Beginner Banjo

[H2O]

Good evening,

I am interested in purchasing a banjo. I have no experience regarding the instrument and could use some advice to get me headed in the right direction. I would like to spend under 300 dollars if possible. I have no preference regarding new vs used. My intent for now is just to noodle and learn basic technique, potentially upgrading down the road if I find I enjoy it enough to pursue further.

One model that I have come across in my research that falls within my budget is 1960's Harmony's, but I'm not sure whether they are decent or not. Any insights, suggestions, etc. Would be greatly appreciated.

[midwinter]

I just picked up a little 1950s tenor Kay on Ebay for $50 that needed only minimal work (clean, glue the nut down, install cheap tuners, new head, restring).

I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a vintage banjo on Ebay if it seems like it's in good shape.

Edit: there are a bunch of vintage Kays in your price range on Ebay right now.

[Rudy4]

My son recently puirchased a Gretsch G9450 Dixie open back on sale for under $200. I build open backs and have to say this is actually a nice starter instrument.

[kitesurfer]

I bought a new R W JAMESON banjo off Amazon for under $200. I took it to a banjo player for set up and advice. he said the set up was spot on and that it isa very good banjo, particularly what i paid for it. He said learn to play it for a couple years and then buy a better one if 'needed'.

[Steve DeRosa]

You should be able to pick up a used Deering Goodtime openback 5-string for that kind of money - IMO it's about the best in this price range quality-wise, and even when you upgrade it makes a great campfire/festival instrument...

[syrynx]

Originally Posted by H2O

My intent for now is just to noodle and learn basic technique, potentially upgrading down the road if I find I enjoy it enough to pursue further.

Basic technique for what music? There are profound differences between the techniques, tunings, and banjos used for different styles of music, and the Banjo Police are gonna git you if you show up with the wrong one.

Bluegrass must be played on a reentrant-tuned five string banjo with a resonator, with finger picks. No exceptions!



Clawhammer style, also called frailing, is customarily played on an open-backed reentrant-tuned five string banjo, with fingers but no finger picks.



You can learn the basics of both styles on any reentrant-tuned five string banjo, as long as you do it in the privacy of your own home. Just don't show up at a bluegrass jam with an open-backed banjo...

And don't try to play traditional (Dixieland) jazz on a five-string. Here you have two four-string options, both played with a flat pick: Tenor banjo, tuned in fifths...



...or the longer-necked plectrum banjo, tuned C G B D, D G B D, or D G B E.



You can also play traditional jazz on a six-string banjo. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, just mention the name of Johnny St. Cyr, who claimed to have invented the six string banjo in 1914, and who played it in the 1920s (and well beyond) with Louis Armstrong and other Dixieland pioneers.



I hope this helps you narrow your search a bit.

[guitargeak99]

What's reentrant-tuned?

[Fire&Rain]

If you can describe the kind of banjo music you would like to eventually play, it would help a lot. Bluegrass? Celtic? Jazz? Old Time? There are 4-, 5- and 6-string banjos. There are banjos with backs (resonators) and with no backs (open). If you were asking about purchasing a first guitar, it would be the same question. What kind of music would you like to learn to play because there are different kinds of guitars. Enjoy the search!

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by guitargeak99

What's reentrant-tuned?

Re-entrant tuning is one where the uppermost string(s) is/are tuned higher than those farther away from the player, as in the well-known "my-dog-has-fleas" soprano uke tuning; in the case of the banjo, it means that the short fifth string is tuned higher than all of the other strings, usually an octave above the G (third) string in open tuning...

Adding to John's post above, banjos can be wonderfully versatile instruments and, other than bluegrass and clawhammer (for which the 5-string is de rigeur), there's really no set style of music for which one is necessarily "correct" - I've seen Irish groups using 5-string resonator instruments (a short-neck tenor in GDAE octave-mandolin tuning is customary), the Kingston Trio used an openback plectrum to record "Tom Dooley," I've fingerpicked my resonator tenor on more than one occasion, and if the Beatles had access to a 6-string "I've Just Seen a Face" might well have taken a different turn. FWIW, if you're a guitarist by trade who's new to the banjo game I'd strongly recommend either a 4- or 6-string as a first venture - the latter is tuned identically to a standard guitar (or, if you're after a bluegrass-type sound without the learning curve of a 5-string, Nashvile tuning), and a 4-string can be set up in "Chicago" tuning (DGBE, like the top 4 strings of a guitar - you'll need heavier strings if you're going to do this with a tenor, BTW). A trick I learned from Chuck Romanoff of Schooner Fare - and my personal favorite - is low-G tenor-uke tuning (GCEA) on a tenor banjo; this'll allow you the use of familiar chord formations (think a guitar capoed at the fifth fret), in a range that overlaps that of guitar, traditional banjo, and mandolin - very effective as an alternate lead instrument for sea chanteys and Irish music, BTW. Finally, if you're bound and determined to have a 5-string there's always the old studio players' trick called "high-grass" tuning (gDGBE - similar to Chicago but with the added fifth string); again, you'll be able to use familiar chord formations and, once you master the technique of using the fifth string, only the real die-hards will be able to tell you're not playing "legit" banjo...

[guitargeak99]

Even though I'm not the OP I too am looking for a banjo and needed advice.
My daughter is a really good acoustic guitar player and has expressed interest in banjo.
I didn't want to create a redundant thread so I jumped into this thread, with no intent of hijacking it.

I will suggest to the OP to look on his local Craigslist. That's what I'm doing and there are 2 very clean banjos for $200. One is a 5 string Washburn and the other is a 6 string Dean. And after the very informative posts here, I don't have a clue what I should get her. Not sure what music she wants to play.

Regards

[H2O]

Hello again,

I ended up buying this modified Harmony to start on:

https://reverb.com/item/1080494-harm...1960s-bakalite

It was cheap and the seller seemed to know what he was talking about so I figure it will be ready to play (plus I liked his video). Anyways, it should be a fine banjo to get my feet in the water.

I want to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge, it has been very enlightening to learn how much variety there is as far as different types of banjos out there, and how versatile they can be. As far as my intent, I have been playing in an acoustic folk duo (2 guitars) and thought it might be neat to add a different element. I play guitar using finger and thumb picks and would like to carry this over to banjo.

I would love to see this discussion continue as it seems like there are many knowledgeable people on these boards, and others interested in picking up this instrument like myself. Any playing advice or further suggestions regarding beginner gear for others would be most appreciated.

As far as playing goes, I am thinking a good place to start would be practicing rolls. I have been researching quite a bit, but there is a lot of information to sift through. Thoughts?

[syrynx]

H2O, I think that particular Harmony Resotone is a very good choice for a first banjo, since the video clearly demonstrates that it's in good playing condition.

I strongly concur with everything Steve said above about the versatility of the banjo. Fortunately, with the exception of the styles I noted previously, just about any banjo can be used to enhance just about any kind of music. The practitioners of Celtic music, as Steve pointed out, seem to have a big-tent policy (and/or a low tolerance for Music Police ).

Originally Posted by H2O

As far as playing goes, I am thinking a good place to start would be practicing rolls. I have been researching quite a bit, but there is a lot of information to sift through. Thoughts?

Yes, I was overwhelmed when I was given a banjo (an Iida five string with a resonator) in the late '80s. I was 44 years old at the time, and painfully aware that I'd never be a world-class bluegrass player starting at that advanced age, even if I gave up all other instruments (which I couldn't do, as I was playing music for my living in those days), and everything else in life except essential food and sleep. I wasn't terribly interested in the frenetic pace of bluegrass anyway. I recalled with great fondness the stately quality which Sandy Bull brought to his (and Carl Orff's) "Carmina Burana Fantasy" a quarter of a century earlier...



...and decided that, rather than trying to recreate what everyone else had done, I'd attempt to perpetrate original instrumental tunes while striving for that sort of stateliness. I ended up taking very little from Earl Scruggs, but apparently deeply in debt to Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson. Both of those gentlemen alternated between fretted and open strings (besides the fifth string), enabling rapid execution of melodies (and giving rise to what became known as the melodic banjo style). I came up with a couple of tunes which pleased me greatly, and which were well received by my audiences. (Then stuff happened, to the banjo and to me, and I never got back on track with it. But that's outside the scope of this discussion.)

[Trying Hard]

Originally Posted by H2O

Hello again,

I ended up buying this modified Harmony to start on:

https://reverb.com/item/1080494-harm...1960s-bakalite

It was cheap and the seller seemed to know what he was talking about so I figure it will be ready to play (plus I liked his video). Anyways, it should be a fine banjo to get my feet in the water.

I want to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge, it has been very enlightening to learn how much variety there is as far as different types of banjos out there, and how versatile they can be. As far as my intent, I have been playing in an acoustic folk duo (2 guitars) and thought it might be neat to add a different element. I play guitar using finger and thumb picks and would like to carry this over to banjo.

I would love to see this discussion continue as it seems like there are many knowledgeable people on these boards, and others interested in picking up this instrument like myself. Any playing advice or further suggestions regarding beginner gear for others would be most appreciated.

As far as playing goes, I am thinking a good place to start would be practicing rolls. I have been researching quite a bit, but there is a lot of information to sift through. Thoughts?

If you have fun, you'll probably stick with it, but if it becomes work, expect failure. If you master a roll such as the forward-reverse, you can go to most guitar song books and play most songs especially country and feel like you are a banjo player. Don't try to master tab on standard bluegrass songs. I once talked to students who emerged from a class at Folk Life Music Festival in Seattle and the instructor tried to teach many beginners how to play Foggy Mountain Breakdown with tab. Most who I asked about their experience noted that they were stupid and would not continue playing.

So if you just learn one roll, you can sit in on groups of players at a festival (Don't go into a pro-group) that are just having fun getting together, and you can have success. If after a lot of such fun, you want to go farther learn more rolls and practicing occasionally dropping in a melody note or too. But just remember to have fun!