I received my second
Jeffrey Weitzel banjo bridge earlier this week.
Here’s the website photo of his MODEL 6-10 BRIDGE – 6 Feet, 10 direct
vibrational paths to the head:
The high points
should face the peghead, and slant down towards the tailpiece. I
put it on backward to begin with, and got an interesting if not delightful
sound. I spent most of Monday afternoon
aligning it and letting it settle in, fussing with the stuffing, and making
“Test Drive” videos. Here’s one:
I am really getting the
sense that each note is more fully articulated, but more importantly (to me at
least) is the string tension and playability.
This bridge took the sag out of the strings. I'm still experimenting with setup
options. I'm getting a bit more bass
line now, which I like to have. I’m
finding the pull offs have more snap, and the triplets sound with improved
clarity – and I know it’s not something that can be traced to anything that I’m
doing differently in my basic playing approach.
Sometimes I get the sense that with a slight shift in setup, such as the
addition of a tailored bridge, the banjo ends up teaching me how it wants to be
played.
Once again, the Standard banjo
disclaimer:
I do not have any entangling
alliances with Jeffrey, though I have taken an interest in his enterprising
effort to rethink banjo design and I did toss some pocket change at his Indiegogo
crowd funding effort. My “perk” was one of these bridges.
I have an interest in his inventive efforts, though his banjos will sell
way above my pay grade. I did, however,
receive a free t-shirt after I ordered a second “perk,” a great baseball hat
with his business logo – for my banjo hat collection.
Of passing interest might be a discussion I had with Jeffrey about a banjo built by Jerome Mayberger that I
acquired, I believe via an eBay auction, sometime in the mid-1990s.
Jerome Mayberger, a New Yorker, who later changed his name to Jerome May, built
banjos in the 1860s and 1870s. His 1867 patent, intended to be an
improvement on George Teed’s banjo, was designed to channel air through the
resonator in unique ways, but what struck me was the unusual configuration for
the resonator – the rim set into the “sound board” (resonator), and the neck
was jointed to the resonator sidewall. I sold this banjo to a friend in
Montana, a like-minded obsessive/compulsive banjo collector (I’ve since
reformed).
Not sure whether this
is the same Jerome May, but it could be:
Anyway, I was happy to see a landsman involved in banjo design and
building.
Play hard,
Lew
No comments:
Post a Comment