28+" fingerboard scale Ome model?

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OME Banjo Pickers

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Anyone who plays an OME banjo ( or anyone who knows what an OME is)

211 Members, Created 3/18/2011 -

Administrators: Unclelevi (owner)

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From howseth on 5/25/2013 11:30:40 AM

I like to tune my banjo a few steps lower than standard: (Example Double A - rather than Double C, or Standard Open F or E rather than Standard open G). To get a good tone, at these pitches, on my Ome Primrose with its 26.25" scale I use heavier strings (GHS PF 160 set).

Ome offers a 'Pete Seegerish scale' extra long neck model - 31.18" scale as an option. But I see that as a capo deal - and a length too far. I once approached Chuck Ogsbury about making a 28" scale option - but he did not think their would be enough demand. (He suggested - logically - asking a custom builder.)

But, I'm curious: Is anybody else interested in a 28+" scale Ome banjo? I think that scale might be the best of two worlds - and you would not need the capo - or thebig hands/long arms. (The actual newest Ome scale banjos are - ironically fof me, the 25.5" shorter scale old-time models. Elderly Instruments - seems to carry them almost exclusively lately - must be very popular).

2 Comments
	stanger says: 3/3/2014 10:25:05 PM The earlier Ode banjos have a 27 1/8" scale. No one has made a 28" scale banjo for a long time; I believe the early Orpheums were the last, or one of the last, to use a scale that long. The Orpheum was the first banjo John Hartford used when he began tuning low. He tuned down to open B on his. You might find an Ode strung heavy would work fine for you, but the finger stretches on the first 3 frets are noticeably longer than the Ome scale. That's the biggest problem with all the longer scales. The Vega scale of 27 1/4 was the longest that survived post-war. Given the finger stretch problem, you might want to use a long neck capoed on the 2nd fret. Normally, they are capoed on the 3rd. The 26 1/4 scale is Gibson's. It was the shortest of the popular banjos pre-war, at a time when all steel strings were the equivalent of today's mediums or heavier. Back then, the Gibson had a definite more comfortable fingering factor, but that's not so much a consideration now.
	howseth says: 3/4/2014 2:02:00 PM Hi Stanger. Last fall got a Gibson Electric guitar - a 2009 ES-335 - to add to my extensive instrument 'collection' (which includes one other banjo - my Stu-Mac Tubaphone kit banjo, and an electric Fender Jazz bass). The scale on that Gibson big boy is just 24.75". So now my Ome 26 1/4" does not seem so short anymore (of course the jazz bass is 34" scale - outrageous!). Damn strings on those are so heavy - makes my GHS 160 banjo strings seem feather light. I turned my Gibson ES-335 into a 5 string guitar and tune it to my banjo tunings (same thing with the bass - banjo tunings. Though I broke my left pinky finger a month ago and not playing the bass with those cable strings - pressing the Ome strings with the pinky even the 4th string 26 gauge: no problem.
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