Banjo Acquisition Disorder

Subject: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charmion
Date: 27 May 06 - 05:49 PM

Last October, I purchased an elderly Slingerland 17-fret open-back tenor banjo from Bruce Gewirtz at the Getaway. He charged me US$125 for it, and threw in a spare set of strings. Off to the Ottawa Folklore Centre it went for a course of rehabilitation, and came home two weeks later with a new bridge, some new sidehooks, lighter strings, and four new tuners -- which alone cost more than the banjo. So I had a playable tenor banjo for something like Cdn$350.

Fast forward to May 2006. Although it lacks a case and an armrest (ouch!), the little Slingerland banjo is now a settled member of the Thomas household, along with a mandolin, an octave mando, two guitars and a bodhran (and two humans and three cats). Edmund and I go to the Indian Neck Folk Festival, where a handsome open-back five-string banjo (previously the property of the much-missed Lucy Simpson) is the centrepiece of the silent auction. Somebody bids the reserve, and for several hours I gaze at it and listen to other people play it. Indian Neck is full of banjos -- I've simply never seen so many in one place before in my life. If all these people can learn to play clawhammer style, surely so can I? So I finally make a bid, which adds a five-string banjo to the Thomas household.

Ten days later, I take the little Slingerland to my mandolin lesson at the Folklore Centre, partly to play it in a duet with my teacher but also to see if I can find an armrest to fit it. While I'm rummaging around in a cardboard box of banjo parts, somebody brings out a handsome 19-fret Stathopoulo "Super Wonder" resonator tenor, previously the property of Terry Tufts. "It just came in," the young fella says, and puts it in my hand. So, like you do, I sat down and started playing it. A set of jigs; a reel or two. Oooh, nice action; beautiful sound! Another reel. How much? $500 -- What? Only five hundred dollars? And it comes with a hard-shell case ... Sold.

Somehow, in only seven months, I have gone from no banjos at all to three, each a different type. I'm making irritating noises trying to learn clawhammer from a book, and late for work three times this week because I was playing the banjo after breakfast instead of tidying up the kitchen.

My husband is very understanding, but I can see he won't be happy if I bring any more banjos into the house -- not even a backpacker model. How did this happen to a mild-mannered mandolin player? Tell me, fellow Catters, is there hope?

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 06 - 05:52 PM

Are you trying to say this is a B.A.D. thing?

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:02 PM

There is a school of thought that says that 1 banjo is one too many.
CET might mean Could Easily Turn nasty.
Beware!
Giok

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:11 PM

There is no hope. Between my lodger and me my dining room (with some overspill) is now occupied by: -

3 electric guitars (1 quite collectable Futurama 3, an Encore cheap heavy metal guitar with quite a nice non-standard bridge position EMG humbucker that I did the split wiring on, and a really cheap and nasty korean strat copy the lodger borrowed and then wasted money having set up)

A dirty great 200 watt Marshall (2x12 cab with Eminence Private Jacks in I built) and a little Fender and a Marshall belt clip amp to play them through,

3 bass guitars (A Futurama 1 so modified it is almost unrecognisable with a Badass bridge, a silly 3/4 size I borrowed, and a long-scale Rockwood in need of complete restoration)

an old 100 watt valve head to use as a bass amp + a 1*15 Eminence Kilomax cab I built

4 12-strings (Hagstrom BJ12E with B-band added, Yamaha with B-band added, very old Framus, and a project with no name that needs a bridge doctor)

8 6-strings (lodger's Gibson J-45 and Yamaha camping guitar, my Martin OM1 with B-bands added, my three (yes three) Hagstrom J-45s one with I-beam, 1 with B-bands, and 1 with stick-on, my Mugen THE'78, and the Morris camping guitar)

3 mandolins (2 bowl backs, one very old, plus a Kentucky flatiron)

1 banjo-mandolin (ear damage in a small room)

Plus the Yamaha EMX 300 PA to plug them into - again with cabs I built.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Amos
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:13 PM

Charmion,

I think I can help -- send me the five string. I will learn to play it clawhammer or bluegrass or any other style you name.

Then your husband will be happy and tell you what a smart manager you are!!

A

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:21 PM

Just dont start looking at old Seven strings Charmion !! Thats when you know tou really DO have a problem !!

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:42 PM

The Start of It All

(It looks like Giok has an opinion!)

