Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Got my new Twanger and I love it...plus I have one question

#1

I received my brand new Gold Tone OB-3 Twanger today and it is a beautiful instrument as everyone said. I love it and had to quit practicing before I felt like I wanted to because life interfered:-) which just shows how much I was enjoying it. For the last two months I’ve been playing my first and only banjo. It was used, and I suspect not great quality even when new. So I expected the twanger to sound much better and it does! I expected it to be louder and it is which is very satisfying. I didn’t expect it to be heavier, but I probably should have because I’m sure that’s just due to quality materials and I like the nice solid feel it has when I play it. What I didn’t expect but am delighted to discover is that is is so much easier to play then my first banjo! The strings are so much more responsive, and require so much less pressure to play. Slides, hammers and pull offs resonate so much better and more easily even under my inexperienced fingers. I"m kind of glad I started with a banjo that was hard to play because it’s immediately so much more relaxed to play this banjo and I’m learning that a relaxed banjo player is a better banjo player.

I do have what is sure to be a very obvious question to most of you (if not all of you) on this site but remember I am like a toddler when it comes to anything about the banjo. I got to the beginner Old Joe Clark lesson and from guitar experience I barely remembered how to use a capo (although I am such a nominal guitar player I never actually used one on guitar either), and I remembered that Banjo Ben and his crew did put spikes on my new banjo (thank you!) but if there was any instruction on how to use them in a previous lesson, I must have missed it. Do I just hook the string around the spike by sort of sliding it down toward the D string and letting it hook on the appropriate spike from the bottom of the spike? It seemed to work as far as tuning goes but it didn’t seem to stay when I did it the first time, so am I doing it wrong or just not being decisive enough about doing it? I’m mildly afraid of breaking the string if I do it wrong. When I tried a second time it seemed to stay but I just want to be sure I’m doing it right. Thanks for any answers/assurance/correction you can give on this point.

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#2

Hi @pastormac David first off congratulations on becoming a “Twanger” owner.

I’ll try to address some of your queries

The reason your Twanger is much louder and heavier is because it has a big bell-brass metal tone ring inside that increases the volume of your vibrating strings.

Hooking the 5th string can be a little tricky at first. Depending on which way the spikes are fitted. I use my middle finger to push the string against the fretboard and then hook it under the spike in an upwardly direction. Like most things on the banjo it’s all down to trial and error. After spiking you may need to adjust the tuning.

Old Joe Clark is typically played in the Key of A out of the G position so capo up two frets and spike the 5th string to A.

Check out these lessons on tuning and using a Capo

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/how-to-tune-your-banjo-banjo?from_track=beginner-banjo

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/banjo-setup-with-steve-huber-capo-placement-banjo?from_track=beginner-banjo

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#3

Thanks Archie!

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#4

I think you meant the G string, and yes, it sounds like you have the general idea. I usually use a finger with a pick on it to shove the string under the spike.

One important note. On most banjos, spiking a string will stretch it a bit sharp, so a little retuning is required. The top of the spike has to be lower than the tops of the surrounding frets, so spiking is really like fretting a string as hard as you can.

Same concept goes for capos. All of my spring loaded capos will put my banjo sharp. That’s why I love my Shubb capo.
https://store.banjobenclark.com/collections/accessories/products/shubb-fine-tune-capo-for-banjo

I can apply just enough pressure to get a clean note without going sharp.

One last thing. My experience with the Twanger (and I’ve read this from many others) is that is doesn’t like medium gauge strings, yet that’s what it comes with. Adam Ash, a former General Store guy and banjo picker extraordinaire (as well as just an all around great guy) recommended these strings to me a few years ago.

https://store.banjobenclark.com/products/d-addario-xt-stainless-steel-light-09-20-banjo-strings

Adam owns the Twanger prototype, so when he told me these were the strings for the Twanger, I didn’t even question it. They sound fantastic and hold their tone a super long time.

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#5

Thanks @Mark_Rocka!

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#6

Nearly word for word, that was my experience too! I know we’re all on a different path, but here’s the next thing that happened to me. With a better banjo being easier to play ‘Boil Dem Cabbage Down’ started to come easier and I remember that moment when I started hearing the melody. It was exciting, I couldn’t believe that I was actually playing this thing that I had always wanted to play yet seemed so out of reach. What happened next probably wasn’t the best approach, but in the following lessons, I tried to hear me play the melody too fast and I wasn’t as patient with myself as I should have been. Not saying I did anything wrong, I did (and still do) what’s fun, but perhaps my learning path would have been more efficient had I approached the following lessons as slow and intentional as Boil Dem Cabbage Down. ‘More efficient’ meaning, not having to go back and fix mistakes that kept creeping in. Today me formula for learning is Lesson + Tef + Forum. Happy Picking!

