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 ARCHIVED TOPIC: How about YOUR first banjo??


Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/275919

Jim Britton - Posted - 12/14/2013:  16:02:19


I recently went home for Thanksgiving. While I was there I picked up my first banjo and brought it to where I live now in middle Tennessee. It's a Hofner "borrowed" from a neighbor. Been picking on it lately for the first time in over twenty years.



I thought it would be neat to hear stories and even see pics of BHO's members first banjo. Here are a few pics of the Hofner.



-JB












   

JonT - Posted - 12/14/2013:  16:36:10


Mine's an S.S. Stewart Universal Favorite #3 built in the mid 1880s, apparently. I bought it when I was a high schooler, 1959. Have had it ever since. Here's a nice shot of it - it looks almost exactly like the instrument Dave Guard is seen with on the cover of the first Kingston Trio record, which is just one reason I've cherished the thing. I've played it a lot over the years and not long ago, finally reinstalled the velum head that it came to me with. Sounds pretty darned good. A nice old piece.



S.S. Stewart Universal Favorite #3

   

rickhayes - Posted - 12/14/2013:  17:13:19


Still have mine too, an inexpensive aluminum pot banjo my folks gave me for Christmas in my late teens.  Until bought a new RK-OT25 last month, I was still using it for frailing.  You can hear it in the video Double C ~CH Medley on my home page.  Doesn't really sound bad for a cheapie, but the head is cracked as you can see in the pix, the neck is not stable with its aluminum shims, and I never really liked the thin neck (first to fourth string) which makes it hard to play.  I may get a new neck someday and maybe make it a fretless or semi-fretless if I'm up to the task.



 








   

davidppp - Posted - 12/14/2013:  18:16:42


I built my first one from scratch when I was in high school. I'd never actually held a banjo in my hands before and was inspired by the reprint at the back of the Scruggs tab book. I still remember the thrill of hearing it when I first strung it up. That was 1966.






aeroweenie - Posted - 12/14/2013:  18:17:40


My first banjo was a Harmony Resotone - it had a bakelite rim and sounded surprisingly good when set up properly.  I sold it in the 1970s.  I am tempted to buy another one every time I listen to Hunter Robertson playing clawhammer on one.


Paul R - Posted - 12/14/2013:  19:21:15


Hey, Rick Hayes, my first banjo was almost exactly like yours! It was called a "Lero". I bought it in early '73 for about seventy-five dollars. I put it out on the lawn as a freebie when we moved from Toronto to Kingston in '02. I shouldn't have done that. At least, I should have kept the head, on which I'd made an image of a Toronto Island ferry boat, and the words "Mariposa Belle". The Mariposa Folk Festival was held on the Toronto Islands from '67 to '79, and I was on volunteer staff from '71 to '82.



I came close to buying another "Lero" a couple of years ago. It was on sale at the Market Square antique market for twenty bucks. I was on my bicycle at the time and had no way of carrying it, and had spent my only twenty earlier on lunch while on a club ride. Next time I see one, I just might grab it.


steve davis - Posted - 12/14/2013:  20:03:28


I still have my first banjo(in pieces) and I plan on resurrecting it one of these years.
A 1952 Sears and Roebuck ordered out of the catalog.

Very narrow neck and high action,but I learned how to play by ear on that banjo from Dad telling me the chord changes and other stuff.

I learned Grandfather's Clock on it by watching over Mom's shoulder while she played it from a piano book that had banjo chord diagrams over the staffs.

I must have asked her to play that at least 100 times.

waystation - Posted - 12/14/2013:  20:04:31


My first 5-string was a yard sale a 60s vintage Sears Silvertone, actually built by Kay. It was a resonator banjo with all wood parts (no Bakelite). The neck was so square you could almost cut your hand on the back corners. The neck felt like it was only slightly wider than the combined gauge of the strings. The 5th peg was friction and never quite stayed in tune, and the other tuners were side-mounts which I nonetheless spent weeks learning Flint Hill Special on. I put my own 5th string nails in the fingerboard, using HO railroad spikes with heads long enough to give me another way to cut my hand if I wasn't careful. At my first banjo lesson, after trying to learn from the Scruggs book for two months, my teacher tore all the matches out of a matchbook and put the remaining piece of cardboard between the neck and hoop, which brought the action down to a playable level.

