![]() Then the SAME store on advertised a CC-Mini, and this time the photo was clear enough to tell that it really IS a CC-Mini. I’d have to replace the gig bag, though, since the one they sent with it is made for a full-length resonator banjo.Īlso, the banjo is yellow, which doesn’t sit right with me. Alternatively, I COULD take the resonator and the cheesy resonator brackets off and use it as a travel banjo. Then I’d review it for my web pages and try to sell it locally. It came playable, but needing adjustment, and I am neck deep in other things, so I figured I’d wait until I had time to tighten the head, crank back the neck, adjust the coordinator rods to get the right tilt on the neck, and properly place the bridge. I tried to conduct the seller to ask if they wanted it back, but a: their web site was down, and b: by the time they paid for shipping both ways, it would be a “wash” for them anyway. With the tone ring, resonator, and dual coordinator rods, it would make a decent Bluegrass banjo for a child prodigy or an adult with short arms. And a more expensive banjo than I expected. The only problem is that the banjo I got wasn’t a Gold Tone CC-Mini it was a Gold-Tone CC-Traveler, an A-Scale version with a resonator, tone ring, and dual coordinator rods. They wanted WAY too much to ship it, so I counter-offered, and they sold it to me. ![]() The photos were ambiguous, but I thought maybe it was an older model. I just didn’t feel right paying more for a Chinese made mini-instrument than for an American-made real banjo. Here’s the glitch – they cost more than the best-in-class under-$800 A scale banjo, the Deering Parlor. Imagine that, a G-tuned banjo you can backpack with, without snagging every overhead branch! Although it “technically” should be tuned to a higher key, like C, some folks have reported success putting heavy strings on them and tuning them to G. It also has a shorter scale, so its total length is 28″, reputedly making it great for backpacking. It has an 8″ head, so it wouldn’t be any more than 9″ wide at the widest part. One unique short-scale banjo is the Gold Tone CC-Mini. But most folks just put on medium or heavier strings and tune them to G anyway.) (They’re called “A Scale” in part because if you use the same strings, you have to tune them a step higher than “G tuning” to have the same tone. “A Scale” 5-string banjos, which are based on the scale length of the 19-fret tenor banjo, tend to be about 34″ long, but they are just as wide as full-sized banjos. ![]() 5-string banjos tend to be 38″ long or longer and 12-13.5″ wide at the widest part, depending on whether they have a resonator or not. My Backpacker is 35″ long and just over 9″ wide at its widest part. When I wrote an article about “short-scale” and travel banjos for the Riverboat Music site, it got me thinking that I would like to have a 5-string that was as portable as my Martin Backpacker travel guitar. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |