Fender: Robert Schmidt Signature Plectrum Irish/Celtic

Submitted by mlawyer on 5/26/2019

Where Purchased: World music

Year Purchased:
Price Paid: 360 ($US)

Sound

I play quite a few Broadway style shows, sometimes doubling banjo with guitar or upright bass. For banjo I have previously taken the fifth string off of a cheap Korean bj but the results sound nasty. The Schmidt plectrum is a huge step up. Once I got some basic setup taken care of it is pretty loud and sweet.

Sound Rating: 7

Setup

It was ok but it had super heavy strings that Bob Schmidt would like but I didn’t. I tried to get some loop ended singles from the local GC, but the kid working there had no idea what I was talking about. He kept giving me ball ends and asking if it was ok. He was a nice guy, though. I actually already tried using strings with the balls clipped out, but some of the loops were too small. I ended up using a Vega 5 string set (the one with a .010” first)
Other than that, I adjusted the tailpiece so that it wasn’t sitting on the head. The head tension was very low, so I did some tightening. There was too much neck relief, so I tightened the truss rod a little more than a quarter turn. The nut was fine. After all of the other work, the action was fine.

Setup Rating: 6

Appearance

It’s pretty. The finish is very nice on the visible parts and nonexistent on the parts you see when you take the resonator off. The moto neck inlays look pretty good.
I don’t see any cracks, delaminations, or sloppy glue work on my banjo. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe the distributor has QCed his stock. I’m happy in any case.

Appearance Rating: 8

Reliability

I share the concerns of the other reviewer about the resonator mounting nuts. They are iffy. I haven’t tried the pickup yet.
I have had a few instruments fail me at gigs, some quite nice. This one seems solid.

Reliability Rating: 6

Customer Service

They shipped it very quickly

Customer Service: 8

Components

The resonator attachments

Components Rating: 6

Overall Comments

Overall Rating: 7