Clawhammer Players Discomfort

[Peter Roehling]

Easy cure via Mike Holmes of Mugwumps: Go to your local hardware store
and buy a length of clear plastic 3/8" tubing. It will tend to lie in a
circle, so slit it along the "top", cut it to length, and slide it over
the protruding ends of the nuts.
Almost invisible, and the soft plastic will protect your epidermis from
pointy objects.

P.

[roberts]

Greetings all
I used to play a Washburn B16 bluegrass banjo back in the early '80s. I
decided to get involved in clawhammer playing using the same instrument.
However, I used to find it terribly uncomfortable when playing in either
seated or standing position as the resonator attachment screws or brackets
which protruded almost back past the rim would stick either into my leg or
my stomach. I am contemplating buying a new open-back banjo and was
wondering whether purpose built Clawhammer models have the same set-up or do
they have shorter screws/brackets etc to overcome this problem with players
discomfort.

David R

[Mike Stanger]

If your Washburn haws a 2-piece tube and plate- the tube hold the
brackets and the plate is the resonator flange- the plate can be taken
off the banjo. This will take care of the plate discomfort, but the
Gibson-style nuts can be pretty scratchy, so you may also want to buy a
new set of brackets and ball-end lugs and replace the Gibson-style
units.
Stanger

[bpliskin]

It isn't illegal to clawhammer on a resonator instrument.

[Mike Stanger]

Hi, bp...
Boy, that's the truth! I LIKE resonated frailing on the right banjo!
Stanger

[Gail Gillespie]

bpliskin wrote:

> It isn't illegal to clawhammer on a resonator instrument.

I'll second this. I'm finishing up an article on old-time banjos and
have been impressed by the number of fine players who use/d a
resonatedGibson or Vega with skin head :

Wade Ward (RB-11), Bertie Dickens (50s RB-250) , Clarence Ashley (30s
RB-1 or 00), George Pegram (Vega), Gilmer Woodruff (RB-1) , Abe Horton
(Alvarez?) , Dave Macon (20s RB-1), Scotty Wiseman, Odell Thompson, Ola
Belle Reed (Mastertone copies or Mastertones),

And, many players past and present use/d various resonator banjos for
pre-bluegrass, old-time fingerpicking:
Charlie Poole (Gibson Granada), Jack Reedy (Gibson Mastertone), Buster
Carter, Fisher Hendley (Mastertone), Frank (Gibson Trapdoor and Gibson
RB-1) and Oscar Jenkins (RB-1 and RB-250) , Dock Boggs (Mastertone) ,
Dock Walsh (Mastertone), Wade Mainer (Vega) .

Other resonator banjo players include: A.C. Overton (2 Gibsons-RB-150
and "flyswatter" RB-250) ), Marvin Gaster (Gibsons - one a "flyswatter"
RB-250) , as well as:
Kinney Rorrer (Mastertone) , Kirk Sutphin (RB-1) , Tom Sauber
(Mastertone) , Bill Dillof , Pat Conti and Bob Carlin (a banjo he plays
a lot is a 30s RB-1).

BTW Many rural Southern banjo players probably never set eyes on, much
less played those fancy "Boston" inlaid open-back banjos that seem so
popular now among clawhammer players. They had home-made jobs and simple
Dobson and Buckbee banjos. When and if they wanted a "professional"
banjo, they often got a Gibson or Vega. (Though it is true that Charlie
Poole had a pretty fancy open-back Orpheum on early recordings, he later
got himself a high-end resonator Gibson.)
-Gail

[Mike Murray]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2000 11:13:00 -0500, Gail Gillespie
<gai...@mindspring.com> wrote:

> I'm finishing up an article on old-time banjos and
>have been impressed by the number of fine players who use/d a
>resonatedGibson or Vega with skin head :
>

I took a workshop from A.C. Overton about ten years ago and one of the
other students asked him why he used a resonator rather than the "more
traditional" open back. Kind of a long pause. "I like the sound of
it".

I think Hank Bradley uses a resonator banjo most of the time too.

