(Part 2) Top products from r/banjo

If I give you all my sources... how will I be 'know-it all' anymore?

Kidding. I have always had a soft-spot in my heart for the Asian-made banjos. I've owned a few throughout the years and have played a number of them when I've come across them. Paul Hawthorne has an EXCELLENT site to start learning about Asian-made banjo.

Additionally, Scott Zimmerman, who posts as Desert Rose on banjohangout, is an excellent authority. In the late 70s, he went to Japan to work in the Fijigen factory (Ibanez). So he got to see first-hand a lot of the stuff that was happening in Japan. He has his biases, as we all do. But typically when he is posting on banjohangout (or you read one of his posts), you can consider it with high regard.

In regards to prewar banjos, Joe Spann is the ultimate nerd on the Gibson front. He literally wrote the book on it (Jim Mills has a book as well). In regards to FON (the serial numbers), I'm not sure anyone has more complete knowledge than Joe Spann.

Online, Greg Earnest's site is an incredible resource.

Other than that, it's having a number of banjos (including some prewars) go through my hands or having the opportunity to play them. Then picking up stuff in some places like Masters of the Five String Banjo and old magazines.

As for your second question. The "heart" of the banjo, in my opinion, is the rim and the tone ring. Upgrading those two components would make it a significantly different banjo. The rim and tone ring in this banjo are "okay." The tone ring is not made with the same alloys that model the prewar Gibson banjos (bell brass, or bronze). I think it had more zinc in it, or something like that. The wood rim was laminate.

So, if you want to significantly upgrade a banjo, upgrading the rim and the tone ring is a good option. That being said, pretty much everything on a banjo will affect it's tone.

Hope that helps. Beware going down the path of banjo nerdom.

I made slow progress teaching myself for a year with a Banjo for Dummies book. I learned like two rolls and an easy version of Cripple Creek, but it wasn't satisfying, and there was almost no progress after that.

I know Banjo Hangout has some lessons and material, but I haven't used them. I managed to find a great instructor, and he hooked me up with this book. There's an e-book version, too. I found the lesson progression to be extremely helpful, and after a few weeks, I had some basic songs and licks down, and I found that subconsciously, I had learned a lot. Now I can't put the damn banjo down!

I'll tell you something - the online lessons didn't work for me at all. I bought this book (http://www.amazon.com/Clawhammer-Style-Banjo-Ken-Perlman/dp/0931759331/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1333467612&sr=8-2) and made it a chapter or two in. Then I went to Africa for six months, took my banjo and what little knowledge I had formed a jam group. I learned more from doing that than anything else. That said, invest in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Parking-Lot-Pickers-Songbook-Banjo/dp/0786674911/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1333467621&sr=8-4

I got it as a gift, and it's awesome. There aren't a lot of clawhammer songbooks out there, but this one has most of the popular songs in melody-only tab, so you can pick them any way you want. It's the single most useful book I've ever looked at in trying to learn banjo.

I would be wanting to play Bluegrass music. Similar to the music The Hillbilly Gypsies play. I would like to buy something that is a good price for a beginner, but won't leave me wanting to upgrade once I get better.

I'm seeing a Deering on Craigslist for $300 http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/msg/2959405250.html, and this Gold Tone's on Amazon for a little more http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Tone-CC-50-Cripple-String/dp/B002RARBEO or http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Tone-CC-50RP-Cripple-Resonator/dp/B002RARBEY.

I'm partial to rosewood necks on guitars, so that might influence my choice of a banjo.

EDIT: I just found this one in Harrisburg http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/msg/2885484805.html I don't know anything about the brand but he makes the price sound like a deal. Plus, it comes with a hard case.

I started with this book. Once I got the hang of it, I moved on to this, but honestly I think any of the books by Ross Nickerson in his beginner/intermediate are good choices once you're ready to move beyond the basics.

Most open backs are the same (2 coordinating rods), but some have a different construction. There is a great book out there on banjo setup:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Set-Best-Sounding-Banjo/dp/0793589983

And some free videos from Deering (one on that exact topic):

https://www.deeringbanjos.com/blogs/banjo-maintenance-tips/tagged/banjo-set-up

To jump on your comment, a friend gave me a copy of The Folksinger's Wordbook which has a ton of songs in it. The key/arrangement isn't always true to some versions I know but it's a great tome to thumb through if you're looking for a random song to play.

I'm quite surprised that you've come across anything for banjo in standard notation. Outside of the minstrel tutors (which are from the 19th century) I've never seen banjo materials written in anything except tab. Especially for old time, where the so many tunings are used, reading standard is almost useless (unless you want to read out of fiddle books).

Anyway, my favourite resources would be Ken Perlman's Book and Art Rosenbaum's. Rosenbaum's comes with a fantastic CD which makes it worth the price alone. It's not really a beginner book, but it's still a great resource which covers a range of old time styles (clawhammer, 2-finger, and 3-finger)

Tom Hanway's book is great, but be aware you're never going to get the same sound on a five string as you will on a tenor banjo. A lot depends on how you are playing - finger picking, clawhammer, or with a plectrum? Triplets, in the Irish banjo sense, are much easier (to me at least) with a plectrum than with finger picks. I started out on this route, but eventually just got myself a tenor banjo and never looked back.

I've heard good things about Brainjo, as suggested already, but I've never tried it. What has really worked for me over the last few month's has been Ken Perlman's Clawhammer Style Banjo book. For some reason, it just clicked with me and I'm around half-way through the book and have picked up maybe 30 tunes or so. There is an accompanying DVD available for around $28. I picked it up also, but mostly just refer to it occasionally if I need clarification on something. I've also seen multiple recommendations for Dan Levenson's Clawhammer Banjo from Scratch, but haven't used that one either.

Also, I think I found my recommendations at the time with a search for "clawhammer books" on the Banjo Hangout Forums. Plenty of info and helpful people there also.

Siminoff and others have books and the Builders forum on the Hangout is a treasure trove about materials, power and hand tools, finishing, etc, look up what users Rudy and Ken Levan write.

This is Rudy's old site http://web.archive.org/web/20160325021743/bluestemstrings.com/pageFPMB1.html

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Old-Time-Folklore-Studies-Multicultural/dp/0252082842/

https://www.amazon.com/Old-Time-Banjo-Craft-String/dp/0615410758/

Some people seem to think it's virtually impossible to play Irish tunes on a five string. I don't find it so, and I'd say I know as many Irish tunes as I do bluegrass tunes.

Scruggs style rolls won't work with Irish tunes so you have to develop a more melodic style, and some techniques that you wouldn't see in Scruggs style playing ( learning to play upstrokes with your thumb for example).

Tom Hanaway has a book on Celtic tunes for the five string that's available on Amazon. I'm on mobile now, but I'll link it later.

Edit: Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo

Also, his name is Hanway, not Hanaway, and he's got a couple other books of Irish/Celtic tunes now.

Don't buy for looks. You can add a black head to any banjo for about 30 bucks.

Get either a GoldTone, Deering, or Recording King.

They will all be higher quality for only a little more. Totally worth it.

This too....

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https://www.amazon.com/Parking-Lot-Pickers-Songbook-Banjo-ebook/dp/B07CRTMZ3Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541538626&sr=1-1&keywords=parking+lot+pickers+banjo

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Bluegrass banjo by Peter Wernick. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0825601487

Here is the Geslison book I talked about: 50 Tunes for Banjo https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786691980/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4tItDbETC26MT