Posts Tagged ‘bluegrass’
Banjo Tunings
There are lots of banjo-player jokes. One goes “You can drop a shoe on the banjo and make music,” due to the “open G” tuning that is standard among bluegrass banjoists. Unlike a guitar or mandolin, which must be fretted to make a proper chord, merely strumming the open strings of a banjo (or dropping a shoe on it) will produce a G major chord. This tuning of D-B-G-D-g (from first to fifth string) provides two G notes an octave apart, two D notes an octave apart, and one B note, thus filling in the three notes of a G major triad. While the vast majority of bluegrass banjo work is performed with this tuning, alternate tunings are sometimes employed. The “drop C” tuning of D-B-G-C-g was considered the standard tuning in the classical banjo era around 1900 and is sometimes used by bluegrass players to provide a low root note when playing in the C position. Bluegrass banjo standards traditionally performed in C tuning include Home Sweet Home and Farewell Blues as recorded by Earl Scruggs.
The next most-common tuning for bluegrass banjo is open D, either D-A-F#-D-F# or D-A-F#-D-a (the fifth string can either be tuned down one fret from G to provide the third note of the D major triad, or tuned up two frets to provide the fifth note). Reuben and John Henry are traditionally played in this tuning, and Ron Block has used it to great advantage in his work with Alison Krauss and Union Station. Rare alternate tunings include G minor (D-Bb-G-D-g) as used by Ben Eldridge in his original instrumental Appalachian Rain recorded with The Seldom Scene, and D minor (aDFAD) as featured by Earl Scruggs in Nashville Blues.
The world of old-time clawhammer banjo makes use of a much greater variety of tunings including “double C” (D-C-D-Cg) and open C (E-C-D-C-g), to name just two. . . but that’s a subject for another post!
Gibson’s now-legendary Mastertone banjo line was introduced in 1925 and quickly became an industry standard, but by the late 1930s the banjo had fallen in popularity. Anxious to kick-start flagging sales, Gibson announced a new product that fixed an old problem. The new “top-tension” Mastertone design, introduced in 1937, was intended to make life easier for banjoists contending with the fickle calfskin heads. Calfskin heads were the standard before World War II (Remo Belli would later develop mylar heads) and calfskin needed frequent attention. Changes in the climate, especially in levels of humidity, dramatically changed the tension on a calfskin head and changed the banjo sound. Retensioning the calfskin head was common, and by moving the tension hook adjustment to the front (or top) without removing the resonator, Gibson made the tensioning process much easier.
While they were at it, Gibson introduced other changes such as carved solid-wood resonators, radiused fingerboards, and bold Art Deco cosmetics. Most important to modern players, flathead tone rings were also standard on the top-tension models. The three new top-tension Mastertone styles 7, 12, and 18 were, according to company literature, the “alarm clock” that was going to “wake up new possibilities in banjo playing”. The banjo’s time as America’s favorite fretted instrument had passed, however, and the top-tension line faded away when Gibson suspended banjo production during World War II.
The top-tension banjo had no real champions among the first generation of bluegrass banjo players (although Don Reno did occasionally use a style 18), but as the decades passed, Gibson’s prediction of top-tension-fueled banjo innovation seemed accurate, though delayed. A young Bill Keith used a converted TB-12 for his groundbreaking performances and recordings in the new melodic style when he joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in the 1960s. A Style 18 has been in Bela Fleck’s arsenal since the 1980s, and a Style 7 is the favored banjo of Noam Pikelny of Punch Brothers fame. Although Gibson top-tensions are once again out of production following a revival in the 1990s and early 2000s, the banner has been taken up by other companies including Ome, one of whose top-tension models has found favor with virtuoso Matt Menefee of Cadillac Sky.
This is the first in a mini-series devoted to parts and setup of a modern five-string bluegrass banjo. In this post, we define the major assemblies of the banjo and each component within those assemblies. In future posts we will expand on each of these and on the role each part plays in the setup process.
Pot Assembly:
- Rim – a hoop made of wood or metal that all other parts attach to. Three-ply maple is preferred on high-end banjos.
- Tone Ring – usually constructed of metal, preferably bell-bronze; this part rests on top of the rim and amplifies string vibration.
- Flange – usually constructed of metal (brass or pot metal); this part surrounds the rim and serves as the bottom support for tensioning the head as well as for attachment of the resonator.
- Coordinating Rods – these metal rods span from the bottom to the top of the rim and serve to attach the neck to the pot assembly.
- Head – originally made of calf skin, modern heads are made of mylar. This sits on top of the tone ring and serves as the soundboard of the banjo.
- Tension Hoop – usually made of metal, this sits on top of the head and evenly distributes tension to the head when tightened properly.
- Bracket Hooks – these are individual hooks that span the space between the tension hoop and the flange. These are used to adjust head tension.
- Tailpiece – located at the end of the banjo, on the pot assembly; this serves as a place to attach strings and is adjusted for down pressure on the bridge.
- Bridge – usually made of maple with an ebony top; the main purpose is to transfer string vibration to the head. It also holds the strings in place and can be moved to adjust intonation.
Resonator:
- Usually made of wood; the resonator is a bowl-shaped device that attaches to the back side of the banjo and projects sound forward.
- Wall Lugs – made of metal; these attach to the inside wall of the resonator and serve as a nut to receive the resonator thumb screws
- L-Bracket – these are actually L-shaped metal brackets that are mounted under the flange and attached to the rim. This is the attachment hardware that holds the resonator to the pot assembly.
- Resonator Thumb Screws – made of metal; these pass through the flange and L-bracket to secure the pot assembly to the resonator.
