Perhaps one of those wacky string mutes used on the surf guitars such as the original fender jaguar/jazzmasters. I'm sure you could duplicate one of them quite simply with materials from a cheapo store. Probably would make it a bit more pluncky if that's what you're after...
I'm interested in the responses as well. I have an old Squier "Strat" that is gathering dust in a corner. I've been thinking of converting it with a five string banjo-style neck.
I saw Otis Taylor at a local blues fest, weekend before last. He had, what looked like, at Fender Telecaster body with a Tele neck, configured like a five-string banjo neck (with a fifth-string tuner at the 5th fret). It sounded just like an electric guitar to me. Makes me wonder if it would be worthwhile to convert my old Squier.
Not a cheap solution but a really good one! This is going for $295 on E-Bay (the GR1 above) with the pickup which you will see mounted to my Mandoblaster.
I used this when I played professionally in Ft. Lauderdale 4-5 nights a week. It has a great banjo sound as well as steel drums, mandolin, piano, etc.
Another kewl aspect: you can program presets to tune the strings electronically. The 5 string mando was tuned like a mandolin in 5ths, but I had a preset that retuned it, electronically to a 5 string open G. I also retuned the mando to F and Bb all with the press of a pedal. I have had pro's tell me it sounded more banjo like than a real banjo with a pickup. So you could use it on stage and with the press of the pedal, switch between an electric guitar and 5 string banjo. Since it is a synthesizer, you are listening to the synth, not the strings.The strings just act like switches. Bela Flec uses one.
I have used it for recording and no one knew it wasn't a banjo.
I've played a solid body instrument with a Strat body and banjo neck, bridge and tailpiece. Still sounded like an electric guitar. The only thing I can think of that would change the attack and sustain would be electronic -- a compressor for more "pop". Also an e.q. might change the timbre of the notes to sound more acoustic (lap and pedal steelers sometimes try to fake a Dobro sound with an e.q. set like this: gregcutshaw.com/Dobro%20Simula...0Sim.html. There are relatively cheap pedals that can do both of these things (e.g., Behringer, Joyo), but it's still going to take some money and experimenting.
What about threading some ribbon or yarn through the strings?
I'm interested in the responses as well. I have an old Squier "Strat" that is gathering dust in a corner. I've been thinking of converting it with a five string banjo-style neck.
I saw Otis Taylor at a local blues fest, weekend before last. He had, what looked like, at Fender Telecaster body with a Tele neck, configured like a five-string banjo neck (with a fifth-string tuner at the 5th fret). It sounded just like an electric guitar to me. Makes me wonder if it would be worthwhile to convert my old Squier.
Cheers! Jay
You can easily enough just take a belt sander and re-profile the neck, rather than make a whole new neck.
I did it on an old Harmony acoustic.
Used a disc sander, because I was out of belts, the hd\w store was closed, and it was experimental.
Not a cheap solution but a really good one! This is going for $295 on E-Bay (the GR1 above) with the pickup which you will see mounted to my Mandoblaster.
I used this when I played professionally in Ft. Lauderdale 4-5 nights a week. It has a great banjo sound as well as steel drums, mandolin, piano, etc.
Another kewl aspect: you can program presets to tune the strings electronically. The 5 string mando was tuned like a mandolin in 5ths, but I had a preset that retuned it, electronically to a 5 string open G. I also retuned the mando to F and Bb all with the press of a pedal. I have had pro's tell me it sounded more banjo like than a real banjo with a pickup. So you could use it on stage and with the press of the pedal, switch between an electric guitar and 5 string banjo. Since it is a synthesizer, you are listening to the synth, not the strings.The strings just act like switches. Bela Flec uses one.
I have used it for recording and no one knew it wasn't a banjo.
Cya!
Bob
An electric banjo run through a Roland guitar synth using a banjo patch. I think I just heard angels singing. What an awesome idea. Could you mount the pickup system on a regular banjo like a Goodtime 2 somehow?
Along the lines of the yarn idea: a piece of foam stuffed under the strings at the bridge will transform a steel string banjo into one that sounds like it has nylon strings. I just tried it on an electric guitar, and it does greatly reduce the sustain. A little tweaking with the bass/treble might give it a more banjo-ish sound. Worth a try!
Here's a video of what I'm talking about; skip ahead to the 1:24 mark:
An electric banjo run through a Roland guitar synth using a banjo patch. I think I just heard angels singing. What an awesome idea. Could you mount the pickup system on a regular banjo like a Goodtime 2 somehow?
Absolutely. String height is critical. You can blend a pickup with the synth but not useful for the banjo sounds. I would probably take a piece of plywood and glue it inside the head and then screw the pickup to the plywood to keep string height accurate. A couple of screw holes will not cause the head to split if they are round.You can shim the pickup to get as close as possible to the individual pickups (6). It doesn't matter what you tune the strings to, as you can electronically tune them to what ever. For a while I had the mando strung with 5 unwound e strings which were faster in locking in on triplets and easier to play. I had a preset to tune it to a standard guitar minus the low E.
It's a really kewl device. Around 400 sounds including bass, piano, steel drums, ghosts, marimba, pianos, organs, guitars, harmonicas, pipes...
An electric banjo run through a Roland guitar synth using a banjo patch. I think I just heard angels singing. What an awesome idea. Could you mount the pickup system on a regular banjo like a Goodtime 2 somehow?
A most confusing answer to my question.
The instrument I am trying to modify is not a banjo.
Since I am giving it as a gift, a low price solution is what I'm asking for.