That banjo lasted me about six months of intensive beginner practice before I moved up to a converted style 11. I put the brass hoop from the 11 into the Silvertone and I could swear it sounded better.

Wish I had pictures here. I still have the banjo, but it's in a storage room and I can't get at it right now. The matchbook cardboard is still there. One of these days I'll bring it home and see if I haven't become too soft to play it.

banjoman56 - Posted - 12/14/2013:  20:43:24


My first banjo was a Harmony folk banjo. I used a capo at the second fret for open G. That was around 1970. I kept it for a short while and sold it along with A Gretch Chet Adkins Tennessean guitar A twin reverb Fender amp, a Yamaha flattop and a Kay mando. I didn't get back into music till around 1995.

rmr3599@att.net - Posted - 12/14/2013:  21:20:10


My first banjo was a "Blueridge". I think it was an Asian made, not sure but think it was.



It was a starter for me but it just never sounded very good at all. I know now it needed



set up correctly and didn't have a clue back then what it needed. I wish now I had not



sold it but I did and it would have been a good one to experiment with.



  I bought a Deering Sierra and a Goodtime for a travel banjo. I've had the Goodtime



apart and even put a new head on it and learned how to set it up correctly. I now keep



both banjos tweeked and both sound great.


pearcemusic - Posted - 12/14/2013:  21:25:14


Harmony Resotone with no resonator ... $25



p.s. 1971



Edited by - pearcemusic on 12/14/2013 21:25:44

MOUNTAIN GOAT - Posted - 12/14/2013:  23:13:35


My first ( not too long ago ) was a GOLD TONE CC100 R. With some serious set up, updated tuners, custom bridge, and custom nut, it does quite well. I leave it tuned to C to play certain tunes, so I don't have to retune my other banjo.

pastorharry - Posted - 12/14/2013:  23:15:20


 1890's A.A. Farland Grande Concert 5 string bought in 1960 for $28.  Click for Large Version


Bill Rogers - Posted - 12/15/2013:  00:37:40


60s Kay.  Probably cost me 6 months of progress, but it was playable.  I graduated to a Stewart Acme and then an all-Gibson parts Mastertone.


Bill H - Posted - 12/15/2013:  03:30:14


Rick, Paul, I first started playing on a Lero as well. It was borrowed, and when I returned it I purchased an 1895 Haynes Bay State Banjo in 1982. I've since done some restoration, and I play it often.



Edited by - Bill H on 12/15/2013 03:30:52



John C. Haynes Bay State 301

   

DEmery - Posted - 12/15/2013:  03:47:59


A fine aluminum pot wonder with an eagle on the resonator. The banjo was sold under the brand "Bentley" and purchased from the Music Shop on Vine Street, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I didn't keep it very long. That banjo became seed corn for trades. In time somebody said I needed a Gibson; so I spent 50 percent of my savings on an RB-250. After meeting John Balch it was brought to my attention a Gibson had to be pre-war. So off I went to get one. I was always a highly influenced by John's suggestions which has lead to the purchase of many banjos and upgrades over time. David E.  


xnavyguy - Posted - 12/15/2013:  04:06:25


Aria aluminum rim ca. 1970's.  Bought it Thanksgiving 2007 for $80 at a pawn shop, in Houston, from my granddaughter who was the manager.  I turned it into a Helix (tm) cousin.  The only original parts left are the neck & hardware  It's a nice, sweet, lightweight banjo now and it plays & sounds great.




