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Post new topic Pseudo High Strung 6 String Banjo
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Author Topic:  Pseudo High Strung 6 String Banjo
Paul Sutherland

 

From:
Placerville, California
Post  Posted 21 Feb 2014 11:16 am    
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Recently I was given a Dean 6 string banjo by one of the rock guitar players in a band I work with. I suspect he didn't want to soil his rock image. I was asked to play it on some of the modern country tunes we do. Since pedal steel and dobro just don't sound right on much of that music, and it was free, I gave it a whirl. I've never had aspirations of becoming a real banjo player, but I do want to work, and being useful is important.

The 6 string banjo format certainly has it's limits, and the 5th and 6th strings are pretty worthless; too low in pitch to get a decent tone or intonate correctly. I tried taking those strings off entirely and putting on a high G fifth string. I retuned the first string to D and effectively had a true 5 string banjo tuning to experiment with. It sort of worked, but it left me wanting to buy a real 5 string, which was never my purpose, and I don't have the money.

Then I read on-line about putting light gauge strings on the 5th and 6th positions and tuning those strings to the normal A and E respectively, except tune them two octaves higher. Now the 1st and 6th strings are unisons, and the 5th string is a whole step lower than the 2nd string. Normal guitar chord fingering applies, the intonation is much better, and the whole thing sounds a lot more like a 5 string banjo when fingerpicking; certainly good enough for the drunken fools that inhabit the denizens where I usually play.

Just an idea for you guys with modest guitar playing skills who are trying to be utility players.
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Bill L. Wilson


From:
Oklahoma, USA
Post  Posted 21 Feb 2014 12:08 pm     The Guitanjo.
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I bought a 6string banjo a few months back, and put a Hi-Strung set on it. It really does help it have a more natural banjo tone. Works well for recording too.
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Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 25 Feb 2014 3:29 pm    
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Some people do that very same thing on a regular guitar. When you combine rhythms of a high-strung guitar and a regular one they give a good balance of tone.

By the way, I have 5, 6, 7 and 12-string banjos. The 12-string banjo, having octave strings on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th courses, overcomes the bass by having all those additional treble strings. My 7-string banjo is tuned like a guitar but the 7th string is a short, high drone as in the 5-string banjo. I can do things with it that you can't do on a 5-string banjo or a 6-string banjo, and I've thought of building a guitar with a 7th string as a drone.
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Paul Sutherland

 

From:
Placerville, California
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2014 5:15 pm    
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I played a bar gig last night with the Dean pseudo-banjo. Had a Schatten pickup on the head running into a Fishman Loudbox and then out to the house. Also had an SM57 on a short mic stand also going into the house.

That piece of crap Dean sounded great to both me and the audience. No one said why aren't you playing a real banjo. Every comment I received was along the lines of how much they liked the banjo.

It worked for the crowd that listens to modern country. I'm not sure I'd want to try this for other audiences.
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Pete Burak

 

From:
Portland, OR USA
Post  Posted 1 Mar 2014 10:03 am    
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I have a Dean 6 string and run a 6 string bluegrass tuning on it.
Strings 4-1 are the same a 5 string banjo.
String 5 is a high-E .010 string. It makes for a great experimental passing note in rolls, solo's, etc. I might try a low A-string sometime.
String 6 is also a .010 capo'd to be a high-G at fret 5 using a capo product called "The Suspender", which works great, and can easily be moved to other frets as needed.
String 6 is like the high-G string on a 5-string bluegrass banjo.
So it's a 5 string banjo with an extra experimental string in the string-5 position.

Link to Suspender:
http://www.jdmc.com/product/2-SUS.html


Alan, Can you post pics of your 6 and 7 string Banjos?
I would actually love a 7 string with a high(short) G-string.

I think the secret to classic Banjo tone is the 26.5" scale. I think the Dean sounds a little different because it is 25" scale. I don't think the casual listener would notice, but I've been threatened within an inch of my life for bringing the Dean 6 string to a bluegrass jam. Rolling Eyes Embarassed Laughing Whoa! Shocked

There is a guy up here named larry Wilder who had a 7-String Bluegrass Banjo made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKW3Pq9nrdY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUlu2ZzTqGsKLW7X4tTlBw5w
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Paul Sutherland

 

From:
Placerville, California
Post  Posted 1 Mar 2014 11:25 am    
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Pete: The Suspender looks interesting. Did you have to modify it to fit the 6 string neck? Looks like it's made for a 5 string neck.
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Pete Burak

 

From:
Portland, OR USA
Post  Posted 1 Mar 2014 11:33 am    
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No, it is very stretchy.
You could bend the metal part to better fit your neck angle if needed.
You could hold it in place better with some double sided tape or similar sticky stuff (I like a product called Lok-Tite Fun-Tak). Sometimes my hand hits it and it goes flying off.
I have used it on 6 string acoustic and even 7-string electric guitars while experimenting with tunings.
Reasonably priced and totally worth the money.

I saw another local player had made one at home with a piece of elastic and a couple small bent paper-clips with a piece of shrink wrap over the clip.
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