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View Full Version : The mandolin's distant evil cousin



pklima
Apr-13-2004, 2:08pm
This thing is large... 16" head, 28"+ scale. That's compared to 14" and 24 3/4" (I think) for Gibson's cello banjos.

pklima
Apr-13-2004, 2:14pm
I'll freely admit I bought it because of my irrational fondness for oversized instruments, but it's much more musically useful than I expected. It's not the easiest thing to play and takes pretty long fingers, but the sound is actually pretty musical and mighty loud. The low notes (which I thought might be thin and weak) sound sort of like a Dano baritone guitar, and it doesn't really sound much like a banjo till one gets into the upper register.

dixiecreek
Apr-13-2004, 2:15pm
woah, it looks like my banjo and mandolin had a baby! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Joe F
Apr-13-2004, 2:21pm
I never knew that large banjos were fur-bearing critters.

pklima
Apr-13-2004, 2:22pm
This is a great instrument for being primitive and barbaric. Oddly enough, one song I've found it works on is Richard Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights". It's also wonderful for pounding out blues and ragtime rhythms. But it does more subtle stuff pretty well, too. I wish it had more range (a few more frets and maybe even an extra high string), though.

pklima
Apr-13-2004, 2:26pm
To give y'all a better idea of the size, here it is next to my guitar... granted, it's a small guitar, but still... In spite of its hugeness it weighs considerably less than my Ludwig tenor banjo with its stainless steel rim.

Martin Jonas
Apr-28-2004, 10:51am
This is a great instrument for being primitive and barbaric. #Oddly enough, one song I've found it works on is Richard Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights".
Strangely enough, I have a video of Richard Thompson playing a tenor banjo (not a banjo cello, though). Even stranger, he plays it on one of his least "primitive and barbaric" songs, namely Dimming Of The Day, arranged for tenor banjo (RT), accordion (John Kirkpatrick) and vocal (Linda Thompson) only. A most surreal version.

Martin
(I also have a couple of videos of RT playing mandolin...)

levin4now
Apr-28-2004, 9:15pm
What type of fur is that under the banjello?