A Roland guitar synth., even used, is usually over $100.
Like I said: I'll try yarn, foam, other crud, and see what, if anything, does the job.
Worst case scenario: I cut a chunk out of the body, stretch a piece of P.E.T.E. plastic over it, tack it down, shrink it with a blow dryer, and set a bridge on it so it's a membrane head.
Then I wire in a super-cheap piezo pickup, so the membrane is where the signal originates.
How about cutting a wooden bridge that sits on the pickup. Use a heavier type bridge, the width of the pick-up and the gap of the strings plus slots.? Who knows it may work. Steve.
Not only is BDCA right about the magnetics, but the bridge is about 3 inches away from the pickup. Putting a bridgeon the pickup would upscrewbulate the fret spacing.
Unless you meant MOVE a pickup to where the bridge shoud be.
Did you have to relocate the electronic components?
Looks like a Remo practice pad. I seem to recall reading, years ago, that OME or ODE or some short name like that was using those for their early version of the electric banjo.
I'm just cobbling this together for a kid, so cheap and easy is what I'm looking for.
(And don't you guys suggest any of your favorite online dating sites for cheap and easy! I was on one of them, briefly, and the computer was giving me "matches" with women younger than my oldest grandchild, and thousands of miles away!!)
Mike - that's pretty decent sound! I love how you always find a way to get the job done. Even through the pickup, there's a bit of pop from the head -- some e.q. at the amp (or a cheap e.q. pedal) may give it more of a banjo tone.
Guitar pickup wire runs into the left, microphone wire runs into the right, and, depending on which way the switch is flipped, the electrociddity runs out the middle and down to the volume control, and then to the amp.
Very clever project, Mike. I like the whole thing a lot. I'm glad you found some time to wrap it up ahead of schedule.
I assume there's more of a difference in sound between the mic and pickup than I could hear on the video. Any chance you could make a slightly cleaner recording from the amp without the video mic picking up so much of the acoustic sound from the room?
Enjoyed that, Mike! I, too, couldn't distinguish a big difference between the mic and the pickup, but both sounded, well, like a banjo! Which actually surprised me, since I would've expected the pickup to sound more like an electric guitar. Anyway, nice job! I gotta try a plastic bottle head sometime soon!
Or pointing the recording mic right at the amp, maybe. I hope it's not too much trouble, but I would enjoy hearing more.
I
It took me a while to get something cobbled together, but, the banjo into a small Marshall amp, the Line Out into a 9volt Radio shack mixer, and the mixer into my computer mic jack.
A vocal mic for the spoken intro, and then I shut it off, so ALL you hear is the banjo.
First time through is the pickup, 2nd is the mic, and at the very end, I just hit a chord and wiggled the switch back & forth.
Hope it's loud enough for you to discern the difference, if any.
Good cobbling and thanks for doing it. I can hear the difference now! I hear a richer tone on the mic, but the owner can crank the pickup as loud as he wants!
Mike -- Not being an electronics genius, nevertheless having wired numerous electric guitars with pickups, I'm curious about the microphone: That's an actual microphone element, not the "piezo" you were talking about earlier, right? How'd you wire it, exactly (if it's not too complicated to explain)? Just to the jack via the switch? No extra stuff like a preamp?
Thanks for the die-O-gram! Now just to make it clear in my muddled brain: The big circle is the mic, the little circle is the jack, and the two thingies in the middle of the red wire are, what, volume & tone pots?
Thanks for the die-O-gram! Now just to make it clear in my muddled brain: The big circle is the mic, the little circle is the jack, and the two thingies in the middle of the red wire are, what, volume & tone pots?
You should be BEATEN for your insolence!
The big circle is the banjo head.
The little yellow thing in the side of it, represents the microphone element.
Look at the earlier photos.
You somehow hit the jackpot on the jack and pots, which seems oddly appropriate.
A dumb bell is a bell which does not ring, makes no sound.
So, if you do not speak up with questions, you are as a soundless bell: Dumb!
That is why, by the strictest definition of the term, there are no dumb questions.
I learned the art of cobbling banjos out of [EXPLETIVE DELETED ] by asking a lot of questions, and by making some gigantic mistakes while proceeding without asking questions first.
Anybody can ask me any questions they want.
I'll either give an answer, or make something up and pretend it's an answer.
Totally agree. I'm not afraid to ask anything about anything. Although I did once ask a woman if she was pregnant, to which the answer was "no". In hindsight, that turned out to be a pretty dumb question.
The amped sound clip really does sound better than many of the pick up solutions currently available for banjos [i'm thinking of those bridge and intergrated pickup systems like the 'shadow' for instance].
Totally agree. I'm not afraid to ask anything about anything. Although I did once ask a woman if she was pregnant, to which the answer was "no". In hindsight, that turned out to be a pretty dumb question.
I disagree to a degree. There must have been something about the woman that lead you to ask if she was pregnant and if that's the case, the question itself wasn't stupid. Now asking the question,,,, let's just say ill advised.......... :)
Does any one know a simple way to produce a banjo sound from a solid body electric? I want to make a solid body for practice; something that's not easily heard by others, but that I can listen to with earphones. It doesn't have to sound like a banjo, but it would be nice. I'd like to be able to incorporate the synth and small earphone amp into the instrument rather than have a separate device like the Roland.
Well, whatever is causing it, that "pop" helps with the banjoistical sound.
'Good Wednesday Morning' 3 hrs
'Gibson Tuning Pegs' 14 hrs
