Re: "banjo-mandolin" and "nice sounding": an oxymoron?
Originally Posted by
allenhopkins
Doesn't contradict my initial premise about "the element of raucousness." Ya wanta take up the banjo, ergo ya accept a modicum of raucousness. That comes with the banjo ... if you didn't want at least some banjo-y raucousness, you'd stick to mandolin and eschew the mandolin-banjo.
Indeed sir, it doesn't. Two sides of the same plugged nickel. I was disagreeing only with the assertion of the main impetus for the bloody thing's invention.
There are softer-sounding banjos, ones made with gourds and such, with nylon strings more similar to the original gut ones. I heard one at the Clearwater Revival Virtual Festival - forgot about them. If one removes the drum head approach and returns to the original design, one can rediscover a more pleasant sounding experience. Replacing the gourd body with a wooden box increased the instrument's volume and thus its popularity, but the drum head innovation produced such a loud instrument it became so popular, most practitioners never looked back. So yes, raucousness seems an essential quality of these instruments. As I said, one can temper the banjolin's sound, not eliminate it. 'Tis the nature of the beast. Has anyone tried nylon strings on a banjolin?
Originally Posted by
chuck3
...[the luthier] gave it a long look and said that, from a luthier's viewpoint, banjolins "combine the worst things about mandolins with the worst things about banjos..."
That seems unduly harsh, if humorous. I wonder what she meant by "worst things about mandolins." I wasn't aware there were any such issues with these delightful, glorious, magnificent music makers. I may be biased ...
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
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