Banjitar recommendation?

[robailey]

Howdey all,

I'm starting to get the hankering for a banjitar for a little variety in our set. I'm looking for a good value banjitar with a pickup that can project decently and plays well. Any brands that have a good reputation and hold their value well?

Thanks
Rob

[Dan Carey]

Gold Tone makes a couple of nice ones. I'm sure there are others but I have no experience with them. Stay away from the Rogue and other ultra-cheapies, though.

http://www.goldtone.com/products/w/c...ring-Banjitars

[Wade Hampton]

I've owned a Deering B6 banjo-guitar for about fifteen years, and it's a superb instrument. Gold Tone does make some nice ones these days, though - they've improved since they first came out, mainly through the use of a compensated bridge. The first Gold Tone guitar-banjos just used standard banjo bridges slotted for six strings, and those created most of the problems that most guitar-banjos suffer from: poor intonation, poor tone, tuning instability.

Of the Gold Tone guitar-banjos I have played, the one that has impressed me the most has been the Gold Tone BT-2000, which has a 12 inch rim:

It has a nice low end response. I was a bit surprised but pleased when I read Gold Tone's own copy on the web page for this model that states that this is the guitar-banjo of theirs that has the best acoustic sound:

http://www.goldtone.com/products/det...nt/122/BT-2000

This is the only other guitar-banjo made any company that I think approaches the Deering B6 in terms of musical quality.

I do have some experience with this: I've been playing guitar-banjo since 1980, and have continuously owned at least one since 1985.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Doubleneck]

Have a Deering B6 openback I thing the best made. I do like what I see in that Goldtone 12 inch need to try it.

[Mooh]

Wade is right.

The Goldtone with the 11" head is very weak in the bass range, so much so that I'm experimenting with re-entrant tunings on mine to compensate for it. Open G is cool with the 6th (D) and 5th (G) strings tuned up an octave.

It was an impulse buy, but a fun one. I intend to get either the Deering or the Goldtone with a 12" head...eventually.

[Soaranator]

Deering or Gold Tone. I have the Gold Tone GT-750 and it totally kicks butt.

[OnTheLedge]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

I've owned a Deering B6 banjo-guitar for about fifteen years, and it's a superb instrument. Gold Tone does make some nice ones these days, though - they've improved since they first came out, mainly through the use of a compensated bridge. The first Gold Tone guitar-banjos just used standard banjo bridges slotted for six strings, and those created most of the problems that most guitar-banjos suffer from: poor intonation, poor tone, tuning instability.

Of the Gold Tone guitar-banjos I have played, the one that has impressed me the most has been the Gold Tone BT-2000, which has a 12 inch rim:

It has a nice low end response. I was a bit surprised but pleased when I read Gold Tone's own copy on the web page for this model that states that this is the guitar-banjo of theirs that has the best acoustic sound:

http://www.goldtone.com/products/det...nt/122/BT-2000

This is the only other guitar-banjo made any company that I think approaches the Deering B6 in terms of musical quality.

I do have some experience with this: I've been playing guitar-banjo since 1980, and have continuously owned at least one since 1985.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

I own a BT-2000R. R meaning it has a resonator. It is a great instrument! I got mine from the ebay seller who sells blems for about half price, $500. I can't find a blemish on it! I highly recommend the BT-2000R.

[robailey]

Thanks for your input, everyone. I think the Gold Tone is going to be a good first banjo-style instrument for me. The Deering B6 looks great, but I can't justify 2k on an instrument that I'll only play 20% of my portfolio on. Thanks again!

[MBE]

Thanks for adding your perspective, Wade. Is there a cool instrument out there that you *haven't* been playing for decades? From dulcimers to guitars and everything in-between, you're such a great resource to the AGF.

The real question is, is the syndrome this thread is giving me "GAS" or "BAS"?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by MBE

Thanks for adding your perspective, Wade. Is there a cool instrument out there that you *haven't* been playing for decades?

Well, I don't play any fiddle, and my harmonica-playing is nothing to get excited about. I mean, I do play harmonica better than the average drunk who hangs out in bars with a Hohner Marine Band in his pocket and who invites himself to honk, blat and bleat along on harp from the audience when the paid performers are trying to play music, but harmonica as a discipline and and as an art is not something I've ever gotten very far on.

Originally Posted by MBE

From dulcimers to guitars and everything in-between, you're such a great resource to the AGF.

