Noam Pikelny on a tenor...........banjo

[onassis]

I know, I know....it's a tenor banjo, not a tenor guitar. But the performance was too sweet to resist.

[Jim Garber]

Sorry, that’s not a banjo. It’s a National tricone and it looks like a plectrum guitar—longer neck than a tenor—which makes a lot of sense since it would be same scale as a banjo and tuned the same without the fifth string.

[CES]

Agree with Jim. It is, however, a very cool instrument that he gets some amazingly haunting tone from. He’s such a monster of a musician!

[AndyV]

Is that guitar neck as wide as I think? Maybe I've been handling tenors and mandos so much lately.

I did a double take when for a moment I thought it was a 12 string because of the wide (perceived) fretboard.

[Jim Garber]

It is very much like this one, thought the one that Noam is playing is a style 1 tricone plectrum guitar and this is a style 2. Major difference is the engraving. The scale lengths on these are longer than the tenor guitars.



Here is a plectrum next to a tenor. Tenor photo is at a bit of an angle so the fretboard looks wider. But you can see that the tenor is much shorter scale. The plectrum has a 26 7/8” scale. The tenor has a scale length of approximately 22 ¾".



Matthew Woods plays a similar one to Noam's here:

[onassis]

Is that guitar neck as wide as I think? Maybe I've been handling tenors and mandos so much lately.

I did a double take when for a moment I thought it was a 12 string because of the wide (perceived) fretboard.

It definitely looks on the wide side, but that might just be comparing it to the size of her hands. I have no idea what the nut width of those old RK's is.

And good info with the plectrum guitar! I assumed it was a long necked banjo ala Pete Seeger.

[CES]

Regarding the fretboard, I think it’s just the angle and the fact that she’s tiny. Pickles won’t be found shopping in a big and tall section, and she’s smaller than him...

Kind of like when Sierra Hull plays guitar or OM. Makes me a little angry that I can’t get my much larger hands (than hers) to do even a quarter of what she can

Also, that’s a really nice version of that song, thanks for posting!

[AndyV]

It is very much like this one, thought the one that Noam is playing is a style 1 tricone plectrum guitar and this is a style 2. Major difference is the engraving. The scale lengths on these are longer than the tenor guitars.



Here is a plectrum next to a tenor. Tenor photo is at a bit of an angle so the fretboard looks wider. But you can see that the tenor is much shorter scale. The plectrum has a 26 7/8” scale. The tenor has a scale length of approximately 22 ¾".



Matthew Woods plays a similar one to Noam's here:

His expression in the still; does anyone else hear the monsters behind him to the left and right saying "Play tiny human! Play!"?

[MissingString]

The Fretboard Journal piece that accompanied the video (on their website) said Noam accompanied Caitlin’s entire show with only that National tricone plectrum. Pretty amazing. Chris Thile also did a cool Tesessee Watz with Chris Eldridge during a recorded visit to Mandolin Brothers several years back. That’s a Punch Brothers majority!