I'm just not sure I want to spend that much money on one.Īnd I'm proof of that because I mostly live at the 7th to 17th fret and I'm dirt poor. I've been eyeing the Banjo Highway capos for a while now. And it gets in my way when I'm fretting the 4th string next to it. And you have to be careful not to tighten the thumbscrew down too hard which can break the string.īut it works in a pinch, and it's relatively easy to use, I guess. It doesn't give me as bright or clear a sound as a spike (or other method that presses the string down onto a fret). But being a clawhammer guy, I tend to ping that 5th string pretty hard sometimes, and it can bounce around a bit. It just sits on the fretboard, butted up to the fret, and clamps down to the string. I've used it a few times, and it works OK. But they threw in a Reagan 5th string capo. One of my banjos had the spikes all messed up and the shop I took it to ended up taking them all out, which I was not too happy about. Just slip the string under the spike, adjust the tuning (since it will always go sharp when spiked) - it takes about 3 seconds. But I just haven't found any easier or faster way to tune up to a different drone note on that 5th string. I don't play a style that frets the 5th string, though, and they can indeed get in the way if you do. So to a purist, yes, some chords are impossible, but to a banjo player they are all very possible and effective: Since we are usually playing in context of a guitar and/or bass, we have plenty of external support playing the root for us.I prefer spikes as well. We have to make these sacrifices a lot given our duplicate strings and restricted instrument range. I don't believe a chord is a chord without it's own root, textbook-wise. Now if you were to grab the 7th tone of that chord, you would have to rearrange and grab it above on the 2nd string (reach up to the C), which means that you are jettisoning the root note. The 5th is unchanging, for reasons explained above. So when fretting a D major chord with the standard "D-shape", you have the 1st and 4th strings as the F#, the 2nd string as the root (D), and the 3rd string as an A. The 3rd and 5th string is tuned to G, an octave apart, and the 2nd string is a B. In standard tuning, the 1st and 4th strings are tuned to D, an octave apart. I'll try to articulate this, and I must assume some banjo familiarity. Regarding your side comments about some chords being impossible: It depends on how much of a purist you are. (See: Robin Smith or Rob Bishline, to start) Do some makers tunnel the 5th string to be properly fretted at 5, but tunneled all the way up anyway? Yes.Hard to play around? Not really, you get used to it being there.This method gives you more freedom on the first string to go around the root note since you can always grab the root itself up on the 5th string. Melodic style playing uses it primarily as a scale note. Then the drone would be in A for a song in the key of A. If we capo up two frets to A, there is usually a corresponding spike or other method to also capo that truncated string down below. Since most tunes on banjo are native to G, having a drone on the root is the best sounding configuration. In traditional Scruggs Style banjo, it is primarily a high-root drone string. If the fifth string were to be extended up to the peghead, it would be an exact duplicate of the first string (both D notes) since they tend to be the same gauges.īut to answer: Having that string truncated at the 5th fret makes it a G note.
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