JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques General Technical Forum So I electrified the banjo--now what?

Not sure Derek, but I think they now call him Uncle Dad.

Tom, that is absolutely beautiful. Nice job!

I thought that the "Dueling Banjos" soundrack was played by Eric Weissberg. I may be wrong.

This was written and recorded in 1955 as "Feuding Banjos" by Country star Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. When the song became a hit, he had to file a lawsuit to get credit for writing it.

The Dillards popularized this in the mid '60s on the folk circuit. It was their version that author James Dickey heard and thought would fit nicely in the film version of his novel Deliverance.

This plays a prominent role in the movie Deliverance. The version used in the film was written and recorded by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell. It was used in the pivotal square-off scene between the guitar-playing city boy and the banjo-playing country boy.

Largely as a result of its use in the movie, this in often associated with country bumpkins. The first few notes are often used to imply a hillbilly mentality.

This was used in a TV commercial for Toyota.

Hey Tom
Q Why do banjo players have their name on their banjos.
A So that somebody can say to them "That is YOUR banjo"

Big Jim, I'll remember that. Means I can tell somebody, "No--not my banjo. See? It belongs to somebody named 'Global'."

Joe

Joe piece of banjo trivia. All good banjo skins are made from prime rump cowhide cause all good banjos sound like a cows ass.

Ooo, that's kind of a scary thought. My banjo was made in Korea. I have no idea which end of Korea, and therefore do not know what kind of (or whose) hide the head was made out of.

Joe

Hey Joe

I'm working under the theory that it's from the face of a deposed leader of North korea... but I can't be certain
Derek

Derek, I would have assumed it was made out of a butt. Face has too many openings.

Joe

Yep them Koreans have enough "cheek" each to make two banjo skins. But warning do not buy a Korean mouth organ.

Made from genuine Korean mouths, are they? Are they pre-tuned to that weird 5-tone Oriental scale, too?

Joe

Jim '

leave the gags to the pro's you aint funny.
On second thoughts You cant sing as well, so keep on the gags

Hey Split long time no hear. Wrote any good football songs lateley.

Reviving an older post - just heard this one from a coworker:
Q Why was the banjo player staring at the can of frozen orange juice?
A Because it said "concentrate" on the label.

Would that be what we call Soccer?

OK, I'll throw one in..

Q) What's the difference between a banjo player and a large cheese pizza?

A) The pizza will feed a family of four...

Unc

I know this is an old post, but I'd just like to say that if you're playing a five-string banjo with a pick, it doesn't matter what you run it through.

Go to a Bella Fleck concert. He'll take your breath away.

And...
How many lead guitar players does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just one. He holds the bulb and the world revolves around him.



A man fell off a cruise ship and washed ashore on a tropical island. He awoke to a crowd of friendly natives surrounding him who, for puposes of the joke, spoke perfect English.

He told them how grateful he was, and as they took him to see the chief, he noticed drums playing from the jungle.

"What are the drums for?" he asked. The natives stopped cold, and one somberly told him, "We don't talk about he drums. When the drums stop, the bad thing happens." And none of the natives would say another word.

So when he got to the chief's hut, he asked him the same thing. The chief, until them a cheerful and jolly sort, looked at him shocked. "Never say anything about the drums," he whispered. "When the drums stop, the bad thing happens." And he wouldn't say another word.

The man's time on the island was peaceful enough, but he found himself getting more and more obsessed with the drums. He would lie awake at night, listening for the drums to stop, scared to death of what the bad thing might be.
Eventually, nothing else mattered to him. Morning, noon and night. He couldn't eat or sleep, or even think, from the constant terror of not knowing what bad thing would happen if the drum stopped. Had they stopped before? They must have, if the natives know about the bad thing. What would he do if they stopped now? How could he protect himself if he didn't know what might happen?

Finally one twilight, he could take it no longer. He crawled into the chief's hut, and on his hands and knees he sobbed, "Please, please tell me what what happens when the drums stop. What's the bad thing?"
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"Bass solo."

Go ahead and give some pedals a shot. Who knows what might work.
Willie P. Bennet, who played with Fred Eaglesmith used a distortion pedal and delay on his mandolin with excellent results.

Here's a YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZnHutnY5a8&feature=related

I SAW bela Fleck and the Flecktones YEARS ago.. they were amazing.. they did Th e "YOUR A MEAN ONE MR GRINCH" from the Dr Suess show..... LIVE!!!! crazy original music too



and the guitar player light bulb joke made me laugh out loud!!!


not LOL but actually Laugh out Loud!

Hi Joe,

I electrified my banjo a few years ago and run it through a basic Zoom A2 (Acoustic) effects pedal followed by a Boss sustain pedal. This gives me options for chorus effects etc and another option to boost and drag out the sustain. It's really difficult to get a banjo to sound like anything but a banjo, however, the set-up mentioned above gives some subtle variations on the familiar banjo noise we all love / hate (delete where applicable). Adding a mute, messing about with the D-tuners etc gives another different approach when played through the above bits of kit.

Now I'm not too up on the death metal scene these days but I reckon if it's not subtle you're looking for, then you could try out any of your buddies' 'electric' guitar effects pedals and they would do the job. Then, just don't give it back. You're throwing money away buying anything other than a basic pedal (used is ideal) for death metal banjo. Even a basic pedal will give you wah wah, tremelo, dobro simulator (the slide works great on G tuned banjo) and last but not least 'reverse delay banjo' which, I have to admit, sounds absolutely horrendous.

The best option for a genuine 'proper' electric banjo sound is splashing out on a Deering or Nechville, which are a bit pricey.

Hope this helps

Good luck

Graham

Thanks, Graham. "Death metal banjo" has a real nice ring to it. My banjo is a cheapie, not a Gibson or Deering, et al.--it's called a "Global" and was made in Korea. Cost $150 a dozen or so years ago--which is why I didn't care if the luthier had to cut into the body to install the pickup (turned out he didn't). It is, near as I can tell, built proper, and sounds about as good as one can expect a banjo to sound.

I was playing around with the effects settings on the li'l Tascam that I do all my home recording on, and found one that did give the banjo the right touch--distorted but still definitely banjo. The Tascam called it "Electric Guitar/Surf."

Oh, and I don't play the thing like a banjo--never learned. When the guitar had to go into the hospital for two weeks a number of years ago, and I had gigs, I discovered if I just tuned the High D string up to an E (and got rid of the Idiot G), I had the top 4 strings of the guitar. I've kept it that way ever since. So I can play electric guitar leads on the banjo. I do that every now and then for shock value.

Joe

Hey, Tom, That looks awesome.

I would think, as you probably have ruined the sound anyway :-), that you'd might try a cheap Zoom multieffects pedal.

No way to tell what sounds good on an electric banjo, so the multieffect stuff gives you good options to dial in something that might work.

Your story doesn't say how you are recording.. but if you are recording on a computer, get a multieffects suite like Line6, Guitar Rig, Amplitude or something similar. That way you won't have to invest in something just to play electrified banjo, but can use it for different stuff..

You can actually download Waves Solo for free, to try out just for the recording: http://www.wavesgtr.com/html/product_gtr_solo.html

It should be of sufficient quality for this particular project.