Thank you, that's a kind thing to say. I appreciate it.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Cone Head]

I have a c.1920 Gibson GB-4 with the "trap door" resonator.
It is an incredible sounding instrument, and is rather huge.





I haven't tried one myself, but Gold Tone makes a 14" 6-string banjo (model BT-14) obviously inspired by the GB-4 (without the "trap door" though). If I had to look for a contemporary 6-string banjo, I would give this model some consideration:

http://www.goldtone.com/products/det...4-New-for-2013

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Cone Head

...I haven't tried one myself, but Gold Tone makes a 14" 6-string banjo (model BT-14) obviously inspired by the GB-4 (without the "trap door" though). If I had to look for a contemporary 6-string banjo, I would give this model some consideration:

http://www.goldtone.com/products/det...4-New-for-2013

I wonder how one of these would sound with a set of Thomastik Classic S strings...

[8daypsalmist]

I just traded a Dobro and some cash for a sweet Deering B6 and am really digging it. A lot. Everybody wants to play it.

We have been doing some Christmas Carol Busking at a local Outlet Mall over the past few weeks. My daughter plays 5-string Banjo and has been part of this project. We are going to experiment with a guitar, upright Bass, and both 5 and 6 string Banjos tomorrow - I can't wait. Gonna get our "Old Crow Medicine Show" on (they use both 5 and 6 string Banjos together)

In the morning we are opening 2 services at church with a couple "Folk Angel" Christmas Carol arrangements and I have one of the other guitar players on the B6 Banjitar. Everybody at rehearsal last Thursday was loving it.

We are finding out that the Banjitar occupys it's own sonic space - it's at its best when not trying to be either a guitar or banjo, but being its own thing. I LOVE the sound of it!

Peace,
James

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by 8daypsalmist

I just traded a Dobro and some cash for a sweet Deering B6 and am really digging it. A lot. Everybody wants to play it.

At the music parties we have at my house, I typically have three or four instruments right beside me, my mountain dulcimer laying on its case on one side of me, and a guitar, my acoustic baritone guitar and a mandolin in a triple stand on my other side.

It's only rarely that I bring out the guitar-banjo at these gatherings, for the simple reason that if I bring it out I'll be hearing it for the rest of the time we're playing music. EVERYBODY has to get their hands on it, and EVERYBODY has to make smart-aleck remarks about banjos and the gap-toothed, moonshine-addled, incest-addicted hillbillies who play them.

Yet EVERYBODY will also play the guitar-banjo for longer than mere courtesy and curiosity can explain, and the next person who wants to have a crack at it basically has to pry it loose from the person currently hogging it.

They're really delightful instruments, but the other reason I typically keep it hidden during our music parties is that my wife is a Yankee through and through, and basically reacts to the banjo as though a Komodo dragon got loose in the house.

She's not a fan, let's leave it at that.

Originally Posted by 8daypsalmist

We have been doing some Christmas Carol Busking at a local Outlet Mall over the past few weeks. My daughter plays 5-string Banjo and has been part of this project. We are going to experiment with a guitar, upright Bass, and both 5 and 6 string Banjos tomorrow - I can't wait. Gonna get our "Old Crow Medicine Show" on (they use both 5 and 6 string Banjos together)

In the morning we are opening 2 services at church with a couple "Folk Angel" Christmas Carol arrangements and I have one of the other guitar players on the B6 Banjitar. Everybody at rehearsal last Thursday was loving it.

We are finding out that the Banjitar occupys it's own sonic space - it's at its best when not trying to be either a guitar or banjo, but being its own thing. I LOVE the sound of it!

Peace,
James

It's fun, and it's an exceptionally potent rhythm instrument, which most players seem to overlook. In church I often use it for rousing anthems like "Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus" and "Onward, Christian Soldiers." "Onward..." is an especially good song for it; in the Episcopal Hymnal it's set in Eb, and what I do is capo the guitar-banjo at the 3rd fret and play it in C formation.

As for playing rhythm parts on it, it'll definitely tighten up your sense of timing. A lot of acoustic guitarists tend to get a little sloppy, a little watery with their chord changes, which is understandable given the lush way that chords ring out on the instrument.

But if your timing is off by a nanosecond on guitar-banjo, the whole world will hear it. So you've got to be RIGHT THERE, and as I said, this helps keep you on the beat in the most dramatic way.

So, yeah, guitar-banjo is a very cool instrument, one that doesn't get the respect it deserves. But that's okay - those of us who own and appreciate them know what cool instruments they really are.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Long Jon]

Heresy all heresy. Burn them !