Another of my missing posts: A couple of days ago I posted a note in response to Bob Bolton's post about the electric banjo that didn't sound like a banjo. Alison Brown plays kind of a bluegrass/jazz fusion on a couple of banjos that have microphones under the drum. The drum, vibrating sympathetically with the strings, produces the sound of the banjo. Alison's banjo sounds like a banjo; I heard her play in front of a music store in Berkeley, with her combo (herself, a keyboard, an electric bass, and a drummer). An electric guitar with magnetic pickups doesn't sound like a wooden guitar, either. A wooden guitar with a magnetic pickup doesn't sound like a wooden guitar, either. But one with a mike pickup inside the body does. The sound comes from the body, not the strings. --seed (more off-the-top-of-my-head pontificating; wait until Gargoyle reads this!) --seed