What if this was at your session?

[Thomaston]

Serious question/inquiry here, what would your reaction be if this instrument was sitting next to/across from you at a session?
http://www.box.net/shared/2uqsosrbyk
Does it sound like it could make a nice mix with the other instruments, or is it a sound that would drive you insane after the first couple of tunes? If possible, please answer based on the tone of the instrument and not the particular skill of the player.

By the way, this is not technically a mando-banjo. What I did was string my tenor banjo up with strings light enough to give me DAEB tuning. I then capoed at the 5th fret to essentially give me a single-course banjolin (or soprano banjo).
Personally, I think it sounds cool, but I know that it's not only not traditional, but is generally considered taking the worst aspects of 2 instruments and combining them. And I wonder if I dare unleash something like at my own session, seeing as how they're good people that probably wouldn't tell me if it was annoying them.

[Rob Sharer]

Sounds grand to me. I used to schlep around a little uke banjo thingy that made a similar sound. Your scheme produces the same results, but you're not getting the portability benefit of the micro tenor. If you like this sound, why not treat yourself to a bitty banjo instead? Cheers,

Rob

[Thomaston]

Thanks, Rob!
I have thought of treating myself to something eventually, wife permitting, but I wonder it would have to be a custom order. People keep telling me that banjo-ukes aren't built to handle steel strings well, and I really think this set up is best without double courses. Unfortunately the double-course mando-banjos have always been more plentiful than the 4-string banjolins!

[plunk111]

I like it! We had a mandolin join us a coupla times and it blends fine - I'd say this would be a great addition to most sessions.

[MTGuru]

I like it, too. I guess the effect is similar to single-stringing a banjolin.

There was a well-liked player here a few years ago who was famous for terrorizing sessions with his banjolin. Dang, that thing was loud! He moved to Baltimore, but I swear I can still hear it in the distance sometimes.

I have one of those infamous all-metal Dixie banjo ukes, nylon strung, currently tuned ADF#B. It's loud for a uke, but would probably be lost chording in a session. I wouldn't want to string it with steel, for fear of popping the vellum head and inflicting long-term fret damage. Plus the re-entrant tuning is awkward for melody playing anyway. I think your solution is better.

What's your motivation, Thomaston? Too many TBs around there? Just trying something different? Is your banjo long or short scale, and what gauges are you using?

[Thomaston]

My main motivation is just for the sake of musical experimentation (it can be fun times to use Garageband to put reels and jigs to techno beats ), but having a unique voice is a strong secondary motivation. There's 3 other people in my session that like to play tenor banjo from time to time, and our session rarely has more than 7 or 8 people. I bought a mandolin from a member here about a month ago, so it's actually been my main instrument recently, but even then I'm not the only one on that instrument.
The banjo is a Gold Tone IT-250, 17 frets. The strings I used are D'Addario light gauge mandolin strings (.010 - .014 - .024 - .034) which tuned up to DAEB just fine. I was very happy to discover that these mandolin strings were long enough for my banjo, since I had previously had to order strings online in the assumption I'd need octave mando strings or a custom set of Irish strings to fit. These strings I can get down the road at the local guitar shop.

[Rob Sharer]

Thanks, Rob!
I have thought of treating myself to something eventually, wife permitting, but I wonder it would have to be a custom order. People keep telling me that banjo-ukes aren't built to handle steel strings well, and I really think this set up is best without double courses. Unfortunately the double-course mando-banjos have always been more plentiful than the 4-string banjolins!

Many options here:

1) You could always single-string a mandolin-banjo. Have a luthier cut you a nut made for the purpose, and pocket the old one in case you ever want to go back.

2) Many uke banjos will indeed stand up to steel strings, regardless of what you heard. I used to have one that looked like the cheapest old yoke you ever saw, with a torn head no less; that thing rang like a church bell with steel strings and never showed any sign of collapsing.

