Hi Greg; After coming across your youTube video on different banjitars, I was lucky enough to find a used SX for about $250. As I'm sure is the case with many instruments built off shore with decent materials but limited set up work, this one was no exception. The neck had quite a bit of relief and when I took off the truss rod cover I found that the head of the rod was still sealed in poly or lacquer and had never been touched. The nut slots had never been worked either so after few hours of tweaking, the SX came to life as a player. Thanks for guidance. Have been playing guitar for 55 years since age 12 and always intrigued by banjo so now can enjoy the sound without the learning curve of a new instrument. Enjoying your many videos. Keep on pickin'--Gary
Hi Gary. Thanks for the comment. Glad you found one of the SX models. They are actually hard to find anymore and the price is going up on the used ones. I bought my first one for around $169 directly from Rondo Music's site, plus shipping. Now you can hardly find them and they sell for around $300. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on it. Yes, my first one required some set up, too, but once I did that, it played great. I used it to accompany a singer-songwriter friend who as already a really great guitar player and didn't need another guitarist. It really added a lot to his music. When we stopped playing together, I sold it and then instantly regretted it. It took me a year-and-a-half to find another and that one was sold out from under me on Reverb. Another year went by and I found my current one on eBay. This one was already set up and was near-perfect. I keep it strung with D'Addario Nashville tuning strings. You have to try those out. They sound amazing. That banjo projects like nothing else I've played. It's naturally very loud and it sounds great mic'd up. I put a cheap piezo pickup in it, but most of the time, I'd rather use a mic. I love the neck on it. It's very slim compared to some of the other banjitars out there. I'm thinking about trying out a ZeroGlide zero-fret modification on it, which might be pretty cool.
This is a useful lesson from Brad Davis. I love the sound of his Deering banjitar! Maybe someday Deering will want to sponsor me or want me as an endorser! (I can always dream!)
Hi Greg;
ReplyDeleteAfter coming across your youTube video on different banjitars, I was lucky enough to find a used SX for about $250. As I'm sure is the case with many instruments built off shore with decent materials but limited set up work, this one was no exception. The neck had quite a bit of relief and when I took off the truss rod cover I found that the head of the rod was still sealed in poly or lacquer and had never been touched. The nut slots had never been worked either so after few hours of tweaking, the SX came to life as a player. Thanks for guidance. Have been playing guitar for 55 years since age 12 and always intrigued by banjo so now can enjoy the sound without the learning curve of a new instrument. Enjoying your many videos. Keep on pickin'--Gary
Hi Gary. Thanks for the comment. Glad you found one of the SX models. They are actually hard to find anymore and the price is going up on the used ones. I bought my first one for around $169 directly from Rondo Music's site, plus shipping. Now you can hardly find them and they sell for around $300. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on it. Yes, my first one required some set up, too, but once I did that, it played great. I used it to accompany a singer-songwriter friend who as already a really great guitar player and didn't need another guitarist. It really added a lot to his music. When we stopped playing together, I sold it and then instantly regretted it. It took me a year-and-a-half to find another and that one was sold out from under me on Reverb. Another year went by and I found my current one on eBay. This one was already set up and was near-perfect. I keep it strung with D'Addario Nashville tuning strings. You have to try those out. They sound amazing. That banjo projects like nothing else I've played. It's naturally very loud and it sounds great mic'd up. I put a cheap piezo pickup in it, but most of the time, I'd rather use a mic. I love the neck on it. It's very slim compared to some of the other banjitars out there. I'm thinking about trying out a ZeroGlide zero-fret modification on it, which might be pretty cool.
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