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#7

Awesome, brother! Yes, it’s good to be able to measure the difference between two instruments!

I actually just made a note early this week to do a focused lesson on spikes application.

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#8

Thanks @Brent.H. I downloaded the TEF player at one point, but I haven’t really tried using it. So far a metronome and pdfs have seemed to work fine for me, but I’ll give the TEF’s a try.

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#9

Just this second tried figuring out how the TEF files work with Jon Henry. I could see how looping at an increasing percentage of speed could be good way to work on trouble spots and increase speed. I’ll check it out some more.

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#10

Thank you @BanjoBen!

#11

Once I got used to using TEF, I couldn’t imagine the amount of effort it would take to go back to static documents.

My approach is, loop a couple of measures as slow as I need to (often down to 20% speed) get my fingers used to it, then do the next couple of measures, then combine. I keep doing that until I have the whole song down, then start speeding up in 5 to 10% increments. I don’t advance to the next speed until I can play at the current speed cleanly at least 3 times in a row.

I can usually get a song committed to memory in a few hours this way. Getting it up to speed is another matter. :wink:

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#12

@Mark_Rocka I have followed your approach for awhile and it’s helped me a bunch. So thanks for putting that out there for us. Even looping a few measures at a time, with increasing speed has been a good way to get me up to speed.

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#13

I see you got some really good advice here. Smart move coming to the Forum with your questions.
As a Beginner, not wishing to embarrass myself by asking stupid questions, used trial-and-error to figure out the railroad spikes on my banjo. Once I got the string tucked under the spike, I hammered that sucker down flat! That string will never come out!
Now, when I want to play in a different key, I have to buy a new banjo and hammer down a different spike. After many banjos, I discovered it makes a BIG difference if you use an O, HO or N gauge railroad spike.
And don’t be fooled by an obsessive need for that “authentic” sound. You won’t get it by using an authentic railroad spike, I learned.
Congrats on your new banjo, and keep up the good work! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m here to help. :roll_eyes:

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#14

@pastormac, Congrats on the new Twanger!

Like you, a Twanger was my second banjo after a beginner model that didn’t have any spikes…and I love it! I was also surprised at how heavy it is. At first, I couldn’t get the fifth string to hook under the railroad spikes at all. It was embarrassing. :flushed:

I thought maybe they were installed incorrectly or were driven in too far. Like you, I also reached out for help, and got some beginning advice something like this:

Try pressing down the string with two fingers, one on each side of the spike before trying to slide it under the hook. That got me used to how much pressure it takes. :sweat_smile:

I had the identical experience/advice as @Mark_Rocka in regards to which model string I now use.

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#15

@Mark_Rocka, @xmark,
I appreciate your advice on the strings, but I"m curious. What exactly is the difference and why does it work better with light strings vs medium strings? Can you explain the difference and why it’s better? Not a challenge at all, just want to understand.

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#16

Thanks @BanJoe. Thanks for warning me away from having a succession of banjo’s one for each key! :slight_smile:

Thanks also for the offer to help!

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#17

@Brent.H, @Mark_Rocka
So I’m now in the process of going through and establishing a current baseline of error free TEF speed for each song I’ve been learning. It’s helpful because I have so many songs now that I"m working on at the same time. This gives me a better sense of where I really am. Thanks for the advice! Two things though, 1) Every time I open the TEF software it tells me my current version is obsolete, but when I go to the site I don’t see a more up to date version to get. Is this because I am on a Mac, or because I am using the free version? 2) When I set it to increase speed by 2 percent, it only increases it by one percent. This is ok anyway, but can you imagine what I am doing wrong?

#18

The biggest difference you’ll hear is the tone. When I put mediums on my Twanger, it kind of chokes it out. Notes don’t sustain for as long and it just lacks the vibrancy I get with those XT lights.

Another benefit is that lights are easier to play. Much less effort on your fretting fingers.

What’s interesting is that the Twanger is the first instrument I’ve ever owned where that was the case. My whole life I thought there was a trade off between the playability of thinner strings and the tone of thicker ones. The Twanger flipped that script.

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#19

I just opened it and got the same SW update notice. I’d just click the radio button that says ‘don’t show this again’. Tef also gets off by 1 or 2% for me too. For instance, I may set it for 50BPM and when I go back and look it changed it to 49BPM. No big deal, that 1 or 2% is no factor. If you increase/decrease 5% does that work better for you? I don’t ever increase/decrease less 5 BPM.

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#20

Interesting. I’ve never changed the BPM. I change the playback speed setting under the MIDI menu. Never noticed it changing the BPM.