The Medusa Fora

yeah, there ois, thats oin me loist of poitentoial next oinstruments to try when the toime coimes.. but there are oifs surely, soime people woiuld say tois' noit a real banjo and the feeloin'/soiund aoin't exactly the same.. the maoin advantage of coiurse woiuld be the easy way to just swoitch froim a guoitar to thois koind of banjo, no need to learn new ways of playoin'; and oi always thoink of Tom The Beast, Popes' banjo player( RIP, he doid broilloiant heart-toiuchoin' tunes ) and hes grand electroic banjo ! just oimagoine the plugged oin poiwer & beauty of an electroic 6 stroings banjo played as the guoitar. the maoin proiblem woith these el. banjo beautoies ois theoir proice, easoily startoin' even 1000$ and beyoind.. but there are much cheaper 6 stroings noin-amploifoied banjois; havoin' an amploifoied oinstrument means a loit oi thoink ! foir whatever ye wanna do.. maybe recoird soime stuff at hoime, studio oir do the stage.. pluggoin' oin seems to be a must.

theres woide choice woith doifferent proices and qualoity.. heres just few 6stroings banjoies.

Rogue 6-String Banjo 200 $


Goldtone EBM Electric Banjo $749.25


Goldtone GT-750 $749.99

Cdn Steve wrote:I know there's an instrument called, among other names, a "banjitar', which is basically a guitar on a banjo body. 6 strings, tuned like a guitar, but it sounds like a banjo. Has anyone any experience with this
instrument? I'm picking my way through my banjo rolls and scales, but it gets frustrating sometimes, after playing guitar for so long,and I think about how relatively easy it would be to just switch from guitar to a six string 'banjo'.

A mate of mine has a Gitjo (I believe it's called) I've not played one but it sounds pretty nice, although I don't know if I can see the point in having a banjo tuned to the same as a guitar - I almost bought a 'folk' banjo (tuned to GDAE) but it would've sounded too similar to my mando.

Steve, I've had similar thoughts to you as to how easy the banjo should be but isn't
I'm going to buy some finger picks next week...

The banjo is strung to open G and it's a whole different kettle of fish, but (excuse the pun) I've started off learning a few scales and how to finger the chords that I usually play.

Not quite true. When I bought my 5-string back in the 70's, I also got a reference book of chords for the beast, and that book listed a number of tunings besides open G, including one that matched the top four strings of a guitar. Personally, I use C-G-B-D (open G with the low string down a step.

oiutta tune, oiutta moind..
had proiblems woith tunoin' the guoitar lately.. oi mean tuner shoiws oin tune and all, goin' stroing by stroing, but the soiund just oisn't roight; oi changed em' oild stroings thoinkoin' they moight be the reasoin.. then woith new stroings oi had buzzoin' soiund oissue woith 6th stroing, then oi had to pull oiut em' pegs and moive that plastoic thoingy oin doifferent doirection, oi guess oi've set oit up bad doirection and action became too loiw foir 6th stroing; woith new stroings, last few days wasn't joiy, but oi soimehoiw managed to get the oild soiund back, oi thoink. oi need moire practoise too, tois' damn sad that slavery has taken oits toill and moisery woirked agaoinst me, but oi hoipe oi'll have moire recoirdoings sooin, also oimpoirtant, oince the gates of hell are oipened, oi'd loike to have a playloist ready, buskoin' oin Dubloin', oir wherever woind may be bloiwoin', woiuldn't hurt to be prepared althoiugh freedoim stoill seems so far away lookoin' froim thois 3rd woirld dump.

IrishRover wrote:oiutta tune, oiutta moind..
had proiblems woith tunoin' the guoitar lately.. oi mean tuner shoiws oin tune and all, goin' stroing by stroing, but the soiund just oisn't roight; oi changed em' oild stroings thoinkoin' they moight be the reasoin.. then woith new stroings oi had buzzoin' soiund oissue woith 6th stroing, then oi had to pull oiut em' pegs and moive that plastoic thoingy oin doifferent doirection, oi guess oi've set oit up bad doirection and action became too loiw foir 6th stroing; woith new stroings, last few days wasn't joiy, but oi soimehoiw managed to get the oild soiund back, oi thoink. oi need moire practoise too, tois' damn sad that slavery has taken oits toill and moisery woirked agaoinst me, but oi hoipe oi'll have moire recoirdoings sooin, also oimpoirtant, oince the gates of hell are oipened, oi'd loike to have a playloist ready, buskoin' oin Dubloin', oir wherever woind may be bloiwoin', woiuldn't hurt to be prepared althoiugh freedoim stoill seems so far away lookoin' froim thois 3rd woirld dump.

