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I was just at an old time music get together last weekend. I had several folks try some banjos that I recently built. It was great to be on the other side of my banjos, hearing them for the first time as a listener.
That being said, I would only bring instruments that I feel comfortable letting others try.
Having a high end Martin that someone is wailing on would be overwhelming.
As a related sidebar, I have had non-musician audience members ask if they can hold my instruments. Since they can't play them, I have no clue why they would want to do that. So the answer is always "Sorry, but my insurance won't let me do that" (which is probably half-true anyway).
And one time when our band was playing a nursing home, the rec director asked our horn guy if one of the residents could hold his sax. He did let the fellow touch the bell, but that was it. Then the rec director said "I think it's very cute how protective you folks are about your instruments." I started to explain that she was talking about a $4,000 saxophone, but then I figured it wouldn't help, so I just smiled. SETH
Edited by - sethb on 09/19/2024 16:11:17
Now you all know how music store owners feel every day. Anyone who does not hesitate to ask to play your instrument in a jam type setting is likely someone you don't want handling it. How many times have you seen the drunk, "let me show you something," grab an instrument and there is either a close call or they just flail away to their own amusement. But in a calmer (one-on-one) setting or where you know the person well, it can be fine. I like having better players play my instrument so I can I hear it from the front the way it is supposed to be played. So I'll often ask a good player to play mine.
Back around 1969 I was playing Gospel music. The preacher asked if he could play my guitar for a song ? It was a Yamaha FG 110. It wasn't an expensive guitar at the time but in 1969 $89.95 was a high dollar item for a young man. I took real good care of it and babied it more or less. When that preacher got through playing his song and handed it back to me he had used a stiff pick and scarred above the sound hole terribly with deep ruts. That's when I learned my lesson. No one plays my instruments unless I am sure they are a real musician that I know takes care of their own instruments. I know why a lot of music stores keep zip ties on their nice guitars and banjos.
If someone wanted to try my instrument for a couple minutes - not play a few songs or whatever - I would let almost anyone do that. If I ask someone to sit in I would always offer one of my instruments to play, but that is my choice. But over the years I've had several different experiences:
A few years ago a friend from another band stopped by to hear us, and I asked if he wanted to join us for a couple songs, and offered him my Gibson A5-L mandolin to play. He was so rough I thought the mandolin would fall apart in his hands, and after 20 minutes he had worn 1/8" off the edge of my pick. I've have played some picks for years without any noticeable wear. I did hear that he did something similar to anther player's actual Loar.
I was at a festival once, walking around to jams with picks in my pocket but no banjo. I was listening at one jam for a while when the banjo player, who I had chatted with a few times but didn't know well at all, said "I'm going to bed. Why don't you play my banjo, and I'll leave the case on the picnic table outside my camper over there." I protested, but he insisted, and while I appreciated his generosity I was pretty nervous leaving his banjo on the picnic table unattended. It was the kind of festival where you could do that, but I would have never offered my banjo that way.
A friend offered to let me try his Lloyd Loar Gibson, but I was too timid and fearful of damaging it to play much.
Last night at a jam another player came to sit next to me with his banjo, and we talked a bit. I thought of asking to try his banjo for a minute, but although we talked banjos and playing a lot that evening, he didn't offer and I didn't ask because I didn't really need to play it.
"The Day the Preacher Rutted My Guitar" sounds like a song for another Ray Stevens video, sort of like the one about the squirrel.
While we're at it, do you mind if I sleep with your wife? Another question I would never ask.
But I have had people put their instruments in my hands and say "go ahead and try it out". Okay then but I still feel nervous the whole time there's some liability we're talking about and I really don't want it!
quote:
Originally posted by NotABanjoYodaI lost a friend over lending him my motorcycle (dirt bike). I had just bought it brand new, and spent 40 hours and lots of cash gearing it up. A friend of mine who was much older and acted like he knew everything dirtbike (and very wealthy), kept asking to ride it the moment he knew I had it. After I rode it twice he showed up at my house just to ride it. I told him it was way more powerful than his and only for experts, he laughed and kept saying "When i was your age I rode a CR500 and won many AMA races" . So i told him he could ride it down my dirt road and back. He basically stole it for 3 hours riding the hell out of it and wrecked it. He then tried to return it with bent frame, broken handlebars and torn plastics without saying a word. It ended up in court after he said "Dirt bikes are meant to be abused" as a response to me insisting he buy me another fully decked out bike like mine.
