I realize I did not mention one player who was not part of the faculty but was particularly impressive to me. I met him last year at MBA, and was really pleased to see him and hear him at BCN.

His name is Don Sarrell, from Rising Fawn, Georgia, a retired electronic engineer. He has seven state championships and two national banjo-playing championships. His picking style is unique to my experience: It's not clawhammer; he picks with thumb and forefinger. The thumb always plays the thumbstring, nothing else, and the forefinger picks both ways. He keeps the whole banjo ringing constantly. Watching and listening to him play is a real eye-opener. Really MUSICAL playing.

He had six banjos with him, all of which he built himself. When I say he built them, I don't mean he assembled them from commercially available parts. He makes everything except the banjo head, the strings, and the tuning machines. One of them, as I recall, had a skin head, which he'd made, not bought.

His first banjo, the 38 Special, he tells me has 750 actual man hours in it, built over a period of eight years. That took longer than his later banjos because not only did he have to "learn the trade" but he actually had to build the jigs and tools for making everything. The name "38 Special" is a reference to the 38--count 'em, thirty-eight!--brackets. Several of his later banjos also had 38 brackets. The 38 Special has all metal parts gold plated (he had them plated by someone else), and believe me, it's a sight to see--AND HEAR! Loud, loud, and beautiful tone!

All of his banjos except the 38 Special are for sale, in the neighorhood of $1875 each, as I recall. 38 Special is emphatically NOT for sale, at any price.

If you ever have a chance to see/hear Don Sarrell play, give yourself a treat and do so.

Dave Oesterreich