Banjo question

[DBW]

I plan on getting a banjo 🪕 in another year once I get the funds together. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good mid range instrument? I tried the basic Deering banjo and didn’t really like it. Also what is the difference between resonator and open back and 4 vs 5 string. Thanks for your help.

[mauricemcm]

Originally Posted by DBW

I plan on getting a banjo �� in another year once I get the funds together. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good mid range instrument? I tried the basic Deering banjo and didn’t really like it. Also what is the difference between resonator and open back and 4 vs 5 string. Thanks for your help.

Take a look over on Banjohangout. This topic has been covered may times.

https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/215844

https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/248564

The Derring Goodtime is a very good value. It has taken me a while to learn to like any banjo. I am fond of my Vintage Bakelite Harmony open back. The one I play most is my StarSun Irish Tenor. Both of mine are the cheapest of cheap. I have stoped telling banjo jokes.

[rllink]

I posted the same question a month ago and got some good responses. There isn't a huge selection to try out locally and I didn't know anything about the ones I did find. Neither did anyone else at the stores. So I ended up ordering one.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=679536

I have a Morgan Monroe MNB-1 resonator five string on the way from Banjo Ben's in Missouri. It is supposed to get here tomorrow. I am new to the Banjo as well and Jake at Banjo Ben's spent the time with me on the phone to figure out what is the best banjo for me. I can't say enough about how helpful he is. He knows banjos and has the answers to your questions. They also have lots of very informative videos on their site.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=680386

Good luck my friend.

[Dave Hicks]

I should renew my banjolatin' skills - I have Deering and Richter openbacks that I don't play much at all. The Richter is probably higher priced than you want, but it's a nice instrument, made in Canada.

A lot of people seem to like the Recording Kings and Gold Tones - I haven't tried them, but both make a lot of models.

The stereotypes* about banjo types are

5 string resonators tend to be louder and twangier, generally for bluegrass; usually in open G tuning
5 string openbacks are plunkier, generally for oldtime and folk; lots of tunings are used
4 strings are loud and cutting, generally for jazz or Irish trad

* Like all stereotypes these are wrong a fair amount of the time.

D.H.

[DBW]

Thank you friends. I appreciate the help.

[warfrat73]

"Mid-Range" covers a lot of ground.

5-string banjos are far more common, used for bluegrass, old-time, folk stuff. Long neck 4-string plectrum banjos are for... I really don't know anymore, hardly ever see anybody playing them, but some kinds of folk music that isn't on my radar, evidently. Shorter neck 4-string tenor banjos are common in Irish and Dixieland.

If you just want a banjo, but aren't sure that you need a particular kind for the music you want to play, you almost certainly want a 5-string.

Basically, the resonator are louder and most typically used in bluegrass, played in three-finger Scruggs style, though folks like Bela Fleck and Tony Trishca show that that doesn't have to be the case. Here's an example:



Open back are used more in old-time and folk... Pete Seeger is famous playing a long scale open back 5 string. Frequently, but not always, open back banjos are played clawhammer, also called frailing style. Here's an example of clawhammer style:



You can learn either style on any 5-string banjo.

In the entry-intermediate range Gold Tone and Recording King tend to be pretty well regarded. I've played a number of Deering Goodtime models, my parents have one at their place that I play once in a while. But I think my Gold Tone CC-OT both feels and sound a fair bit better. But lots of people like the Goodtime.

For an entry level bluegrass banjo, the Gold Tone CC100 and Recording King RK-20 (new model, not older one) are well regarded.

Though, to me, mid-range would be pushing it closer to the $1000 mark in which case the Gold Tone OB-150 or RK R35 on the Bluegrass side (or Deering Sierra, which people say has a more modern tone). Or, for open-back, into possibly a used Pisgah or other small American builder.

I'm not a banjo expert, most of the recommendations are just reporting what I've read (save for the CC-OT vs Goodtime).

Check in at banjohangout.

ProAudioStar often has VERY good deals on Gold Tone banjos listed as used or open box, though they tend to be brand new, that's where I got my CC-OT.

(I was writing this for a bit while also cooking breakfast, Dave alreeady covered a fair bit)

[Dave Hicks]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

...

(I was writing this for a bit while also cooking breakfast, Dave already covered a fair bit)

Great details, thanks!

We might also add that 5 string resos are usually played with finger/thumb picks, openback bare handed or with picks, and 4 strings with a straight pick.

I've heard a good variety of banjo styles and players at the Midwest Banjo Camp - I'll add a video by one of my 4-string favorites, the phenomenal Don Vappie.

[Big Band Guitar]

Many years ago I wanted a banjo for Dixieland. I found a nice old Mastertone but there were no bands that needed a banjo.

So then I got a bug to get a 5 string. I found a civil war era fretless that got frets installed in the distant past.

Next found a crappy old 5 string that I did a lot of modifications to try to make it stay in tune. Beefed up the pot and added dual rods.

I found I liked the sound better with it tuned up 1/2 step.

After all my "research" I designed a banjo that fit me.

The scale was increased 1 fret,
11 inch rim 7/8 inch thick instead of 3/4,
Dual rods,
slotted headstock,
5th string tunneled under the fretboard and tuned at the peg head,
no tone ring.
local cherry wood,
ebony fretboard.

As I carved the neck I made it V shape to fit my hand.

