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Message Board - Banjos
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My Grandfathers old 4 string Penco
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posted by: John @ 8:09:08 PM · Monday, April 08, 2002
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My grandather passed away some 10 years ago and left behind a 4 string Penco Banjo. It sat around untouched for years and colected dust. I have found myself thinking about him a lot latley and have pulled out the old banjo and am thinking about learning to play the thig.
I grew up around him and the music he played with his band. I know he was considdered an excellant banjo player by his pears and had a sucessful band for years in the Asbury Park area of NJ.
My question is ware do I start? I had the head rep[laced by a local music store - it was so warn by my grandfathers strumming and picking, that he had warn the color off the skin and you could almost see through it.
Can you tell me anything about the Peaco Banjo, what notes to tune the strings to etc... and any good web pages or books to learn the basics??
Thanks for your help!
John Gilmour
Bedford Va.
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re: My Grandfathers old 4 string Penco
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posted by: Gerhard @
11:30:01 AM · 4/15/2002
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Hi John,
the tuning depends on whether you have a plectrum banjo or a tenor banjo. You tell them apart by counting the frets.
A tenor (17-19 frets) is tuned (low to high) CGDA, a plectrum banjo (22 frets) is tuned CGBD.
This applies to standard size banjos. There also are other sizes around which might tune differently. If your banjo has a head smaller than 10" or a relatively short neck with an extended fingerboard, please come back on me, those gems have a different tuning.
HTH, Gerhard
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re: re: My Grandfathers old 4 string Penco
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posted by: @
3:21:07 PM · 8/10/2002
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banjo bible! great house
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re: My Grandfathers old 4 string Penco
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posted by: Tim Givens @
12:27:00 PM · 8/29/2002
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This is a late reply, I know. The reply on tuning was on the mark. Penco was a good student grade banjo. Some good places to start, and they will tell you about more places, are: www.jazzbanjo.com and www.tenorbanjo.com and 4shelties.com/banjos/
Best of luck. I'm just starting, myself.
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re: re: My Grandfathers old 4 string Penco
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posted by: Sonny @
7:54:57 PM · 9/10/2002
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I've owned a Penco banjo for about 25 years. I'm also thinkin about buying a new and one. Took the cob webs off it the other day and started to learn how to play again. When I first started, I didn't have instruction material. Now with my computer I've found good sites. For beginners, go to Jack Hatfield music; for advanced, go to Ross Nickerson's site. Good luck!
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