Thread: Banjo advice?
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Old 01-19-2017, 09:13 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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These days a 17-fret tenor is customarily used in Irish GDAE tuning, an octave below a mandolin or fiddle, and while I personally would have gone with a 19-fret tenor - there's a little more room to spread out, and Deering does make one - as a uke player you might find it more your cuppa tea; that said, if you don't want to learn a whole new set of fingerings this one's made for the drop-G tenor uke tuning (GCEA) I mentioned above. Be aware, however, that Deering sets up their 17-fret banjos for Irish tuning TMK, so if you're going to go with something else (I wouldn't recommend Chicago DGBE since you're losing a lot of upper range - the "sparkle" as opposed to the "plunk" in banjo tone) you'll need to have the nut recut/replaced to accommodate lighter strings (I use loop-end 10-13-17-26 for drop-G - not commercially available so they have to be ordered individually) and possibly a head adjustment as well (to compensate for the change in string tension)...

Good luck - let us know how it works out when it arrives...
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