Things I Didn't Need To Know: #642

[billroper]

One of the dangers of being a guitarist with a recording studio in the basement is that you're always looking for new and interesting ways to make sounds without having to learn an entirely new instrument. This occasionally leads to severe cases of keyboardist envy, given the ways that modern synthesizers can do a pretty good to excellent job of mimicing other instruments in the hands of the well-trained keyboard player.

In pursuit of this, I acquired my Godin Multiac Jazz and Roland guitar synthesizer, having been alerted to this combination by that amazingly talented victim of GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), min0taur. I haven't yet had a chance to spend a lot of time exploring the beast, because of the birth of Katie and the subsequent death of two of the ligaments in my knee. I did get to spend enough time playing it to determine that the combination was cool and that when I played this guitar -- as opposed to the Les Paul that I'd traded for it -- the notes that came out actually sounded like me, instead of someone who was completely clueless trying to figure out what to do with an electric guitar. ;)

In similar fashion, Barry's experiments with a pieced-together acoustic baritone guitar led me to have Frankenbass, the electric baritone, assembled from a Fender Telecaster body and a fine Warmoth baritone guitar neck. This turned out to be an eminently successful experiment that even made its way onto catalana's recent album.

Yesterday, though, I tripped over a new instrument that I had never seen before. Perhaps Barry has, but -- if not! -- I'm happy to return the favor to him.

Behold! The six-string banjo.

Fitted with a guitar neck, strung like a guitar, tuned like a guitar, played (more or less) like a guitar. Sounds (more or less) like a banjo.

I really didn't need to know this. :)

Comments

[ericcoleman]

My only problem with the 6 string banjo is that you really can't get it to sound exactly like a banjo when finger picking it, cause it doesn't have the high string on top.

I almost bought one though, ended up with a regular 5 string instead.

The strings are the same length

[capplor.livejournal.com]

If you really wanted, you could string it with a thin string in that location, and perhaps tune that one string a whole octave high (a 5th would certainly be achievable). Given that the low & high E's on a guitar are two octaves apart, this could get very interesting.

Alternatively, try to get someone to craft a 6-string banjo with 5 long strings and one short one on a wider than standard neck.

--R

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Susan Urban has one, and she has one or two (I forget which) of the bass strings tuned up an octave, so that what should be the bass note in a normal guitar picking pattern is a high note, and it sounds more like a banjo.

Instruments

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

You are almost certainly acquainted with hsifyppah, right? If not, you may be intrigued by her banjola -- banjo neck on a mandola body. I know her only on line and have not seen the instrument, but I find this every bit as intriguing as the guit-jo. (Note: If I get either of the two country lead guitar gigs I'm auditioning for this Sunday, I will probably buy a conventional 5-string banjo, but I'm also thinking hard and heavy about other possibilities.) Also note: A top West Coast studio guitarist named Tommy Tedesco owns two mandolins, which he uses on recording sessions. He tunes one of them like the top four strings of a guitar, and the other one like the bottom four strings of a guitar. I see that this has distinct possibilities as well.

Nate

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Susan Urban has one--she says it's a "Banjar"

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Then you don't EVEN want to know about this:
http://larkinthemorning.com/product.asp?pn=BAN002&sid=FROOGLE&EID=FRBAN002&bhcd2=1219268308

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

You realize, of course, that I have a banjo ukulele and a Banjimer (banjo dulcimer) for precisely the same reason. Thought the banjimer doesn't really sound like a banjo, but some sort of obscure ethnic instrument from an ethnicity that doesn't really exist.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

And I have a banjolin (yeah, banjo mandolin) and a banjar (banjo guitar) plus the Pandora has a "banjo" setting on it for playing electric guitar and having it sound like a banjo ...

... goes nicely with the electric bouzouki, electro-acoustic bass-zouki, the cittern and the mandola (as well as the various mandolins) ...

... and then there's the upright electric cello/bass (not bowed, just played as an upright fretless bass), the five string fretless bass and the three electric violins ...

... GAS has nothing on IAS!

Baritone guitar

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Just so you know: I have no idea what a baritone guitar is. "Tenor guitar" is one that has only the top four strings; "treble guitar" is a guitar whose 4th, 5th, and 6th strings are tuned up an octave. But "baritone guitar"?? Help! Thanks in advance.

Nate

Re: Baritone guitar

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

So, how does the treble guitar sound? (I have an old tenor guitar that my Dad picked up somewhere.)

Re: Baritone guitar

[billroper]

A baritone guitar has six strings and a longer scale length than a standard guitar. It can either be tuned down a fifth or down a full octave. I keep Frankenbass tuned down a full octave, since that makes my life simple. :)

Here's Wikipedia.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

Barry's definitely heard of 'em - he used a twelve-string banjitar on one of the wild mercy albums. My father-in-law has one of those - boy is it LOUD. And it comes by default with a pickup, I guess in case you're playing next to an active volcano. Although as my brother-in-law pointed out, if you're the kind of guy who would buy a 12-string banjitar, you must like loud music.

Gold Tone, the company that made my banjola, makes a lot of crazy banjo hybrids. My favourite (just for the name) is the combination dobro / banjo - the dojo. :)

[braider.livejournal.com]

Hearing the 6-string banjo the same week as I first heard two 4-string banjos is part of how I wound up wanting to learn to play the banjo. It sounds really, really cool when played properly.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I'm able to get my gitjo to sound pretty close to a 5-string banjo by stringing it for what I hear is called "Nashville High Strung" tuning. You use a set of extra-light 12-string guitar strings, take out the normal set of 6 guitar strings, save those for a guitar, and put the other 6 on the gitjo. The 3rd string is tuned to the same high G of the 5-string banjo and the instrument, when fingerpicked, produces sounds so similar to a 5-string banjo that many banjo players can't tell the difference on a recording.

[gundo.livejournal.com]

Los Lobos has used one for some time, and I really like the banjo setting on my Variax -- that way I get multiple birds with one stone.

I'm interested in how the synth experiments work out...I've got an old Ibanez I don't play that I might install a synth pickup on

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

This is reminding me of a line from Hitchhiker's Guide: "Look like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow."