Im love this. I would love listening or playing this instrument while fishing for catfish at the river. Lord is most gracious. Most holy. Everytime i go fishing. I see all the creatures at the river. The birds. Fish. Turtles. Insects. Lizards. Sky. Water. Mountains. Trees. I think wow. Lord you are almighty.
This instrument is close to it's ancestor from Africa. It was used for wedding ceremonies, etc. The African word for banjo roughly translates 'to sing and dance' depending on the time period and region. The original instrument in Africa was fretless with strings usually made from sinu. This gentleman's instrument is very close replica. Great sound to accompany a great voice on a great song! Excellent job!!! Much respect to you sir.
Absolutely gorgeous! "Glory Bound" is one of my all-time favorite Wailin' Jennys songs, and your playing and the banjo really bring the song to life. Thank you so much for sharing this with the world!
That was really lovely--stirred up some emotion in this crusty old guy. Love the Wailing Jennys, and that baritone banjo is sublime. Well played and sung--thank you for sharing that with everybody.
Me too. Same feeling I get listening to Elizabeth cotton or old Dylan bootlegs, this sorry of lost, nostalgic feeling. And one day God will fix it all.
Banjo history is fascinating and while it almost certainly has ancestry with akontings, it is also rooted in other African lutes, as the African population brought to the western hemisphere came from many parts of Africa, the people groups not necessarily having prior contact with each other.
This is lovely! Found it while researching about minstrel and gourd banjos, and fell in love with this beautiful instrument. Those bass tones are wonderful . I'll be trying a build like this. Lovely stuff. ❤
Standard scale. Flat-wound classics guitar strings. The warmth comes from everything; gourd, skin, soundhole, strings, neck. I’ve dialed in this tone after several years of tweaking the design. Thanks for the kind words.
Beautifully played and beautifully sung, and that banjo sounds INCREDIBLE. I've just been plinking around on my long scale minstrel, which I have tuned gdgdb - I don't know what your tuning is here, but my instrument would not handle things that low, and yours sounds SO RICH
Thanks for the kind words. It represents a couple years of tweaking each element of the design to maximize the warmth and low-end volume such that now it is an entirely different instrument than a standard pitched banjo.. It's tuned a full octave below standard tuning so even though the fingerings are all the same, the playing approach is much slower and more minimal than traditional banjo playing.
@@LowlyMountainBanjos Yeah, I've discovered the same things, technique wise, on my Ballard Banjers minstrel. When I can, though, I'm gonna order one of these from you - I'm blown away. Can you ship internationally?
If I were to ask you to build me one of these but with a dark neck, how much would you charge. I have a budget of $470. That was beautifully played and sung by the way.
Great work! The playing, singing, and craftsmanship. I came across this video while going on a banjo music adventure. And I am convinced i want to learn to play. How much does a banjo like this go for?
amazing performance, i found you a year back or so and i always find myself coming back to this one. Your baritone gourd banjo had inspired me to make my own some day and ive had some experience making gourd banjos so im hoping this one goes well haha. also, what kind of gourd did you use for the body? ive never seen one like it! asking for a friend…
Great to hear! I get all my gourds from a local farm. I get to hand pick each one, but they are mostly all cross-pollinated so I’m not sure what the variety would be.
What a beautiful sounding instrument! 🥰 What kind of strings did you use, just regular nylon/nylguts or are these longer? I would love to build something similar some day myself
Thanks for saying so. I typically use flat-wound classical guitar strings. This one is a mixture of that along with some minstrel banjo strings as an experiment. Cello banjo strings are a possible solution as well.
hi i built my first gourd banjo because of this video and this guitar. i finished the guitar today but now i don't know how to tune it or what strings to use . i thought i would find it online but cant find any thing on the low tuning. you cant buy baritone strings in new Zealand so i bought two packets of classical nylon strings. could you please tell me which string to use out of my two classical string packets and where they go how to tune them please ? my next order of business once strung was to learn this song and your other song on baritone about the lonely wife waiting 7 years.
That’s wonderful to hear. You can use the lowest four strings from the classical guitar set for the full-length strings and the high E string as the short string. Tune them a full octave below standard banjo tuning. I’d love to hear it when you’re done.
@@LowlyMountainBanjos h again thanks ! well iv finished my banjo and yes id be very happy if you get a chance to check it out on my channel :) i kinda went my own way with build due to some mistakes i made early on .
@snuffman5497 oldtime banjo uses many tunings. G and C are probably the most popular, or their counterparts A and D when playing with a fiddle. The tunings are more than just about playing in different keys though. They are about accessing different pitch collections with the scale degrees at different locations on the fingerboard. So they each have their own unique characteristics.
I'm not entirely sure of the species. Gourds have a way of crossbreeding. I handpick every gourd from a local farm and they grow a variety of gourds there. Every now and then they get these gourds that are abnormally large and set them aside for me.
