Kingston Trio's Guard didn't play long neck to start?!

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Long Neck Banjo

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... for those of us who prefer the tuning and singing differences the LN provides. All questions & help welcome!

273 Members, Created 1/30/2011 -

Administrators: TonyS (owner) , Gary Blanchard , pastorharry , vega long neck

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From phdm on 2/18/2020 2:13:22 PM

As a very long-time Kingston Trio fan and Vega long neck player myself, I knew that Dave Guard played a Seeger model Vega long neck banjo. But just today, when looking at the cover photos of the KT on the 1958 sheet music for "Tom Dooley" and then the first three albums they released from 6/2/58 - 3/16/59, I realized/discovered that Guard is NOT shown playing a Vega long neck but rather a standard neck banjo! How did I miss this?? Any idea what that first non-long neck banjo was that Guard was playing? By their fourth album, issued 6/1/59 - "Kingston Trio At Large" - there was the Vega long neck, hanging prominently on the wall, shown on the album cover.

5 Comments
	wbheilmann says: 2/18/2020 2:23:20 PM I am not sure about what may have been Dave's earliest banjos, but I do know that Bob Shane played a plectrum banjo occasionally (he used Chicago tuning). If my memory is correct, Bob actually played his banjo on "Tom Dooley."
	Joe Connor says: 2/18/2020 2:48:50 PM Dave started out playing a S.S. Stewart Universal Favorite No. 3 that he got from the father of bandmate Nick Reynolds. Dave got his new Vega PS-5 longneck in time for the "At Large" album. Dave's Universal Favorite is now owned by a collector in Massachusetts.
	phdm says: 2/18/2020 3:06:51 PM Joe - Thanks for your note! This seems exactly correct. Glad to know this.
	finnslr says: 3/27/2020 11:12:52 AM His Vega is at The American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. Bob played Tom Dooley on a Plectrum in guitar tuning.
	phdm says: 3/27/2020 11:20:42 AM Good to know. I actually visited the American Banjo Museum from Seattle a few years ago. Originally it focused almost exclusively on plectrum / 4 string banjos, but in the recent years is making great strides to expand and include 5 string banjos. I will have to go back to my photos to see if I overlooked Guard’s Vega. Thanks.
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