blazo's myHangout Homepage at the Banjo Hangout

Premier Sponsors

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our privacy policy which includes details of cookie usage.

(hide this)

blazo

You must sign into your myHangout account in order to contact blazo.

Banjo Hangout
Players Union
Member Since 6/28/2020

ACTIVITY

BLOG

FRIENDS

MEDIA

ABOUT

blazo replied to topic 'getting spammed through my cell phone' 44 days

blazo replied to topic 'Did J. S. Bach write for banjo? No, but!!' 54 days

blazo replied to topic 'Clawhammer tab for Morgan Megan by Steve Baughman' 56 days

blazo replied to topic 'Measure Twice, Cut Once ... or is it measure once cut twice?' 56 days

blazo replied to topic 'Broken Fretboard Extension' 70 days

blazo replied to topic 'Gold Tone Mastertones - Proper Use of the Name or Bad Taste' 72 days

blazo replied to topic 'Running total SCAMS 2021' 75 days

blazo replied to topic 'Why do you post links to Facebook???' 76 days

blazo replied to topic 'Orpheum Serial Numbers' 76 days

blazo replied to topic 'Gold Tone Mastertones - Proper Use of the Name or Bad Taste' 77 days

See all non-archived forum posts by blazo

I still have the BSO that I bought a little less than a year ago to see if I could get serious about playing before dropping my hard earned cash on a good banjo. My original, bad banjo is a cheap, bottom of the barrel, entry level Fender, plywood rim, crappy tuners, narrow nut, no tone ring, and so on. It has lousy sustain, rapid decay and the strings are too close together for my liking. Hammer-ons and pull-offs typically sound pretty bad due to lack of sustain. I often hit other strings when trying to play clawhammer. I've been wanting to take a banjo to work so I can pick it up when I have a couple of spare minutes here and there and I've heard it said that a good player can make a crappy instrument sound decent.

I decided to pull the BSO out from under the bed and take it to work. I put on new strings and a decent bridge to try to improve the sound. It's helped a tiny bit. I do think, though, that practicing on this banjo will help me improve. I have to really work at getting tone out of hammers and pulls, both striking the string harder and pulling or hammering harder. I have to slow down and focus to hit strings cleanly (both striking and fretting) because they are a bit too close together. My other banjo seems easier to play and is more seemingly forgiving of mistakes. I think this lulls me into lapses and mistakes that I need to work on fixing and I'm hoping the increased focus and concentration gained by playing a bad BSO will stick when I play my good banjo.

6 comments

Metronome and Learning New Tunes

Monday, December 4, 2017 5 comments

Hello Practice Gang

Wednesday, November 29, 2017 3 comments

Support this Site

More Hangouts

Newest Posts

'Frank Fairfield and Zac Sokolow - The Cuckoo' 1 hr

'1960's Christy Long Neck banjo' 1 hr

'sort'a strutin' (clawhammer banjo - original)' 1 hr

'Sterling Masterflower' 1 hr

'Fret Filling?' 1 hr

'2002 Bart Reiter Whyte Laydie' 1 hr

'1924 Fairbanks/Vega Whyte Laydie w/ Bart Reiter Neck' 2 hrs

'1962 Gibson RB 250 Bow Tie Banjo' 2 hrs

'Husqvarna Chainsaw RIP' 2 hrs

'1939 Kay Upright Bass - Orchestra Model' 2 hrs

More >

MyFeed

Goin' bad to get better

Metronome and Learning New Tunes

Hello Practice Gang

FriendFeed

Newest Music

see all >

Newest Photos

see all >

Top Links

Support this Site

More Hangouts

Hangout Network Help

View All Topics | View Categories

Browse Classifieds

Support this Site

Newest Music

Newest Photos

Top Links

Support this Site

More Hangouts

Hangout Network Help

View All Topics | View Categories