Electro-banjitaster-especiale

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Warmoth flame-maple angled-paddle neck, standard shape 10/16, gold 6105 frets, roswood fretboard with graphtech black nut.

Banjo parts purchased from Gold Tone Musical Instruments: 6 string "es" tailpiece, Aluminum tone rim (I polished the contact surface), Gold 8" tension hoop, radiused 5/8" bridge and a 10"GTS mounted skin head.

This banjo has a stereo output running two seperate circuits.One side of the output is accoustic amp (Acoustic AG60) feed, the other goes to effects and then a Fender Hot Rod amp.The original idea was to mount a 6-way highway switch to coil-tap the electric-side pickups.  Because of wiring challenges (my incompetence and Guitar Electronics schematic which was WRONG) I ultimately went with a three-way switch. Each pickup has its own volume pot.  There is no tone knob. Tone from amps.

Neck pickup-Golden Age tele framed by a gold reversed flange. All flanges recessed to flush.
EMG-HZ  pick up with modified spring and bolting configuration designed to force the pickup firmly onto the underside of the head as far toward the neck as possible. this pickup is coiltapped with a push/pull knob.







 
The acoustic pickup is a schatten utility piezo.

The body is a bookmatched quilted maple back.  When I install a transparent head, you will be able to see the quilted maple through the head.  The front is a hippie sandwich of ash, and walnut with cherry and maple veneer stripes. The middle (between back and front of guitar body) is mahogany.



 
This guitjo-banjitar monster weighs 10 pounds (lots of metal parts)

locking schaller tuners.
rattle-can stew mac laquer finish
self-mixed stain.

levis thick leather strap.

 

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BUT WHY?
"So what is it good for? If you are a guitar player, it is a way to get banjo sounds without having to learn the banjo. It is even capable of many things a 5-string cannot do. It has a lower tone. It has more sustain. You can play counterpoint and bass lines, and escape from the "drone zone" more than with a 5-string. You can move the key center more easily away from the drone chord. If you are a solo player, it is probably most effective. It takes a different right hand attack than a guitar, and some of your friends will not be able to get to square one with it, yet you can jump back and forth between it and a guitar rather easily once you get the hang of it. It's a nice way to add some spice to a performance if you play guitar, much like the way most people use a 12-string guitar. If you play with a guitar player who can provide some rhythm (it can't really play the same kind of rhythm a guitar does, being instead more capable of the rhythms a banjo can provide), you can do some nice rolls, and make a sound that is very much like bluegrass. It may be the ultimate ragtime guitar. You can mimic the sound of a lot of styles of banjo playing, from bluegrass to clawhammer to Irish to Dixieland. Chuck Berry licks work quite well. Baroque music sounds great on it, as does celtic. To me, it is a real instrument, and it is full of surprises, and I am always startled at the kinds of sounds I can coax out of it, and also the kinds of things that just don't work very well, though you would think they would.

It's my opinion that because it has more strings, a wider pitch range, and more sustain than a 5-string, it is therefore capable of a wider range of musical expression than a 5-string, though admittedly in a bluegrass situation the 6-string cannot generate the cascades of notes the way a 5-string can. Since to most people's ears, the sound of a fast 5-string playing Scruggs style IS the banjo, the 6-string then isn't quite a banjo. However, (there is always a however in the world of 6-string banjo) if you are just looking to express yourself and play a lot of music, it is a powerful and useful tool, and may help push the sound of the banjo forward into some new kinds of music. The essence of "banjo-ness" is fundamentally connected to the tone, more so than to the tuning of the instrument. So don't be afraid to play one, and don't think less of those of us who do. I love the 5-string as much as anyone. Honest." from the page: http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/articles/6stringpuzzle.html
 
That sounds sweet too, I don't know if you can get it patented, but you should try before someone else does.  That would be the only banjo I could actually play because I am thrown off by the standard 5 string as far a chords go.  Paddle faster I hear banjos :laughing7:.
 
BlueFirebird said:
That sounds sweet too, I don't know if you can get it patented, but you should try before someone else does.  That would be the only banjo I could actually play because I am thrown off by the standard 5 string as far a chords go.  Paddle faster I hear banjos :laughing7:.
Click to expand...
I have a patented product however I'm not by no means an expert in patent law but as I recall once a product is made public or in commerce no one else other than the original inventor can obtain a patent. In other words, someone cannot look at a Banjitar on this site and run to the patent office because the search process would prove the invention was already invented prior to the date of the application. The USPO is not set up for people to get away with theft although it can happen. So far, it appears there are close to 720 people who can attest that the Banjitar already exists, however there are tons of other musical instrument designs and shapes to consider in a search but I suspect it stands alone.
Of course without patent protection anyone can make it and sell it but once word leaks that the product was the intellectual property of another person it can have an effect on a company's credibility and sales.
 
This idea is not unique to me.  I own three of these.  I own an acoustic Gold tone banjitar gt500, an electric Gold Tone es6 and now the one I made. I ripped off Gold Tone for the electric banjitar idea.  Mine is better, but I will still use theirs as a back up.
 
NovasScootYa said:
BlueFirebird said:
That sounds sweet too, I don't know if you can get it patented, but you should try before someone else does.  That would be the only banjo I could actually play because I am thrown off by the standard 5 string as far a chords go.  Paddle faster I hear banjos :laughing7:.
Click to expand...
I have a patented product however I'm not by no means an expert in patent law but as I recall once a product is made public or in commerce no one else other than the original inventor can obtain a patent. In other words, someone cannot look at a Banjitar on this site and run to the patent office because the search process would prove the invention was already invented prior to the date of the application. The USPO is not set up for people to get away with theft although it can happen. So far, it appears there are close to 720 people who can attest that the Banjitar already exists, however there are tons of other musical instrument designs and shapes to consider in a search but I suspect it stands alone.
Of course without patent protection anyone can make it and sell it but once word leaks that the product was the intellectual property of another person it can have an effect on a company's credibility and sales.
Click to expand...

That sounds correct to my knowledge, that at least on this forum with all of the info and the dates involved, that step one of proving inventorship has been established.  I am not so sure where one would go from there without forking out a lot of money for a patent, or if this is the first of it's kind.  I think it is unique enough to stand alone even if there have been similar designs. :dontknow:
 
Just wanted to give everyone an update on the 6-string banjo project. I recently added a clear head. The original "skin" head worked fine although it has some inherent faults. Real calf skin heads are moisture and heat sensitive, I live in St. Louis.  StLouis is unbearingly hot and humid for three hard-to-survive months. Thehead was less-stable and was looking dirty from the sweat and oils from my hands (Ick). The clear head sounds just as good to me and, as an extra bonus shows off the electronics and the quilted maple back which you can see through the head.
 

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Aspen Pittman. Reactive Dummy Load.  Radiotron Designer's Handbook. Still got a patent.
 
Some better pictures of the new guitar/banjo thing with a clear head.
 

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This is awesome, I was struck by something as I was watching your videos. For years on this board we have argued about how much an electric guitar ( solid body) sounds the way it does because of the woods used or the pickups used.

I've always been on the " it sounds like the pickups side of the fence" But when you switched to the humbucker mode, it sure still had a ton of banjo influence. I supose it must be the banjo head reverberating back against the strings
 
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