Sunday, April 4, 2010

Banjo Review


First we have a Black Walnut Fretless made by R. K. Smith. These "Frank Proffitt" style banjos are offered on eBay and the seller is banjothunder. This banjo has a nice plunky sound for Old Time tunes. The workmanship is excellent. Strings are nylGut.

Next is a Chuck Lee Badger 6 String Banjo. This banjo-guitar or Guit-Jo is also constructed of Walnut with a 12 inch rim and integral tone ring. The peghead inlay of a Wizard with Staff is beautiful, there is backstrapping and the heel type is Dobson. Sounds great when finger picking ragtime guitar tunes. Chuck is truly an fine artist. Steel strings.

Finally we have a Prust Banjos Boucher 19th Century Replica Tensioning (Special Order). This Minstrel Banjo with highly figured maple has a 12 inch rim with oval holes for the brackets. It's nice to not have to flatten the bridge when you finish playing which is the case for tack-head banjos. The flush frets are helpful with intonation. NylGut strings. Great sounding banjo for Minstrel Tunes.