I have prewar Martin guitars that only me and my son play. Ask away, you wont touch them. No one ever asks to play my Epiphone or ride my beater motorcycles. Its ok to say no if thats your comfort zone.
Same exact thing with the motorcycle happened to me. Let an old acquaintance tale my Ossa out to try out ........ brought it back with mud and grass all over it with a cracked frame. He had the same attitude as the guy that borrowed yours.
quote:
Originally posted by BanjoLinkquote:
I have prewar Martin guitars that only me and my son play. Ask away, you wont touch them. No one ever asks to play my Epiphone or ride my beater motorcycles. Its ok to say no if thats your comfort zone.Same exact thing with the motorcycle happened to me. Let an old acquaintance tale my Ossa out to try out ........ brought it back with mud and grass all over it with a cracked frame. He had the same attitude as the guy that borrowed yours.
Dont take this the wrong way but empathy just put a smile on my face. Was his name Gene? lol
I have no problem letting other people play my instruments in my presence, but I got weaned from loaning instruments the hard way. I have a J.B. Player guitar that while not a top of the line guitar is a very good sounding and playing guitar. A guy wanted to borrow it to play in a gig he was doing and kept in about 3 weeks and I had to ask for it back. When he brought it back, it had bad pick scratches on it. I would still loan an instrument to a friend that I know well, but not to someone I barely know and I would have to think twice about loaning one of my expensive banjos to a good friend. I have loaned an old, but good sounding Gibson copy a couple times and it came back just like it was when I loaned it.
I don't think there's a simple yes/no answer to this. Clearly if Bela Fleck, Scott Vestal, Alison Brown or another player of similar stature were asking then I'd certainly let them play it. Anyone else, no. It took me fifty plus years of searching and saving to acquire the banjo I now regard as the last I'll buy. Here in the UK, it's probably irreplaceable. No matter who was asking, I certainly wouldn't lend it to anyone.
There's also a reverse scenario. I played banjo in a band a few years ago, and at a rehearsal session was offered a spare guitar to use as I hadn't brought one. The owner (who I'd known for more than twenty years but I've never considered a friend) had botched the fitting of a strap button to the heel, and as I attached the strap, the button and a portion of the heel came away! I felt awful, but the owner showed no surprise and just gave me another guitar. I never heard him mention the incident at subsequent sessions. However, I later read his posting on a guitar forum that I had clumsily damaged his expensive vintage guitar! Needless to say, we no longer have any association, musically or otherwise.
I'd say it's best to neither lend nor borrow any instrument, no matter how well you think you know the owner.
Mad Hornet ties with BanjoLink ’s Sonny quote for best answer.
I have some pretty nice instruments. I am clumsy, and despite my best efforts, anything I play very often will get beat up. I own one of the two “Classic ‘58” bowtie-style banjo’s built by Steve Huber. I lusted after that banjo when it hung in the showroom at the original banjo.com in Marietta GA. When I went back to buy it, it had been sold to a gentleman in Bowling Green, who decided to sell it very soon, but only after he had engaged Charlie Cushman to set it up and install D tuners. So when I saw it listed here, I drove to his home and bought. It was in mint condition, so very beautiful, and of course, Huber’s banjos sound like they are supposed to. It is my favorite for playing bluegrass. But, 9 years later, it is beat all to heck. I will sometimes ask a good picker I know to play a tune for me so I can hear how it sounds from the other side. But I don’t go around asking to play other folk’s instruments, because I don’t want to be the guy who scratches the other guy’s favorite gear. I have a buddy I only really know from Galax who brokers a lot of fine banjo sales. Known him for nearly 20 years, and he sometimes hands me a vintage Gibson to try out. I find a safe dry place to sit, rest the instrument on my lap, away from my belt and the rivets on my jeans, and play a tune or two lightly. I enjoy playing them, but I don’t hold onto it very long, again, because I don’t want to harm someone’s treasure. I totally understand the OP’s anxiety. Saying “no” to someone asking to play your instrument needs no apology or justification.
