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jim2005 |
I was born and raised in Sundre Alberta where there was little else but wood and mountains. If you wanted anything you generally had to make it. After hearing the Beverly Hillbillies on a TV in town one day I decided I had to have a banjo and play in like fashion. The first banjo I obtained was a harmony bake-lite four stringed affair. It was a while before I found out that this Guy Earl Scruggs was playing a five stringed one. So I made one out of a brake drum from a 1942 Anglia, and a chunk of eastern rock maple for the neck, and Moose bone for nut and bridge. It had quite a shrill sound up the neck, and not all that loud, not to mention the shear weight of it. I sold it to a friend and she kept it up until she died here five years ago, sadly the children took it to the dump. My next try was a three ply maple rim fitted with an API rim from a well head. It was clunky sounding. So in 1965 I bought a a banjo that I had identified to be the same banjo Earl was playing, the one on a cover of a record I saw,...A Vega. It cost me 500 dollars Canadian, custom ST5 gold plated with original Scruggs tuners. I was of course delighted with the sound in comparison to my home made attempts, but it just didn't have the timber on the lower strings like Earls did. It took me many years to figure out, and cure that fault, and now she rings like a bronze bell. The tone ring (tubaphone) has an inherent fault and requires some surgery. If any one has one of these banjos they are worth hanging on to as they are well made and play (as limited as I am) as good as any I have tried. (I would not trade it for my friends Mastertone). If I can figure it out I will upload a picture and a sound byte.
Jim
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