REVIEW: BanjoMate Banjo Ukulele Armrest

[Joscefi78]

This is a review of the BanjoMate Banjo Ukulele Armrest from Little Mountain Music. My instrument is a Gold Tone BU-1 banjo ukulele with 8" pot and 2" banjo hooks. Unfortunately, this armrest won't work with 2" hooks without modification, as I'll explain.

For starters, my wrist is messed up from the hooks and metal allergy. Gold Tone has a banjo uke (mini vega) armrest for $24 in chrome, but my metal allergy. So I got a BanjoMate banjo uke armrest in black walnut for $57.15 with shipping. It's available in three different woods (maple, cherry, black walnut) and corian (black and ivory). They also have armrests for banjos.

I'll now add, this armrest works only with round hooks (greater than 2"), while my instrument has flat hooks. So I was prepared to either grind them down or buy round hooks (I'd bought one locally in anticipation of installation for $3). But when attempting to install, I found it won't work with 2" hooks, there's not enough clearance.

I called Little Mountain Music and spoke with the inventor, he said he's aware it doesn't fit 2" hooks, he said he'd update his website to that effect. He then offered a refund, including all shipping costs, which is fair. But I needed an armrest, so I sought another way to install, since the inventor said he'd no intention of making it for 2" hooks.

First, I tried 10 neodymium magnets attached to the armrest with epoxy ribbon, but it didn't hold with heavy playing. The magnets and epoxy tape were $8 at Harbor Freight. So I went another route, using some small nuts, bolts, and brackets; the cost of those items was $10. Now the armrest is secure and my wrist is happy.

Can I recommend the armrest? Not for those with 2" hooks, not unless you're prepared to shell out extra money and time to make it work, it cost me over $20 and hours of experimenting. Is the armrest a good value? Not for me, but nobody else has a wooden armrest for an 8" pot, but had it worked as intended, yes.

Obviously, the armrest should be improved to work with 2" hooks. Also, Little Mountain Music doesn't sell round hooks, they should consider that. Also, the armrest should be longer, it now spans three hooks but it should span four hooks; the banjo uke is a sort of downsized banjo, but the banjo uke player isn't downsized.

Here's the product link:

http://www.littlemountainmusic.com/banjomate-ukulele-armrests/