Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Rob,

This is a really nicely written article.

I have the Wernick book. And a (cheap) Hohner 5-string from 40 years ago - been in the closet most of that time.

That is one gorgeous banjo you've got! How about a banjo song in the Showcase - would love to hear you play...

fj


Hey Floyd... grin

Glad you liked the article. That Wernick book has been around for decades and is the one I began with all those years ago. Never thought I'd actually get to meet Pete Wernick as I was living in Baton Rouge and he was way up in Colorado at the time. Later, when I was playing the Lazy B Western Dinner Theater gig up in Estes Park CO, after I moved to Colorado, Pete came to hear us and to visit with our guitarist/fiddler, Mike Scap. Mike had been a member of Pete's band Hot Rize. It was pretty intimidating to have "Dr. Banjo" watching you play. Luckily I didn't blow it.

The banjo in that pic was made for me by a luthier friend of mine from Baton Rouge. It's a Mastertone copy with a flathead top-tension pot assembly, gold plating, a brain-twisting abalone vine in the neck. Neck and resonator were birdseye maple. I say "were" because the banjo was literally destroyed by water damage in a house fire at the same luthier who built it. The pot assembly and other non-wood parts survived and are currently being used to create a new instrument.

My current banjos are an Earl Scruggs Mastertone (signed copy, circa 1999), and my "stage and studio banjo," a Washburn B16 with a pickup installed for gigs and recording.

I'll look around and see if I can find a BIAB song with me playing. For now here's a YouTube link of me playing banjo with Mike Scap at the Lazy B Ranch gig. The banjo in the video is one I built; a top-tension, Mastertone copy in walnut with a real calfskin head. Fun stuff.

The Duel (featuring Mike Scap)

Thanks,
Rob

BIAB 2018 ULTRA
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