The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Ordering my banjo felt like a back-alley deal. I had driven almost an hour to a travel plaza just off the interstate. I was looking for a guy in a minivan and a small arsenal of banjos. Were these some kind of contraband goods? All I knew is that I wanted one. I met Bill Van Horn in a gas station parking lot off I-76 in Lodi, Ohio, on a steamy summer day. We first corresponded through the Banjo Hangout, an online forum for players. He had compared the banjos he built to the Enoch Tradesman, only way cheaper and with a Dobson tone ring. His banjos felt solid in my hand, and I loved the sound. After the meeting, I devised a savings plan and placed my order in mid-September. The banjo would have a thin 12-inch maple rim, a Fiberskyn head, no-knot tail piece, 24.25-inch scale walnut neck with Chechen wood fingerboard, a frailing scoop and a paddle-shaped peg head. Van Horn said it would be ready by the New Year. Being unmarried and having relatively few financial responsibilities at...

Last month I mentioned  ordering a new bridge for my banjo from Bart Veerman . After a thorough test drive of my revamped banjo, I'm here to deliver a thorough review . What I ordered: Basic two-footed bridge, 5/8-inch tall, mystery wood, no top, 46-millimeter “clawhammer” string spacing. (Cost: $20, including shipping.) My banjo specs: Short scale, walnut neck, 12-inch thin maple rim (Keller drum shell), Dobson tone ring, thin goatskin head, Chris Sands heavy strings. (See review here .) Selection: Bart offers a wide variety of bridge styles with a long list of options to customize each bridge order. You can specify number of legs, height, wood, finish, string spacing, compensation and more. Price: Bart’s bridges start at $15 and escalate in price depending on the myriad options available for customization. Your base option offers choice of height, wood and string spacing. Shipping is $3 within Canada, $5 to the United States and $7 elsewhere. Availability: You can or...

There just seemed to be something missing. Or maybe I'd just grown bored of its sound. But one way or another I wanted to make a change to my banjo. That change was a new bridge. For a while, I was using a half-inch, no-top cheap Grover bridge, and I really liked the sound. When I changed to using heavy nylon strings, however, the lower bridge no longer worked. The only other option I had lying around was a thicker 5/8-inch bridge, which just sounded muddy to me. I tried to modify it by cutting off the middle foot to make a two-footer, which I prefer with nylon strings, but my hack job didn't really work. A 5/8-inch, two-footed, no-top "mystery wood"  bridge from Bart Veerman. About two weeks ago, I decided to try something new. I'd heard of Bart Veerman's bridges through the Banjo Hangout for some time, and a friend had recently installed one of Bart's bridges on a banjo that he let me try out. Having liked the sound, I decided to go for it. ...

OK, so maybe I was wrong. In the last post , we discussed stuffing the pot, and I claimed this practice "isn't getting the job done" vis-a-vis the desired tonal qualities of my banjo. After switching to Chris Sands' heavy nylon strings, I removed all the stuffing from the pot. The result was pure echo. I figured it would get drowned out when playing with others, but then I played with others and it still sounded all echoy. This problem may be solved by switching to a thicker skin head, but in the meantime it's back to stuffing. Maybe it wasn't stuffing that was the problem, but rather the placement of the stuffing I didn't like. But first, let's talk about what we use to stuff our banjos. Lots of people like a sock or old rag, while others use a piece of foam of varying sizes and densities. Some people use duct tape, and I know at least one player who uses wadded up tissue paper. A guy I play with on occasion swears by Kroger plastic shopping bag...

There comes a time when you just want something different. Since we all can't own enough banjos to suit our varying tastes from day to day, a fact that our neighbors and loved ones no doubt celebrate, we must instead tinker with our instruments now and again to make new sounds. My banjo needs a tonal makeover. Right now it is set up with Ome heavy strings, a thin goatskin head and a 5/8-inch bridge of medium weight, all on a 12-inch rim with a Dobson-style tone ring. There is also a swatch of duct tape under the bridge and a wad of plastic grocery bags wrapped with tissue paper stuffed between the head and dowel stick to mute harsh overtones. Like many old-time banjo players, I'm always in search of the perfect "plunky" sound. However, I've come to the conclusion that stuffing the pot isn't getting the job done. While this practice cuts down on high-pitched brightness, it also kills the warm timbre associated with skin heads. Also, why have a tone ring if...