3) There is/was such a thing as a steel-strung, 4-string little banjo called a Melody Banjo. I had one of these as well, and it performed exactly like a micro tenor. Some even have resonators and tone rings! To wit:



Good luck,

Rob

[MTGuru]

2) Many uke banjos will indeed stand up to steel strings, regardless of what you heard.

Yeah, it's mostly the frets I'd worry about on the Dixie. All-metal neck/fingerboard with molded fret ridges, not fret wires. Once they're gone, the whole neck is kaput.

[Cathy Wilde]

Sounds like a cool tonal color to me, especially fun for duets with tinwhistles!

I guess some of it would depend on what the overall tonality of your session is: i.e., how many melody -vs- rhythm players there are, whether all the rhythm players play Martin D-41s or whether you have 5 mandos so it sounds jangly (welcome to Kentucky ), etc., etc. But I would think in heavy accompaniment soup it might lend a nice astringency and def. support the other melody players' efforts.

I'm not sure I'd want to listen to it for three hours, but it certainly would add spice to a number of tunes and again, it really depends on your instrumentation and the effect you're trying for - but I don't think you'd hear any complaints at our session.

[Ceili_whistle_man]

No need to hide behind the haystack with your instrument Thomaston, sounds fine, come and join us all.

[buddhu]

Sounds fine to me too. I'd have no objection at all. In fact, I'd want a go on it.

2) Many uke banjos will indeed stand up to steel strings, regardless of what you heard.

Yeah, it's mostly the frets I'd worry about on the Dixie. All-metal neck/fingerboard with molded fret ridges, not fret wires. Once they're gone, the whole neck is kaput.

John, check out the position dots on yr metal fretboard. Are you sure that the fretboard isn't a separate part that is screwed on?

I have a 1930s uke banjo that's all metal (apart from the vellum head). The fretboard is a discrete part. The screws are cunningly positioned where fretboard dots go. Took me a while to spot that. I've seen uke banjos where the neck and frets were all cast as one piece, but I've seen more screwed-on fretboards.

[MTGuru]

John, check out the position dots on yr metal fretboard. Are you sure that the fretboard isn't a separate part that is screwed on?

Oh yes ... very, very, very sure.

The entire neck is one piece of cast aluminum. There are no position dots per se, just little raised circles cast into the metal, like everything else - frets, nut, and tuner mounts. The back of the neck is not even solid, but ribbed like a heat sink.

[cboody]

Very nice sound. And, it is actually at pitch with fiddles rather than an octave below (I think). It should fit right in without some of the heavy sound a regular banjo can bring (Now, Now banjo players....I like the instrument but I do recognize that the sound is a "strong" one).

[StevieJ]

What I did was string my tenor banjo up with strings light enough to give me DAEB tuning. I then capoed at the 5th fret to essentially give me a single-course banjolin (or soprano banjo).

Swimming against the tide here, I would not appreciate this in my session. There is a fellow around here, top-notch mandolinist in bluegrass and gypsy music, who brings a banjo strung in exactly this way to Irish sessions. The sound is eardrum-piercing and I find it doesn't blend nicely with other instruments in the way that a mandolin or tenor banjor does. Thoroughly objectionable. In fact just hearing the first few notes of your clip reminded me of his playing and I had to press the stop button.

[Thomaston]

Thanks for your honesty... I like the sound in the small doses I've experimented with, but I'm not sure I'd want it sitting across from me either in a 3 hour session.
I've pretty much moved on from the idea since I posted this thread. It was a fun experiment, and I enjoyed hearing your responses, but after talking about it at my session I found the reception to the concept was too mixed to try to follow through. A couple were really open to the idea, and then there were others who had played in sessions with mando-banjos in the past that were thoroughly against the entire existence of said instrument.
It's recently become a moot point, anyway, since I've recently gotten an octave mandolin, and have spent most of my time trying to learn to do good bouzouki-style accompaniment.