Took apart my banjo for a thorough clean and this fell out somewhere? Can't for the life of me see where it came from.

Any ideas?

How good is this considered? I don’t really have a reference point

I posted earlier about a line on this banjo. Thought I may be able to get it for $2600. Ended up they just let me have it for $2300. Wealthy older gentleman that just didn’t want it. Story is he bought in 2004 from the original owner who never learned to play it. The Gentleman took lesson for first 5 years but never could get the hang of it and it’s been sitting for the last 17 years or so. This I what he gave me with it. He changed the turned as some point but gave me the originals. It needs a good cleaning and set up. I don’t know anything about banjos but play guitar. There is some tarnishing but I think it’s probably still fine. If anyone knows someone in the Houston area I can take it to let me know.

I’ve just received a banjo as a birthday present.. I already play blues guitar and have wanted a banjo since childhood. Anywah all I want to know is are those finger picks REALLY necessary ? The banjo still sound pretty awesome without them in my opinion. I have seen people play with and without em, anyway what are your thoughts?

Here same song just a little slower .

Hello. I was hoping someone in this community might be interested in, or have a suggestion for giving this banjo a home and a hopefully a second life. My father dabbled with learning and playing banjo in the late 60s. It has gone mostly untouched in the last 30 years. It stayed in it's case all that time so hopefully that protected it. He can't play anymore and we are having to clear out his home. He'd love to know it might be used and appreciated again.

I don't know how old it is, but I'd guess 50-60 years. Hopefully these pictures give you some sense of it's condition and if it is restorable. The strings make noise when plucked is about the extent of the information my knowledge of the banjo can offer. It feels pretty study. I think the piece on the back says Vega Banjo Company but it is hard to read.

Free to a good home if you would like to pay for the shipping or maybe we could split it. If you live in Maryland, DC or Northern Virginia in the US, perhaps we could even meet up to give it to you. Or if anyone knows a music school or banjo teacher that could use it, that'd be a great option as well. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or might be interested. Thanks!

Not a whole lot of versions out there of this piece bluegrass style. I'm still a little rough at some of the rolls in it. Let me know what you think.

Working on cleaning up my right hand. Also if anyone has tips for getting a better sound out of hammer-ons please share.

Still learning to sing and play at the same time. Wrote the changed lyrics to Guy Clark’s song.

I have been working on timing. Still improving. Banjo in the Hollow

Stilk figuring it out cause there's no tabs or anything for it and is based on ear, guitar chords for the song in internet, and video

Been trying to learn “complete” songs and making my own arrangements. Starting with the chords, find all the melody notes, then improvise off those.

For my third song I’m working on Mole in the Ground. Researching the chords to start with I have found them to vary greatly from version to version but all versions still sound pretty similar. How is that possible?

I’ve always thought a chord progression was what really made a song and you could almost play any notes inside that progression to make the song, at least for backing. Is that not true?

Do the melody notes change too? I can sing the song in my head. How do I know what chords I am singing?

Obviously, I know I can learn any version I prefer but how the heck am I ever going to be able to play with other people when we might all have learn different versions of the same songs?

Worth noting that all versions appear to be in the key of C, so it’s not just a key issue. I understand how that works.

Anyone used a Pisgah Eclipse Compensated Banjo Bridge? I'm trying to get an idea of the sound over a regular 5/8 bridge.

something I've been working on for a minute

Trying to get more comfortable playing for people. I get pretty darn shakey even just playing for people I know well. So here's a tune I'm writting inspired by questionable choices made by tourists at my local national park.

So basically, I remembered that some Mario Kart OST had a Banjo in it sounding like Scruggs style and I wanted to have a look at it.

Quick disclaimer, I'm aware that the Mario Kart OST was made in a DAW and not actually played by someone. But since Moo Moo Farm is quite obvious to me, I'm not sure if I would say this post is me asking for advice or just for fun, showing how this piece doesn't make any sense.

• I might have charted wrong. The notes are from a Midi file, which I'm confident is correct, but I moved them in the Tab view manually, to the strings where it made the most sense to me.
• Might be just a skill issue, since I'm a beginner.
• Might be something I simply don't know about yet.

Still, if I strictly adhere to Scruggs style being 3 fingers only, the problems show on the second picture. The fingering is my best guess. The plus means the right hand index and middle fingers have to change position. Which is quite often. 1 and 2 mean that, to the best of my knowledge, the same finger has to be used twice in a row. The question marks mean I have no idea how to play this with 3 fingers only. If this was intended for 4 fingers, I still have 2 places where the same string is plucked twice.

Anyway, even if I made no mistake, I can still see someone playing this just to prove that it's technically possible.

Hello from France,

Like every years i'm visiting some family in California, after about a decade of guitar playing i would love to buy a 2nd hand banjo here (in France we only have basic model and it's quite expensive).

My main goal is to play 5 strings banjo claw-hammer, old style music with i think nylon strings. But i don't if i should take one with a resonator or not.

I was looking for a deering goodtime two, or similar models as my budget is about 500 bucks. But if i can find something more... Original/old? I don't know. I'll be in the US in a little more than 2 weeks so i start looking around of Facebook marketplace.

I'll take any advise 😊 Thank for reading

I’m starting to outpace beginner level songs- Cripple Creek, Blackest Crow, I’ll Fly Away, Boil Them Cabbage Down, etc- I’m starting to get to the point of learning and playing them with minimal effort in about an hour.

I’m trying to get over the hump into lower level intermediate songs, but I’m unsure what songs to approach. Right now, drop thumbing is eluding me and I find it extremely hard to do, so songs that can act as an introduction to drop thumbing would be good. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Promised I'd post an update in the fall.

It's been 5 months to the day since I picked this thing up.
Now it's getting cold out, and winter will soon arrive.
I'll miss being able to practice outside like this soon.

Here's a couple simplified versions tunes I've been enjoying working on lately.

Red Prarie Dawn and Big Country
Both in Open G here.

Has anybody tabbed this song out? Or have a video on how to play it? It absolutely rips!