Little tenor banjo story

[steve V. johnson]

A while back I posted here about a '30's tenor banjo that I got for a friend and needed some advice on some work on it. #The responses were kind and most informative. # I had the banjo here for some weeks and, of course, couldn't keep from playing with it. #Working out the triplets and rolls common in Irish music is tremendously challenging to me, so I had the banjo in hand quite a bit, tho I didn't make what I'd call real progress on those figures.

There's a fellow who comes to our session with a nice old 17-fret open-back
tenor, an old friend. #We all hit one of those lulls between tunes and several folks went to the counter for refreshments and I asked my pal if I could play his banjo a bit.

I was trying to do some of those rolls and remember a particular tune. #One by one folks came back into the room and three of them, about five of six minutes apart, came in, looked at me with big eyes and each one said, "Hey, you don't play that!" and "You don't play banjo!", essentially -identical- words.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

It was pretty amazing. #They -couldn't- have heard one another.

And, no, I don't really do that, but ... I'm busted, it's true. #The attraction to a tenor for Irish music is potent.

I guess I need to sell some stuff and get one of those little Gold Tones.

stv

[Bruce Evans]

I guess I need to sell some stuff and get one of those little Gold Tones.
I have two Gold Tone banjos - the Plectrum Special and an open back Cripple Creek 5 string. I can recommend them without hesitation. NFI

[fred d]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif Wife and I have 4 white lady open back, tenor with resonator, irish with resonator,and banjo mandolin 850 all came from Janet Davis Music and were well set up.

[Avi Ziv]

I have a GoldTone IT-250 Irish tenor open back. It has a very nice neck and a sweet sound. A lot of fun to play.

Avi

[mikeyes]

Steve,

I agree that an IT-250 is a good banjo to start with and one that you will have a lot of fun with. #With proper setup they can sound great and the setup is not that hard, mostly the usual stuff of tweaking the head and a set of strings. #(I like to change out the tailpiece, but I understand that GT is no longer using the clamshell tailpiece that I dislike.)

They come very playable and the volume is sufficient for sessions. #While there are better banjos, there are probably not that many better values.

Check with banjohangout.org to see if there are any used ones around or put in and ad looking for one.