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:44 PM

It can't be as bad as G.A.S.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:48 PM

That's pretty P.A.A.S.(e)...

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:50 PM

Unless you are struck down by W.A.D.S.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 06 - 06:51 PM

And then there's S.C.A.D.S

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 May 06 - 09:41 PM

Damn, Charmion. If only you were male, employed and single I could offer a solution.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 May 06 - 09:38 AM

I have a solution! I have a really sharp S.S. Stewart Special Thoroughbred 5-string from 1896 for sale. If you bought it, you would certainly no longer be worried about owning three banjos.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who has one too many Stewarts

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: beardedbruce
Date: 28 May 06 - 01:25 PM

Banjos are basically social instruments- they prefer to group together, but are not species-specific. Banjo-ukes, banjo-mandalins, tenors, 5 string... They all get along. No prejudice wether they have resonators or not.

Seems like we could ALL take a lesson from them.




Charley, Bringing it to the Getaway? What are you asking for it?

How can one have "too many " banjos ( of any kind)?


(Looking for a Vega Whyte Lady Tenor....)

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: GUEST,Mary V.
Date: 28 May 06 - 02:02 PM

Hi Charmion ,
Oh what a fabulous problem to have !
I love instruments as well, and very thankful for my husband
also, who excepts each of the additions to our family !
I LOVE TO PLAY , and its fun hearing there are so many others
with the same LOVE ! Happy Memorial Day 2006 !

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 May 06 - 02:24 PM

B. A. D. Significant that!
G.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Leadfingers
Date: 28 May 06 - 05:02 PM

Having too many banjos is when the next one you get means something will have to go into the garden because you've run out of floor ans wall space !!

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: GUEST,Charmion
Date: 29 May 06 - 07:39 AM

Right now they're all in a group in the corner of the living room, like a Victorian family portrait. I guess the guitars are Mum and Dad, and the banjos are the drinkin' uncles ...

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: pavane
Date: 29 May 06 - 11:28 AM

You could swap one for an accordeon (Accordeons burn longer...)

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 06 - 03:45 PM

The accordion is out for me -- I like to peer over the top of an instrument to keep track of what my fingers are up to.

Leadfingers, your analysis makes me feel so much better. Our house has three bedrooms and a basement, so when space runs tight, we can sleep in the basement!

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 May 06 - 07:22 PM

"accordion is out for me -- I like to peer over the top of an instrument"

You can get smaller ones - apart from the number of basses being reduced from the 'standard' 120 ('burlequese' style performers often used 48 bass sized ones [4x12]), there were also instruments made in reduced sizes 'minatures', often with full 120 basses, designed for smaller persons, some especially for ladies, and some for 12 year old children.

Can be hard to find, as relatively few were made in comparison with 'full size' models, but I have one - always looking for more.

I think I have M.P.A.A.S. (Minature Piano Accordion Acqusiition Syndrome)...

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 30 May 06 - 07:50 AM

Charmion, sounds like you need a support group!

(Then again, Mudcat is a support group.)

Linn

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 May 06 - 08:16 AM

Enablers unite! We have nothing to lose but our sanity!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charmion
Date: 30 May 06 - 10:37 AM

Yeah, you guys are a support group like the AA bunch that goes out to the pub after their meeting.

SINSULL, I'll have you know I do so have a job; I have to support my habit somehow.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Ernest
Date: 30 May 06 - 01:53 PM

It only becomes a problem when you start dealing drugs to finance more banjos ;0)

Sincerely, I would like those banjos as well...

Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 31 May 06 - 09:33 AM

Charmion-
There are other banjo worlds to be conquered by. My latest, f'rinstance, is an 1870 fretless Dobson, while before that I picked up a chap SAGA banjeaurine (short neck) for travel purposes. And I have a Weymann 6-string in need of both refurbishing and a new home--I find that I dislike 6-strings, even if Sam McGee did brilliant things on one of them.

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: Charmion
Date: 31 May 06 - 09:46 AM

I've got my work cut out for me learning to manage the five-string; a six-string is out of the question. This year. What does your Weyman need doing to it?

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: beardedbruce
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:44 AM

Dick,

Bring it to the Getaway- I am sure you won't have to take it home...

Subject: RE: Banjo Acquisition Disorder
From: beardedbruce
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:57 AM

And then, my father has a plectrum 4 string....


How much was that Weymann?