quote:
Originally posted by NotABanjoYodaquote:
Originally posted by BanjoLinkquote:
I have prewar Martin guitars that only me and my son play. Ask away, you wont touch them. No one ever asks to play my Epiphone or ride my beater motorcycles. Its ok to say no if thats your comfort zone.Same exact thing with the motorcycle happened to me. Let an old acquaintance tale my Ossa out to try out ........ brought it back with mud and grass all over it with a cracked frame. He had the same attitude as the guy that borrowed yours.
Dont take this the wrong way but empathy just put a smile on my face. Was his name Gene? lol
Butch .... but his given name could have been Gene!
First off, no one has ever asked me to loan them an instrument. But I don't have extras to loan out long term anyway and everyone I know well enough to ask, knows that already. But ultimately I guess it would depend on who was asking.
I play guitar and banjo. When I go to bluegrass jams I take one or another and this summer it has been the banjo. No one else in our country/bluegrass jam plays banjo, that's the reason I started playing banjo. So no one wants to play it. But I don't take them both and let one lay out tempting someone to ask.
Two summers ago, before I started playing banjo, I was at a festival and a guy I had seen around but not met was sitting next to me. He had a Martin D-18 and I have a Guild D-20. We got to talking and he asked if I wanted to trade for a while. I was fine with that, as I have heard so much of that Martin magic that I wanted to try one more than a few strums in a guitar store. We traded for an hour or so. I thought it was a great opportunity to really get my hands on that Martin and see what the hubbub was all about.
Honestly, I'm not particularly particular about either of my guitar or banjo. Both get played hard and put away wet. I try not to be abusive to them, but they are made to be played. Unless someone looks like they are just irresponsible, I will trade, like I did with that guy with the guitar. If I had something that was really special to me it might be a different story. If someone wants to play my banjo or guitar and leave me sitting, not going to happen.
Edited by - BG Banjo on 09/21/2024 12:47:04
Depends. At a festival jam session at night when someone I dont know wants to play my banjo, generally its a no unless I know them. Too many people have been drinking, have Deet bug spray on their hands and clothing that will DESTROY a banjos finish, etc. Even ones I know get asked the Deet question. I usually invite them back for the next day to try the banjo in a controlled setting, but 9/10 times they just want to show off at the jam.
I have lent instruments to professionals a number of times with very good results. Jamie Stone used my old 4 on one of his CDs, the late Mike O'Reilly borrowed my prewar Granada for a festival, the late Dick Smith used my 4 at a festival and loved it so much he didnt want to give it back!!!
I'm always very happy to let people pick up my banjonand give it a go! But I think it's multifaceted as to why. For one, I'm in irleand so I'm not playing in jams (I play five string and tenor but session culture is very different and I don't really go to them) so the people asking to try my banjo are friends and people who are just going to give it a go for a little bit for the most part. Secondly, neither of my banjos are very expensive, so I'm not too fussed about them being handled. They're hardy instruments alright but not irreplaceable.
I do understand being hesitant about people using your instruments though, I don't let anyone but me and a fiddle playing friend near my fiddle!
quote:
Originally posted by Banner BlueSummary: The people who you should not worry about playing your instrument would not ask to play your instrument.
HA! Very true. I actually have no problem with letting someone try my banjo in a jam session. I have a nice banjo, but there's not much they could do to hurt it that I haven't already done! And I guess I'm not that refined that I would notice if their mojo affected the tone in some obscure way.
However, I'm very reticent to ask to play someone else's banjo. If I'm genuinely interested in another's banjo, I'll strike up a conversation with the person, asking about the banjo. About half the time, they will ask if I want to play it and, if they don't, I don't push it. Also, I'm very nervous when I play someone else's instrument.
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