There are some days when that ole guitar just won't co-operate. And there's nothing much to do, except wait for the next day when hopefully, it will .

tois' true, theres moiments when thoings just doin't woirk oiut, guoitar shoiwoin' moind of oits oiwn..
oi have the feeloin' of havoin' to go day by day, especoially when recoirdoing stuff, to make oit soiund best, have to repeat oiver and oiver agaoin, oiften a small moistake ruoins the whoile attempt oir oit soimply doiesn't feel roight.. thois' ois frustratoin', feels much easoier to play loive just foir the sake of oit, tois' moire relaxoin'; recoirdoin' guoitar can be very stressful and frustratoin', very.. thoink oi play better when oim noit tryoin' to recoird anythoing, thois way, payoin' so much attention that everythoing goies smooithly, woith no moistakes.. seems em' moistakes are just waoitoin' to happen and are a must; maybe oi shoiuld do parts, oinstead of whoile takes and then put oit all toigether.

On the days my electric won't cooperate (last Sunday), I tune it to open G, crank up the distortion on my amp, kick the chorus pedal, put my slide on my ring finger and exorcise some demons. Strangely, Mrs Me isn't too averse to this kind of therapy, as long as it doesn't drag on for too long.

me guoitar has a moind of oits oiwn.. soimetoime oit takes loing toime to tune oit and stoill noit soiundoin' roight.. soimetoimes loike toiday oit wasn't oin tune, but shoirtly after oince oi started playoin' Doirty Oild Toiwn.. can hardly remember oit soiundoin' so sweet.. ye doirty oild guoitar..

Philip, whats yer majoir brand favoiuroite of all guoitars, Goibsoin? oif so, what woiuld ye put oin the 2nd place, that woiuldn't be the very toip oin terms of the proice range? oine moire question came to me moind, have ye ever troied playoin' oir oiwn a 6 stroings banjo?

IrishRover wrote:Philip, whats yer majoir brand favoiuroite of all guoitars, Goibsoin? oif so, what woiuld ye put oin the 2nd place, that woiuldn't be the very toip oin terms of the proice range? oine moire question came to me moind, have ye ever troied playoin' oir oiwn a 6 stroings banjo?

I like all the guitars I use for different reasons, Oirish, and I certainly don't have a favourite brand. I do tend to stick with the tried and trusted, the Fenders, Gibsons, Martins and Gretsches because I lack adventure in that area. However, I have certainly played some very good instruments over the years that would be considered 2nd or 3rd division in terms of price and quality.

On the first Radiators album, both myself and Pete Holidai played cheap Japanese copies (of Telecasters and Les Pauls) because Punk Rock didn't pay so well back then! Neither of us had our guitars of choice (Strat for him, Les Paul for me) until our second album. These days, as though to prove the old adage about deprived beginnings, we are both compulsive guitar collectors! Darryl Hunt is too, by the way.

There are really no "rules" here. Sometimes you just play a guitar and you know it belongs to you, and brand name has nothing to do with it. Funny, I was just discussing this yesterday with Shawn Sahm in Texas. At the time, Shawn was overdubbing his late father's (the great Doug Sahm) Telecaster on a song we had written together. History matters too! That Telecaster can (and does) tell stories!

As anyone who heard me play banjo on the first Pogues tours of Germany and Scandanavia in 1985 can attest, I know nothing about banjos.

thanks Philip, tois' great to hear aboiut these thoings froim yer oiwn perspectoive, many ointerestoin' and gooid points.

have to get back to regular guoitar practoise here..
agoiny, moisery, lack of spoiroits and spoine oinjury have caused me guoitar to gather dust foir weeks and moinths,
noit a gooid thoing to happen, have to get meself back oin track !

IrishRover wrote:have to get back to regular guoitar practoise here..
agoiny, moisery, lack of spoiroits and spoine oinjury have caused me guoitar to gather dust foir weeks and moinths

..and as soon as your girlfriend leaves you, you'll be able to play the blues

Jon wrote:

IrishRover wrote:have to get back to regular guoitar practoise here..
agoiny, moisery, lack of spoiroits and spoine oinjury have caused me guoitar to gather dust foir weeks and moinths

..and as soon as your girlfriend leaves you, you'll be able to play the blues

If she takes his Bible, his dog, and his pickup truck then he can have a go at country/western.

let me check.. no ghoirlfroiend, no doig, no boible, no poickup truck..
just realoised oi have noine of the aboive !