6-String Banjo (no guitars involved)
I’ve read about 6 and 7 string banjos over the years (that is, banjos with 5 or 6 long strings and a short drone sting – not guitar-banjos/guitjos/banjitars etc.) and thought it would be good to have the extra range to be able to play the high part of a tune an octave down, or to give the effect of Tommy Jarrell’s ‘John Brown’s Dream’ tuning (with the low D tuned down to G). Well, after finally hearing a 6-string played, by Chuck Levy courtesy of the internet, I decided to get one. A little hunting and I got a 7-string beauty made by J. Viner, I’d guess from the 1880s or 1890s, which needed a little work. It was missing a tailpiece and bridge so I made those. Someone had glued a piece of an old bone domino in place of the nut but had never cut it down or notched it, so I worked it into something useful (and a good story!). I have it set up as a 6-string, you’d need pencil size fingers to play it as a 7, the strings would be so tightly spaced. The action is horrible but I’d have to recut the heel to fix it and I don’t feel like doing that yet. Here are some pictures, and below that a video of ‘Tater Patch’ on it, going down into the lower octave.
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
7-String Banjo by J. Viner
Here’s the video of ‘Tater Patch’ in the equivalent of gGDGBD (actually tuned down to around E with minstrel gauge Nylgut strings plus a classical guitar low E). The danger with it is I get so used to the spacing that going back to a normal 5-string discombobulates my hand! I end up drop-thumbing to the 1st string instead of the 2nd that I’m aiming for…
