After having played bouzouki and guitar for some years, I had been toying with the idea of playing a shorter scale instrument for a diversion. I had planned on purchasing an octave mandolin, but rather impulsively purchased a Slingerland 17 fret tenor banjo off eBay. Turned out to be quite the ticket; it is so much fun to play it is hard to put down. I love the sound and shorter scale.
Now comes the thanks part: The previous discussions posted on this site on types of banjos, string gauges and such have been invaluable to a new comer to the banjo such as me. What a wonderful wealth of information there is here! Many Google searches on these topics just brought me back here (frequently more efficiently than thesessions search engine I might add). Thanks all.
It is masterpiece and really helped bring the sound of my instrument to where I wanted it. I highly recommend it to any of you who are not familiar with it. Thanks Mike.
Congratulations on your purchase!!! I know what you mean, the terribly hard to put down - I'm sure you'll have years and years of good times and craic with a banjo!
17 v 19 : I've got one of each, low-value vintage ones, and the difference I notice is that the G can sound flabby and a bit low tension on the 17 fret (but I do prefer the shorter reach). The shorter the neck, the lower the tension given the same tuning and string gauge. Imagine a guitar tuned down a tone with a capo on the second fret - it's not going to sound so good,
Hi Hugo - yes that does work. I did have some quite heavy strings on it for a while and it sounded good, but it doesn't have a truss rod so I reverted to lighter ones in the end. It still sounds OK, but I just think 19 frets carries more oomph if you can cope with the extra hand stretch.
I have only heard a couple of 17 fret banjos that I like the sound of. One of them being the Orpheum that I sold to Will CPT last year.
Talking to Chuck at Ome, he refuses to build 17 fret banjos because they "don't sound as good". I have found the shorter scale banjos to be lacking in sustain (if there is such a thing in a banjo) and tone. I miss some of the complex overtones that you get from the longer scale instruments.
But a good pot with a good tone system can help make up for the shorter scale. So there are the occasional short scale ones that I like.
17 fretters can indeed sound ok and can sound very ok if you like a plunky sound
however whilst a 19 fretter can be made to sound plunky, nothing will make a 17 fretter have zip of a bright 19f job.
you just need to put the time in to learn how to play tricky high bits at 5th fret rather than 1st position if you've got stumpy fingers like mine and play a 19f.
I visited the Banjo.com brick-and-mortar store over the weekend and tried out all of their tenor banjos. They have four models and all are 17-fretters. Interestingly, all four are also strung for GDAE tuning and marketed as “Irish Folk” instruments.
The short scale is really comfortable, but the G string suffers a bit. It seemed to me that the whole string set needed to be up-gauged.
Once again,
sorry for highjacking, and thanks for all comments.
I have the good fortune to play Barney Mckenna's old instrument on regular occasions, and feel its so way off from mine.
Its a 17 fret, and has a beautiful tone. Its almost as if it plays itself for you. Thats the difference with that and mine.
Mine is sometimes hard work. I have long fingers, and it still is.
I'm thinking (surprise surprise) Its all to do with the instrument.
Anyone with a 17 fret for sale - I'm interested.
S
Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
After having played bouzouki and guitar for some years, I had been toying with the idea of playing a shorter scale instrument for a diversion. I had planned on purchasing an octave mandolin, but rather impulsively purchased a Slingerland 17 fret tenor banjo off eBay. Turned out to be quite the ticket; it is so much fun to play it is hard to put down. I love the sound and shorter scale.
Now comes the thanks part: The previous discussions posted on this site on types of banjos, string gauges and such have been invaluable to a new comer to the banjo such as me. What a wonderful wealth of information there is here! Many Google searches on these topics just brought me back here (frequently more efficiently than thesessions search engine I might add). Thanks all.
I would also like to mention Mike Keyes discussion on his website on setup:
http://www.mikekeyes.com/tune-upyourbanjo
It is masterpiece and really helped bring the sound of my instrument to where I wanted it. I highly recommend it to any of you who are not familiar with it. Thanks Mike.
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by rob zouk
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Congratulations on your purchase!!! I know what you mean, the terribly hard to put down - I'm sure you'll have years and years of good times and craic with a banjo!
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by camwebby
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Good for you - Enjoy!
Sorry to hijack, but I was just wondering if anyone could tell me the tone difference between the 17 and 19 fret tenors?
I am really interested in buying a 17 fret. What type of difference should I expect?
S
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
17 v 19 : I've got one of each, low-value vintage ones, and the difference I notice is that the G can sound flabby and a bit low tension on the 17 fret (but I do prefer the shorter reach). The shorter the neck, the lower the tension given the same tuning and string gauge. Imagine a guitar tuned down a tone with a capo on the second fret - it's not going to sound so good,
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by RichardB
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Hi Richard,
could you just get a thicker G?
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Hi Hugo - yes that does work. I did have some quite heavy strings on it for a while and it sounded good, but it doesn't have a truss rod so I reverted to lighter ones in the end. It still sounds OK, but I just think 19 frets carries more oomph if you can cope with the extra hand stretch.
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by RichardB
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
I have only heard a couple of 17 fret banjos that I like the sound of. One of them being the Orpheum that I sold to Will CPT last year.
Talking to Chuck at Ome, he refuses to build 17 fret banjos because they "don't sound as good". I have found the shorter scale banjos to be lacking in sustain (if there is such a thing in a banjo) and tone. I miss some of the complex overtones that you get from the longer scale instruments.
But a good pot with a good tone system can help make up for the shorter scale. So there are the occasional short scale ones that I like.
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
17 fretters can indeed sound ok and can sound very ok if you like a plunky sound
however whilst a 19 fretter can be made to sound plunky, nothing will make a 17 fretter have zip of a bright 19f job.
you just need to put the time in to learn how to play tricky high bits at 5th fret rather than 1st position if you've got stumpy fingers like mine and play a 19f.
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by millionyears_bc
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
I visited the Banjo.com brick-and-mortar store over the weekend and tried out all of their tenor banjos. They have four models and all are 17-fretters. Interestingly, all four are also strung for GDAE tuning and marketed as “Irish Folk” instruments.
The short scale is really comfortable, but the G string suffers a bit. It seemed to me that the whole string set needed to be up-gauged.
# Posted on March 4th 2008 by Bob himself
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Rob - enjoy your 17-fretter! I play mine a lot and love it.
# Posted on March 5th 2008 by RichardB
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
Once again,
sorry for highjacking, and thanks for all comments.
I have the good fortune to play Barney Mckenna's old instrument on regular occasions, and feel its so way off from mine.
Its a 17 fret, and has a beautiful tone. Its almost as if it plays itself for you. Thats the difference with that and mine.
Mine is sometimes hard work. I have long fingers, and it still is.
I'm thinking (surprise surprise) Its all to do with the instrument.
Anyone with a 17 fret for sale - I'm interested.
S
# Posted on March 5th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Thanks to tenor banjo contributors
do you mean his old Paragon?
# Posted on March 5th 2008 by camwebby