[Wes Steenson]

Hi:
Just chiming in on the subject of resonators. I've enjoyed playing
clawhammer on a resonator banjo for years. It's easier to play in a band
situation, more sensitive to subtle variations in right hand technique, and
always easier to mike than my open backs. And still after 30+ years of
playing, I have people telling me that if I'm going to play old-time music,
I'd better take that resonator off the banjo! IMHO, it's not what
instrument you play, it's how you play it....
Wes

[roberts]

Wes is it possible to get that real plunky sound that one would hear on an
old calf skin type of instrument, where the sound quickly fades and the
instrument becomes equally percussive as well as melodic, on a resonated
banjo?

Dave

Wes Steenson
wrote

[Gail Gillespie]

roberts wrote

is it possible to get that real plunky sound that one would hear on an

> old calf skin type of instrument, where the sound quickly fades and the
> instrument becomes equally percussive as well as melodic, on a resonated
> banjo?
>
> Dave
>

I know Dave addressed this to Wes, but I'll insert my 2 cents here:
yes! First of all, it really is how you play it. There are lots of good
examples of this, but my favorite is the late Bertie Dickens of Ennis, NC.
Bertie Dickens sounded very plunky on her mastertone - a classic 50's
flyswatter-bowtie RB 250. Bertie played clawhammer style - and boy, did she
ever - as well as a charmingly archaic 2 finger style on a Gibson that must
have weighed almost as much as she did. No way did her playing sound like
bluegrass! She can be heard on Bob Carlin's NC BANJO COLLECTION, playing the
lovely "Cleveland's March" in a spare 2-finger style.

Gail

[roberts]

Thanks Gail if only I lived in the states then I could search for some of
this stuff. Things of clawhammer do not come by me too often in the north of
emu land.
Dave

Gail Gillespie wrote in message >

[Gail Gillespie]

Hello Dave in emu-land,
Here, just grabbing a few CDs off the shelf, is a quick list of some recordings
that I know involve resonator banjos. I think that many may be internationally
available"

Uncle Dave Macon, Go Long Mule, County Cd 3505
(includes beautiful fingerpicking on several tunes ie.: "Oh Baby
You Done
Me Wrong" - Gibson RB-1)
Legend of Charlie Poole, Original Recordings, County
(many tunes played on a Gibson Granada!)
Black Banjo Songsters of NC and Va., Smithsonian Folkways,
LC 9628 (Odell Thompson plays a resonator banjo several tunes)
The North Carolina Banjo Collection, Rounder 0439/40
(many examples of resonator banjos- Marvin Gaster, A.C.
Overton, Bertie Dickens, Fisher Hendley, Dock Walsh, Arnold
Watson, George Pegram, Wade Mainer, Snuffy Jenkins & more)
George Pegram, Rounder Cd 0001 (George plays the heck out of a
resonator Vega - added benefit: Fred Cockerham fiddles on several
cuts.)
Lauchlin Shaw and A.C. Overton, Sally With the Run Down Shoes,
One of A.C.'s banjos is a Gibson mastertone.

[Bill Rogers]

Of course Reed Martin plays a resonator Tubaphone #9...There's a
picture in one of the early NLCR album notes of Tom Paley clawhammering
away on Mike Seeger's Mastertone. I've seen pictures of Roscoe Holcomb
and George Pegram with resonator Kays. Grandpa Jones and Stringbean
used resonator banjos. Today, John McCuen and Mike Snider play some
wonderful clawhammer material on "bluegrass" resonator instruments.
Why should it be an issue?

Bill

Gail Gillespie <gai...@mindspring.com> wrote:

> I'm finishing up an article on old-time banjos and
> have been impressed by the number of fine players who use/d a
> resonatedGibson or Vega with skin head :
>

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[Conrad Shiba]

Gail Gillespie wrote:
>
> Hello Dave in emu-land,
> Here, just grabbing a few CDs off the shelf, is a quick list of some recordings
> that I know involve resonator banjos. I think that many may be internationally
> available"

Don't forget anything with Lily May Ledford (Coon Creek Girls). She
played a resonated Whyte Laydie.

Conrad Shiba

[ada...@comcast.net]

I've been playing a '62 RB-250 (flathead) clawhammer style for a few weeks and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback. I have owned some nice resonator banjos in the past, but this is the first one that seems to work great for both fingerpicking and clawhammer style.