[NOTSBA Friends] Hide the women and children...Ed's at it again

[Stuart Burrill]

Please unsubscribe me from all NOTSBA lists.
thank you,
Stuart

> From: edgregory at comcast.net
> To: friends at nashvilleoldtime.org
> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:46:50 -0500
> Subject: [NOTSBA Friends] Hide the women and children...Ed's at it again
> 
> About a month ago, I saw a great video on YouTube called "Rocket Science
> video" that made clawhammer seem approachable for the first time - in
> theory.
> 
>  
> 
> I couldn't bring myself to try it on this wretch of a Gretsch banjo that
> somebody dropped off years ago. Luthier friends refuse to touch this thing.
> I don't know why, though, because it's cool that you can flex the neck while
> you play and get some real interesting wah-wah effects.
> 
> Last weekend, I went to Rebecca Weiler's beginner banjo workshop at Uncle
> Dave Macon days (co-hosted NOTSBA via the person of Ray Mathes) and held a
> real banjo, tuned and everything. I was stunned to find that between her
> coaching and remembering that video, I could brush and pluck without falling
> out of my chair.
> 
> I came home and tuned the Wretsch as best I could and went through Rebecca's
> exercises. With this mess, whose strings quick sag and do not line up in
> orderly fashion, I cannot do more than 1-5, or is it 5-1?   But I was having
> a ball. I one-stringed for a couple of hours on the Wretsch and my wife
> walked by and said something, after years of listening to me learn mando,
> fiddle, and guitar, that I thought I'd never hear and she thought she'd
> never say.
> 
> "Honey, you're just going to have to buy a banjo. That's all there is to
> it."
> 
> (Later, she confessed that it was not that she was awed by my raw talent,
> but that she couldn't stand the thought of me woodshedding on the Wretsch
> for the next couple of years.)
> 
> 
> 
> I've looked online for a music store that might rent one on a monthly basis
> so I can be a little more certain before I invest $100 or more on a good
> banjo  (kidding).
> 
>  
> 
> But I am getting ready to make modest investment in a beginner banjo and
> would love to have your input - especially on what NOT to do on a first
> banjo purchase.
> 
>  
> 
> ~Ed Gregory
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
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