medic579 - Posted - 04/12/2016:  10:18:09

ok i am going to attempt to explain myself here! i havent played Banjo for 7 years or so. I am a bassist and sing regularly with my Band Shepherd Creek and the banjo just got out by the wayside and i finally sold it. I wanted to get back into it but not in the normal fashion so to speak. So i got to talking to Paul Roberts banjocrazy.com and explaining what i was looking for and i wound up with the missing link that he had used to do some recording. Anyway please take that into consideration when listening to this because i am playing it slow and its not perfect but i want you to hear the town and growl this thing has. once i get used to the new spacing string tension and just get brushed back up on banjo playing ill post more. please dont hold the quality against me yet!! recorded on an iphone voice recorder.

Blacberry Blossom

Paul Roberts - Posted - 04/13/2016:  07:52:31

Jerry, welcome to the Growl Club!

Good first time up to bat. Looking forward to hearing your further efforts. I happen to know you're a professional bass player, and a low-tuned banjo is certainly right up your alley. 

medic579 - Posted - 04/13/2016:  18:03:06

Thanks Paul it's coming along day by day! Starting to build a little muscle memory back and get used to the spacing on this baby. It's a sweet instrument! Thanks for all the help and insight into what I was looking to do with a low tuned banjo!

JanetB - Posted - 04/13/2016:  18:12:46

Membership in the Growl Club is highly esteemed.     Those wonderful low tones are indescribably and calmingly cool.  Your Blackberry Blossom brings me good memories.  Thanks!

jonc - Posted - 04/15/2016:  01:13:13

nice job!

is that with nylon strings?

medic579 - Posted - 04/15/2016:  07:24:27

quote:

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Originally posted by jonc

 

nice job!

is that with nylon strings?

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yes with gold tones cello banjo strings

Paul Roberts - Posted - 04/15/2016:  08:20:22

silverwound nylon: .024  .030  .034  .044  .024

That'll get you all the way down to octave G. Gold Tone has two different sets: these are the lights. I've been using these on my Bob Carlin claw banjo for several years, tuned to low A. For some reason I had convinced myself that the 12" rim didn't respond to the lowest frequecies well enough at octave G. When I tried them on the Missing Link they worked fine at octave G, and, for me, I liked it a lot better than with the metal strings at the C range. I was ready to buy this one for myself, but Jerry entered the picture. After sending it off to him, went back to the Carlin and, sure enough, it dialed in at low G perfectly. The same gauges work well tuned either octave A or octave G on the Carlin 12". Also (back to the ML) there's very little left-hand string noise causes by the wound nylon as opposed to the wound metal. 

John Davis2 - Posted - 04/15/2016:  09:37:04

i put16 plain,and flatwound 20,24 30 on the baritone 12 inch pot ,28 inch scale,i built in 2010.I tune down to c,and do my playing with picks,String noise not a problem.This tuning capoed at'' 2 ''turns your A songs in regular tuning,to D songs,sometimes a very fiddle friendly thing.I felt all along the suggested guages on the link ,were too large ,also terribly noisy if not flatwound

Paul Roberts - Posted - 04/15/2016:  13:13:14

Another interesting are of discussion - although I don't think it should be here, because it upstages Jerry's tune post - is the difference in sound between a ML with a Renaissance head and a ML with the black Remo. Béla has both, which I got a chance to A/B when I met with him over a year ago. 

Paul Roberts with Béla Fleck's Missing Links

medic579 - Posted - 04/15/2016:  16:54:41

I don't have a problem with the discussion of the two heads here!