like. Scruggs on a long neck. Frail on a resonator. Use a flat pick (radical, I know. But it's been done.) Play it with a paint brush or a pinky. Brace, don't brace. No matter. The long neck is a versatile instrument. Any style. Every style. You're the boss.
The whole thing is the music.
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 | phdm says:
1/8/2017 9:59:14 AM
I played a 1964 Vega Folklore for 30 years. It did not have a tone ring. I then bought a Gibson RB 250 and discovered why I couldn't get the sound of the classic bluegrass banjo on the Folklore. I subsequently had retrofitted a Bill Rickard Tubaphone tone ring on my Folklore and the sound is amazing - at least equal to the Pete Seeger Vega longneck model of the day (a 1962 model of which I was finally able to acquire 5 years ago.) To my ear, there are some songs that just "feel" more at home with my long necks while others feel better on my Gibson. But that is just personal preference. I agree with others who have posted that the only rule is that there are no rules on this issue. Just pick, strum and/or claw away!
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 | Sean ONeel says:
1/8/2017 12:47:55 PM
Wes said it best "The whole thing is the music." If you are in a symphony orchestra you have to play the score note for note. I have a dear friend that plays in a Beatles tribute band...and HE has to play exactly like the record. He also has to play a Hofner Violin Bass. But that is the gig, right? The rest of us can do whatever we want. And being the non-conformist that I am...that works for me!
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 | boulderfolkie says:
1/9/2017 11:42:04 AM
Just 2 cents from an old folkie: In the early 60's I played as PS-5 and it served me well in playing KT and Weavers songs...then, as I branched out, I found it necessary to switch to an ODE L/N which has a slimmer and faster neck.
Further on down the lane when folkie morphed into figure, I added an OME which is now my gigging banjo. It's loud when I take Pete's shirt out of the back...but very melodic and sweet either way. I use it mostly for understated backup but can blast it, bare fingered, on songs like Pay Me My Money Down.
IMHO, the Vega T-Phone was a truck compared to the projection and tone which I get from a lighter ODE or OME.
All in all, it really does come down to what you're most comfortable with....and by the way, I've always used a variation of Travis picking on any banjo! Apparently, it works.
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| boulderfolkie says:
1/9/2017 11:47:22 AM
*"When folkie turned to fogey"*
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 | Ken LeVan says:
1/9/2017 2:02:49 PM
I have been playing bluegrass with mine since the 60s. I made some sound files a couple of years ago comparing a 60s Vega PS to a 1927 Gibson Granada playing bluegrass and they are very difficult to tell apart.
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 | Joe Connor says:
1/11/2017 2:38:03 PM
In the mid-1960s, when Vega was trying to break into the bluegrass market, they made an Earl Scruggs model banjo that Earl endorsed and played for several years. I think it had the same tupaphone tone ring as the PS-5 and also had a resonator. That Vega sounded awfully good in Earl's hands. I'll bet if someone put a resonator on a PS-5, it would sound pretty good for bluegrass.
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 | Helix says:
2/9/2017 5:45:19 AM
I build the longnecks I play on stage. I ended up jamming with the best in town.
When they capo up 2 to play E in D fingering, I take the capo off and play in E in G fingering. They had never seen nor heard that before. I use all 6 spikes available. We use on @Bb just for our friend Shelba. She sings there.
We do a lot of stuff with the longneck, we use it to take up collections of money from the audience, we can reach farther into the crowd with it. It's a pretend skillet at the pretend campfire, we use it to stir the mulligan stew, paddle to shore if you need to.
Don't hang it to the side while hopping a freight, make sure it's around back nice and straight so it won't get snapped off (like P. Seeger.
Now get ready for children and other peoples' dogs to follow you around.
Get in there.
I play Seeger up picking, Frailing , claw, various 3-finger Scruggs patterns, double thumbing, and whole bunch of two finger pinch chords, hammering and pulling off double notes with the same two fingers on both hands.
So you are free to move about the banjo. Things have changed.
( ))====='== ::}
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 | calypsojimmy says:
2/21/2017 2:50:50 PM
I've owned two PS tubaphone longnecks over the past 40 yrs: One was an all original Vega from 1958, and one was pieced together from a Vega 10 15/16" Tubaphone pot from 1927, along with a new repro Vega long neck made by Wyatt Fawley.
Gotta say: Both instruments were/are really powerful, but tonally quite different; also, both of them had incredibly accurate intonation all the way up and down that long neck. The '58 was a really great picking banjo, Scruggs style included. It was not quite as good for frailing & downpicking. The one with the Fawley neck &the '27 tubaphone pot is slightly lighter weight-wise, but it is lively beyond belief, enunciates really well, and is excellent for all styles: great clawhammer banjo, great fingerpicking banjo. In my experience a very good PS longneck with a tubaphone rim is easily the most versatile 5-string I've encountered. I can't speak about other long-necks from Vega, Ode, Gibson, GoldTone, Ome, etc. But I love'em all... there is a certain unique tone to any long-neck that I find very pleasing. Enjoy.
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