Here is a link to it in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9WL-leIlc

[rick-slo]

Get a bluegrass type five string banjo. The tenor 4 string banjo is mainly used for strumming. Get a resonator (shell on the back). For many a year I played a Gariepy that was made back in the nineteen sixties. Listen to some Dillards recordings for nice bluegrass playing.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

...5-string banjos are far more common, used for bluegrass, old-time, folk stuff. Long neck 4-string plectrum banjos are for...I really don't know anymore, hardly ever see anybody playing them, but some kinds of folk music that isn't on my radar, evidently. Shorter neck 4-string tenor banjos are common in Irish and Dixieland.

If you just want a banjo, but aren't sure that you need a particular kind for the music you want to play, you almost certainly want a 5-string...

Originally Posted by Dave Hicks

...The stereotypes* about banjo types are:

• 5 string resonators tend to be louder and twangier, generally for bluegrass; usually in open G tuning
• 5 string openbacks are plunkier, generally for oldtime and folk; lots of tunings are used
• 4 strings are loud and cutting, generally for jazz or Irish trad

* Like all stereotypes these are wrong a fair amount of the time...

IME banjos can be pretty much what you want them to be:

• During the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, five-string banjos were used to play light classical music;
• At around the same time, Vess Ossman used a five-string to play ragtime and early jazz;
• When small-combo jazz became popular during the 1920's, uke players would sometimes set up a tenor banjo in drop-G tenor uke tuning (GCEA low-to-high)to take advantage of the income potential - with the emergence of the archtop guitar circa 1930 this tuning was all but forgotten, with Chuck Romanoff of Schooner Fare (from whom I first learned about it) being TMK the sole active proponent;
• Similarly, guitarists would often set up their tenor banjos in "Chicago" DGBE tuning (like a baritone uke or the top four strings of the guitar) although some would find the longer scale of the plectrum banjo better-suited (particularly for up-the neck work), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjoist for Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton) played a 6-string in standard EADGBE guitar tuning;
• As a corollary to the above, Bob Shane used an open-back plectrum banjo to lay down the solo on the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley," and struggling up-and-coming folk-era artists would often adapt whatever they could find at the local pawnshop/thrift store to their needs until they could afford a "proper" 5-string;
• Wrecking Crew multi-instrumentalist Tommy Tedesco would tune all his instruments to some variation of guitar tuning, and IIRC Glen Campbell favored a 6-string banjo for studio work (as did Rod Stewart on his MTV Unplugged performance of "Mandolin Wind")...

Wanna strum or flat-pick a 5-string, go right ahead - that's how the plectrum banjo was invented, when jazz players removed the unnecessary (and often troublesome) fifth string/tuner...

Think you can't fingerpick a 4-string tenor - I do it all the time at folk jams whenever there isn't a 5-string player in the house (in which case I do mandolin-range lead work), and if you use the right chord inversions it can be quite convincing in a large-group setting...

Capo a 6-string banjo at the fifth fret, or set up one of those cheap aluminum-rim short-scale (under 25") sixes that you'll find every so often at flea markets/garage sales/Goodwill with .008 - .038 strings in ADGCEA quart tuning (a fourth higher than standard) and watch it really come into its own, like the fattest-sounding tenor you ever heard...

Another option if you're strictly a fingerpicker is to replace the lowest two strings of a short-scale 6 with high E and A strings two octaves above standard and keep the rest in standard DGBE (think modified "Nashville" tuning), to cop the sonic mojo of a five-string without the need for retuning/fifth-string spikes - only caveat is that you'll need a new nut and ultra-thin E and A strings (a guy I saw with one like this a few years back used .012 and .008 as I recall), but unlike a 5-string you'll be able to play in any key...

At present I own a six-string, a resonator five, and two four-string tenors (openback in GDAE Irish tuning, resonator in drop-G tenor uke), and if I had it to do all over again I'd buy myself a pro-level resonator plectrum from the get-go: you can do either bluegrass rolls or frailing in any key without a capo or retuning, with a capo at the fifth fret you're into mandolin/tenor banjo territory, and from the audience vantage point it has the folk/bluegrass "look" without the potential drawbacks of the fifth string; fortunately as of this post they're still readily available through commercial channels - Deering has them at every price point from the entry-level Goodtime to the flagship Calico, Gold Tone offers models in their Cripple Creek and 250-Series, and if you're just looking to get your feet wet Rover makes an open-back composite-rim plectrum that sells in the low-$300's...

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by DBW

I plan on getting a banjo 🪕 in another year once I get the funds together. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good mid range instrument? I tried the basic Deering banjo and didn’t really like it. Also what is the difference between resonator and open back and 4 vs 5 string. Thanks for your help.

The most important accessory for any open back banjo is a rag to stuff in the back of it - that's your tone and volume control.

Have a look at the Snowdrop Clawhammer Banjo video in Warfrat73's post above and you see the guy has a rag stuffed into his banjo!

If it is an open back banjo you are after for clawhammer style playing then you really don't need to spend much cash at all. As long as it feels comfortable and the tuners work OK then everything else is either upgradeable or just window dressing. I have a cheap Gold Tone that I'm borrowing from my son. It is perfectly adequate for playing in a band.

[columbia]

The Recording King RK-35 (maple) and RK-36 (mahogany) are best bangs-for-the-buck in resonator bluegrass banjos.