Neck:
- The neck and resonator are usually made from the same type of wood. The neck serves as a playing surface.
- Lag Bolts – these are threaded into the wooden heel of the neck, pass through the rim and connect to the coordinating rods that attach the neck to the pot assembly.
- Truss Rod – this is built into the interior of the neck, spanning the length of the neck and located in a routed channel under the fretboard. The truss rod applies pressure to counteract the pull of the strings.
- Fingerboard – a piece of wood laminted to the front of the neck that holds the frets and decorative inlay. This is the part of the neck that is in contact with the fingertips of the fretting hand.
- Frets – these are the metal bars typically made of nickel-silver and inlaid crossways into the fingerboard. They serve to stop the vibration of the string at the desired note.
- Nut – usually made of bone (plastic on entry-level banjos). This separates the strings a specific width and holds the strings a specific height above the fingerboard.
- Peghead – often shaped like a fiddle body; located at the opposite end of the neck from the pot, the peghead is a part of the neck and serves as a place to mount tuning pegs.
- Tuning pegs – usually geared, tuning pegs serve to tighten the strings to pitch. Guitar-style tuning pegs have tuning knobs on the sides of the peghead, and planetary tuning pegs go straight out the back.
- Inlay – decorative designs typically cut from mother-of-pearl or abalone which ornament the peghead and fingerboard and serve as position markers.
- Binding – decorative strips, usually of plastic, running along the sides of the neck and resonator.
For many years I have used the term bluegrass to describe music when I really didn’t know what the exact definition was. Bluegrass originated during the 1940’s in the US and is actually of sub-genre of country music. Many countries have influenced the bluegrass sound, including places as diverse as Ireland and West Africa.
Bluegrass has a distinct string sound, as its most common instruments are the fiddle, banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar. During the music, each instrument will take a term improvising or soloing while the others play the accompaniment. While bluegrass may not have a large mainstream following today, many of the world’s biggest bands will dabble in the genre. The most notable recent addition to mainstream bluegrass was with the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers movie Brother Where Art Thou.
That’s a frequent question, and not one with a single answer since the banjo is actually a family of instruments. The five-string banjo was the original, featuring a gourd body (later modified into a drum) and a short drone string. It was brought to what is now the United States by African slaves. The finger-picked five-string banjo enjoyed immense popularity in the nineteenth century, finding acceptance in the parlors of the urban middle class. It was used to play material from the classical repertoire, and rural musicians of the southeast adapted it to the Irish-style music they enjoyed.
Shortly after the turn of the century, the prominence of new music forms such as ragtime and syncopated dances, like the tango, led to the creation of the four-string , or plectrum, banjo. The sharp, percussive sound of the instrument was preserved but the quirky short drone string was eliminated. That made the instrument more user-friendly for musicians who preferred to strum chords with a flat pick, or plectrum. The next step was the tenor banjo, with a shorter scale and tuned in fifths to make it more familiar to players of other popular instruments such as the mandolin. Banjo bands were all the rage by the 1920s and other variations included the mandolin-banjo, the guitar-banjo, and the uke-banjo, but the tenor banjo was by far the most popular, leaving its original five-string cousin to be regarded as a quaint relic. Four-string banjos remain popular in traditional Dixieland jazz as well as Irish music, but the five-string was revived in the years following World War II with the arrival of Earl Scruggs and a new musical style-bluegrass.
We banjo players have a luxury unknown to players of other stringed instruments-the sounding board of our instrument is a drum head that can be replaced easily and inexpensively. That enables us to experiment with different sounds. Once upon a time, all banjo heads were made of animal hide (usually calfskin). The warm tone of a real calfskin head is hard to beat, but their susceptibility to changes in humidity makes them very high-maintenance.
Plastic or mylar heads have been the standard since their introduction in the early 1960s. They are available with a white frosted coating which gives a traditional appearance and sound for bluegrass banjo, or in a clear, uncoated version for extra brightness and response. Synthetic calfskin heads more closely mimic the look and sound of real animal hide and are especially popular with open-back (clawhammer) banjo players. Recent years have seen more options in banjo heads with eye-catching colors now available, and even heavy mesh heads for quiet practice.
There’s a lot of metal in a quality bluegrass banjo. Plating type should be a consideration when deciding what banjo is the right one for you. The most common type of plating is nickel. Nickel looks great when new and oxidizes as it ages, taking on a slightly softer, warmer look. Gold plating is common on high-end banjos and provides plenty of visual flash, but even the best gold plating will show wear after years of heavy use. Chrome plating is less common than nickel or gold and will stay looking new with practically no maintenance, but the super-bright “in your face” look of chrome is not for everyone.
What about differences in sound? That’s a question sure to set off endless debate among banjo folks. Some maintain that the amount of metal applied in plating banjo parts is so minimal that there is no impact on tone. Others claim they hear a difference. Since nickel is most popular, that is understood to be the baseline. The most common opinion being that gold plating imparts a somewhat warmer, mellower tone to the instrument. With so many other variables involved in the construction and setup of a bluegrass banjo, this question will probably never be answered for sure.
While it is commonly believed to be a specific instrument, fiddles can be any bowed string instrument. A violin, viola and cello, all a part of the violin family, may sometimes be referred to by their players as a fiddle.
Over the years, there have been a number of clichés used to describe the differences between a fiddle and a violin. Three of those clichés include: “When you are buying it, it’s a fiddle. When you are selling it, it’s a violin.” “What’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle? About $10,000.” “A violin uses strings and a fiddle uses strangs.”