Fir Rim With Large Resonator


Japanese Aria w/ Modified Helix (TM) Pot


Undated Aria Ca. 1975

Texasbanjo - Posted - 12/15/2013:  05:22:41


My first banjo was an entry level Iida - no tone ring, sounded tinny, but I thought it was beautiful and learned on it for about a year.  I then put it up so I could take care of my 3 teenagers (full time job), my husband and my "paying" job.  



Almost 15 years later I got it out again, changed strings, tuned it up and started picking again.  After a year, I got a much better banjo and gave the Iida to my son.  He later hocked it when he needed money, so I don't have my original banjo anymore. 


Hotrodtruck - Posted - 12/15/2013:  07:07:04


Roy Smeck Harmony "Bakelite"  resonator banjo. Still have it and the grandson is learning on it. No pix at this time.



Mike


carlb - Posted - 12/15/2013:  08:19:32


My first banjo was Bruno with a 10.5 inch pot and no tone ring. It a wonderfully rich bass (4 string) but was a little muddy on the higher strings. It's sound became the basis for what I like in a banjo's sound and it remains my back banjo to my Bacon Professional #3 (which also has a rich bass but a clearer treble sound).

Rick W - Posted - 12/15/2013:  08:51:25


1983 I was on an extended engagement with a Country band in Meridian, MS; the hotel walls were closing in on me, I needed a distraction besides bass fishing, so I went to a local music store (originated by Hartley Peavey's grandfather, I think) and bought an Eagle banjo for @ $115 (cardboard case included). It was awful, but enough to infect me with banjoitis. Also got P. Wernick's method book.

It had the skinniest neck you can imagine, and the worst action. Aluminum rim/flange; no tension rod that I remember. I tried to tweak it some with a different bridge, nut, clear head, stick-on pickup. 2005 in State College, PA I gave it to a g.f. to give to a friend's kid who wanted to learn banjo, with a note asking him to get what he could out of it, then give it to someone else who wanted to learn banjo. Today I have a CC100OB and Gold Star GF-85. Maybe that Eagle is still out there infecting others.

arnie fleischer - Posted - 12/15/2013:  10:42:59


My first banjo was an open back Gretsch that I bought in August 1962.  I had already picked up Pete Seeger's book because I wanted to make sure that I would be able to teach myself how to play.  The book said that banjos could be found in pawn shops, so that's where I went, to a pawn shop on the Bowery in Manhattan.  I have no idea how old that banjo was, but it was great to learn on.  A year later I bought a long-neck Vega - not the Pete Seeger model, but the much cheaper SS-5 Folklore - and sold the Gretsch to a friend.  Ten years after that I bought my first resonator banjo, a Baldwin-Ode C that I still have, and sold the Vega.   



Edited by - arnie fleischer on 12/15/2013 10:55:37

Klondike Waldo - Posted - 12/15/2013:  11:19:46


My first banjo was a Clarion tenor, a gift from the banjo player in a trad jazz band I was playing with summers in Hampton, NH.



I lent it to a substitute teacher at the Junior High school I taught in back then, to get him through some gigs he had after his banjo was stolen in a pub on St Patrick's Day. Shortly after that ghe moved to Maine and I never heard from him or the banjo again.



I've taken up tenor banjo a couple of times since, but have decided not to go down that road.



My first 5-string is my Epi  MB200 bottlecap, somewhat hot-rodded, which is still my main banjo.  


BanjoBelle - Posted - 12/15/2013:  11:34:09


I still have mine hanging up in the living room-it's a Peerless,picked it up for $60 in North Hollywood at a thrift store with case. A decent beginners and busking banjo. Photo of it is on my homepage in the photos section-I did replace the tuners at the headstock. The guy I purchased it from replaced the 5th string tuner on the spot when I purchased it. 


mrbook - Posted - 12/15/2013:  14:29:53


My first banjo was a Harmony Roy Smeck "Professional" Model that my parents bought me for Christmas in 1968. Actually came about three months later - banjos were hard to find in local music stores back then. I wanted an open back, but when that one finally came in I didn't want to wait any longer. Great action and sounded pretty good, but too much plastic for me to really feel "professional" while playing it. Played it for 25 years, although rarely in public, before getting a better banjo. I sold it not long after getting another, and while once or twice I've regretted it and thought of replacing it, I always come to my senses and leave the past behind. It got me started, though.

