Andy Chase

Fingerboard
Originally uploaded by Usonian.

Once again I followed Siminoff's technique for attaching the fingerboard, by using two small nails as positioning pins to hold the fingerboard in place during clamping.

I think everything went well... now it's a matter of sanding, then sanding, then sanding some more.

While playing my 5-string banjo last night I noticed that the last inlay marker before the twelfth fret is at the tenth fret, not the ninth as I placed it on my fretboard. A Google Image search confirmed that the 10th fret is the typical place to put it.

It's a good thing I'm not planning on selling this particular instrument when it's finished. It's a detail that will always bug me a little bit, but not quite enough to throw out the fingerboard.

Postscript
While playing guitar tonight I noticed that the marker is indeed on the ninth fret. Interesting. I'll have to cross-reference tenor guitars and mandolins too.

Well, for all of my bluster a week and a half ago, I haven't really gotten on track with my three-finger banjo practice. I've been playing almost every day, but still in a fairly unfocused manner.

Early last month I wrote about feeling musically adrift, not knowing what instrument to concentrate on or what I really want to do with the skills gained by doing so.

Banjo Egg
Originally uploaded by Usonian.

At the time of this writing, I call myself an aspiring luthier in the 'About Me' section at the top of this page.

I began to take a fairly serious interest in building instruments as a hobby in late 2002, a few months after acquiring my first banjo.

Speaking of haunting love songs, The Blackest Crow is just about the prettiest/saddest such tune I've heard in the oldtime/traditional genre. One of these days I'm going to memorize and practice it enough to be able to do it justice. There's a great 3/4 instrumental rendition in Brad Leftwich's Round Peak Style Clawhammer Banjo book, but I think I like Arnie Naiman and Chris Coole's 4/4 version on their Five Strings attached with No Backing album even better (which for me is saying a lot, because I'm not a huge fan of oldtime/bluegrass vocals). You can listen to it at http://www.merriweather.ca/album.aspx?album=9&style=Banjo.

The most effective verses:

The Blackest Crow

The time draws near, my dearest dear
When you and I must part
And no one knows the inner griefs
Of my poor aching heart

I wish my breast was made of glass
Wherein you might behold
Oh, there you'd find your name lies writ
In letters made of gold

The blackest crow that ever flew
Will surely turn to white
If ever I prove false to you
Bright day will turn to night

Bright day will turn to night, my love
The elements will mourn
If ever I prove false to you
The seas will rage and burn

Given enough time, everyday objects accrue value to the point where they must be sealed in a display case, never to be used for their original purpose again; old silver, old china, old furniture... you see them on programs like Antique Road Show, gasp in amazement when their worth is revealed, then gasp in horror when you hear about how they've just been kicking around in the corner of somebody's musty basement for generations.

If you've never thought much about banjo beyond that scene in the beginning of Deliverance, you might be surprised to discover that there's quite an active community of banjo enthusiasts to be found online.

You might also be surprised to discover that there are talented banjo players out there who play music in styles other than Foggy Mountain Breakdown or Dueling Banjos.

I am choosing not to ponder what I have done to deserve such good fortune, but I do have a vague sense that I have burned an unusually large quantity of good karma in a short amount of time, and I feel that I have an obligation to do something with my new instruments other than play them by myself at home. At a minimum, to stop telling friends and family about how I keep meaning to go to a jam session and actually go... But that's a subject for another post entirely.About a year ago I briefly considered buying a mandolin, but eventually decided to pursue Scruggs-style banjo instead. I blame Tony Trischka's Early Years CD for finally pushing me over the edge after a year and a half of contented frailing.

It wasn't long after my initial post about the lessons that frustration set in. While it was true that I had a substantially better banjo than the first one I learned clawhammer on, it just didn't lend itself to the bluegrass style very well; being open-backed and having only a simple rolled-brass tone ring, my Saga SS-10 has a sweet, mellow tone. This is ideal for old-timey music, which relies less on machine-gun picking and more on rhythmic strumming. When trying to practice 3-finger rolls, however, that mellow tone makes it hard to tell whether the mushy sound you're producing is the result of your technique, or just the nature of your banjo. That sharp, ringing tone was absent, and although I got reasonably proficient at basic rolls and tunes it just didn't sound right.

I had been swapping some web consulting time for my lessons and when that dried up I opted not to continue on a paying basis, figuring that I would begin saving my pennies for a "high-end entry-level" (or "low-end professional-level", if you please) instrument, something like a Gold Tone BG-250F or a Fender FB-58 and then pick up where I had left off.

It was around this time that Banjo Hangout began holding raffles for instruments as a way to raise funds for the site. I entered a few of these, a few dollars here and there via PayPal... I figured my odds were substantially better than winning the cash equivalent via scratch ticket, and it's a nice way to support the Banjo Hangout community. I awaited the drawings eagerly, not really expecting to win, but always hoping. In the meantime, I continued to save pennies.

The thing is, the acquisition of any halfway decent banjo requires the saving of quite a few pennies. I put on the fingerpicks every once in a while and had a burst of inspiration after seeing Ross Nickerson's Banjo Road Show in July (incidentally, I highly recommend his Banjo Encyclopedia - a straightforward instructional text that spends plenty of time on the basics before dumping you into into tablature. If you go to his show you may be able to get a spiral-bound copy), but my open-back's mellow tone was really an obstacle for me. By the end of last year I had decided to shoot for a less expensive mandolin instead, reasoning that I already owned three banjos, having been gifted with another SS-10 by Ernest. Then even that plan was somewhat postponed as I finally got my workshop built over Christmas break, and dropped a bunch of money the tools and supplies necessary to undertake the assembly of a ukulele kit, and other long-planned adventures in lutherie.

One day about a month ago I entered another Banjo Hangout raffle, this one for a Gold Star GF-85 banjo. This time it was truly a "what the heck" gesture, I really didn't think about the raffle after buying my tickets; it was around this time that it also finally occurred to me that I didn't really have any use for two SS-10 banjos. With Ernest's blessing, I took one of them down to the Fretted Instrument Workshop in Amherst, and walked out with a shiny new Kentucky KM-150s mandolin, an even trade.

It's nice to get back into flatpicking an instrument, which in many ways feels much more logical than either frailing or 3-finger banjo. I admit to indulging in some sour-grapes thoughts as I practiced various scales and fiddle tunes on my new instrument; "Maybe I'm just better suited to mandolin," and "I really shouldn't be buying instruments costing hundreds of dollars right now anyway - in a couple of years the cost of a decent resonator banjo will be easier to justify," et cetera.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the Banjo Hangout e-mail newsletter this past Monday and read my name as the winner of the GF-85. I had never experienced a "I head to read it three times before it began to sink in" moment before, but this was definitely such a moment. The most exciting thing I had ever won in a raffle up to that point was a copy of Trivial Pursuit, the fancy millenium edition in the metal tin. And this isn't just an adequate resonator banjo, this is probably the last resonator banjo I'll ever need. (notice I said need, not want.)

Amazingly, for an outlay of two dollars (and a favor owed to Ernest) I have acquired an all-solid wood mandolin and a professional-level banjo in the space of about three weeks. I am choosing not to ponder what I have done to deserve such good fortune, but I do have a vague sense that I have burned an unusually large quantity of good karma in a short amount of time, and I feel that I have an obligation to do something with my new instruments other than play them by myself at home. At a minimum, to stop telling friends and family about how I keep meaning to go to a jam session and actually go... But that's a subject for another post entirely.