Tonecaster - Posted - 12/15/2013:  17:01:24


I had a Harmony Sovereign banjo for about a week that looked like this one. It wasn't very good and traded it for an Ibanez Artist banjo in 1976. That was a nice banjo.



Edited by - Tonecaster on 12/15/2013 17:04:40

GSCarson - Posted - 12/15/2013:  18:48:59


I made my first banjo, a little fretless based on some of the banjos in the Foxfire 3 book.  Got a cheap bottle cap banjo after that and then made the rest of them from then on.  The first decent one (a fretted openback) had a bunch of Stew Mac parts.  Glenn C



 



Edited by - GSCarson on 12/15/2013 18:49:29



First banjo I made - 1975/76

   

GWRdriver - Posted - 12/16/2013:  08:49:06


My first was a "Pan", made in Japan and imported by someone in Oregon in the early 1970s. It was (and is) almost identical in construction to the GTRs and the Pans appeared and then disappeared from the market in a very short time. I played guitar for years and decided to fulfill a long time desire to learn banjo so I took a guitar (a 1968 Enrique Garcia classical) and traded it and $100 for the best banjo I could get. I ended up with a choice between an Epiphone MB250 (IIRC) and the Pan and the Pan was far an away better sounding of the two. I played it for all that time and for my purposes I never felt the need to upgrade, especially compared to a few of the 1980s RB250s I heard. I finally went to a high end Gold Star and frankly I was disappointed that for the money the Gold Star didn't sound all that much better than the 40 year old Pan.



Edited by - GWRdriver on 12/16/2013 08:50:42



   

warpdrive - Posted - 12/16/2013:  09:15:00


a late 60.s rb 800, then a endless list of all the usual Asian banjos of the 70.s, all of which were better than the rb 800!

JRushing - Posted - 12/16/2013:  16:10:03


My first banjo was a piece of junk Git-Jo. I wanted a 5 string very badly and was pretty much broke at the time. My girlfriend surprised me with a nice little Johnson openback by having me get something from the trunk of the car. I proposed marriage on the spot.



It wasn't an expensive instrument but it really sounded amazing. I used it as the guinea pig for set-up and building and it eventually became a completely different banjo.



As a side note, that girlfriend is now my wife. We had a bluegrass band at our wedding and on our honeymoon she insisted I bring a banjo. She's amazing.



Edited by - JRushing on 12/16/2013 16:10:58

JanetB - Posted - 12/16/2013:  16:52:46


My first one was a lightweight openback with a label "Bashful Brother Oswald," made in Nashville.  My father agreed to pay half of it (total amount was $150), but when he saw I was serious about it he forgave my debt.  I still have it hanging on my wall and coming down often enough.  It has the lowest action I've ever seen.  Here's what it sounds like:




VIDEO: Koromanti, 1687 musical score from Jamaica
(click to view)

   

banjitarhoggy - Posted - 12/17/2013:  02:13:40


  i have a rouge beginner banjo and two banjitars.  1st banjitar is a savannah and the 2d a gretsch dixieland.


dflowers - Posted - 12/17/2013:  04:55:57


I bought a '70's Harmony from a music store in W Covina, Ca.  I tried to play it like a guitar.  It was put away for many years.  I bought the Pete Wernick cd's and learned the basic mechanics of the five string.  I play by ear and still enjoy playing every time I pick it up.


philipE - Posted - 01/30/2014:  22:01:04


Harmony 'HOLIDAY'  .... sold through the Aldens Mail Order Catalog from 1963-65.

Sounds good to me .. i bought it for $100, came with original case.

has a nice mahogany res. that comes off and on with 4 screws -  i think i prefer playing with the open back, it's a little lighter but its the feel, it feels better without that chunk of wood ... i DO like the narrow width at the nut. i have been playing this for almost 3 months now and have fallin' in love with the 5 string banjo .. i have played 6 string guitar, 4 string tenor guitar, 4 string tenor banjo, ukulele, mandolin , , etc ... for over 40 years and in all that time, i never gave the 5 string banjo a thought ..... something happend about 3 months ago .. this one was for sale near me and i thought ,,, why not .. i think my next one will be a long-neck, i like to sing along while pickin'



philip



Edited by - philipE on 01/30/2014 22:05:21

overhere - Posted - 01/31/2014:  02:47:34


I had an open back thing with a star on the peg head. no tone ring but did have a brass hop and 30 brackets. Skin head that I had to heat with a hair dryer to make it tight when I practiced. I learned a lot with that piece of ***t. then one day I was with a real banjo picker and he called it a "canoe paddle".....I went home scrounged up 80 dollars and went to the music store and bought a Kay with a plastic head and a resonator....That was way back in the 50's ( but I did have my Martin 0018 a country musician had given me....I was more into guitar then banjo back then)

dculgan - Posted - 01/31/2014:  05:33:09


This was my first 5 string - purchased with no banjo knowledge from GTR in Nashville in the '70's on a whim. Got a copy of Pete's instruction manual at the same time.




Geo. Washburn

   

mmuussiiccaall - Posted - 01/31/2014:  05:59:31


'75 Alvarez Silver Princess, we sold lots of beautiful Alvarez and Ibanez (and a few Gibsons) in the 70's and 80's in the store I taught in. The princess wouldn't pop corn like my '80 RB-250!



Edited by - mmuussiiccaall on 01/31/2014 06:04:03

Jim Yates - Posted - 01/31/2014:  06:48:54


38 years ago i found out that I was going to be a father and decided that I'd better quit smoking.  I put the cigarette money into a tobacco can each day and soon had enough to buy a banjo.  I went down to Jim's Variety & Music Store and bought a quart of milk and a banjo.  It was a Lero with an aluminum pot and it cost me about $125.  Being a tinkerer, it wasn't long before I decided to start making some modifications.  I started by putting a piece of rosewood over the peg head , cutting it into a fiddle shape and inlaying a piece of pearl. 



A few years later, I bought a cheap wooden pot from Mike Holmes and drilled the holes and installed the old hardware on the banjo. I used a macrame hoop from Lewiscraft for a tone ring.  Since they only came in 12 inch hoops, I got a friend to reduce it to 11' so it would fit.  



At one time I decided to change the MOTS block inlays for real MOP, but when I started sanding the fingerboard, I discovered that it was plywood with a thin rosewood venire and I sanded right through it.  By this time it was not my only banjo, so I bought a rosewood fingerboard blank and made it into a fretless banjo.



Years later, I put frets back on the banjo and did some simple fingerboard inlays.  I my haste to get the job done and being in a guitar frame of mind, I put an inlay at the 9th fret instead of the 10th.  I did put the side dots in the right place. 



B the time my niece, Steph, showed some interest in the banjo, I had replaced the guitar tuners and probably the tailpiece and put a resonator on it.  I gave her the banjo and she still has it.  I borrowed the banjo back from Steph long enough to pull the 9th fret position marker, fill it with rosewood dust /yellow glue mixture and put a dot on the 10th fret.



Steph has made some changes since she got it.  I notice that she now has a geared fifth string peg and a pickup.  We call it the Frankenstein Banjo.  



Edited by - Jim Yates on 01/31/2014 06:59:38



SVYates


Frankenstein Banjo

gDGBD - Posted - 01/31/2014:  11:36:39


Bought my first one in 1961 -- a Harmony that had a plastic rim and resonator (no tone ring) and a hide head.  I think I paid $45 for it.  Played it for about a year before getting a Gibson RB-100, which had a metal hoop in lieu of a tone ring.



Edited by - gDGBD on 01/31/2014 11:37:15

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