What's the beef with banjo players?

Bob Simons · Post by **Bob Simons** » 26 Feb 2009 7:50 am

"Perfect Pitch" for a banjo player- hitting the middle of the dumpster with it without touching any of the sides!

Can't help it...I'm a guitar player without 45 years of cruel guitar jokes to unburden myself of!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 26 Feb 2009 8:11 am

Alan wrote:

"Let's stop putting down the banjo. It's offensive to banjo players."

No! I say let's carry on....

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 8:32 am

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 26 Feb 2009 8:43 am

b0b...

How about a spam filter that's activated by the 'B'-word?

PS: I'm starting to realise that Doug B. is a pretty regular guy - first 'American Idol', now banjos....

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 9:03 am

Alan Kendall · Post by **Alan Kendall** » 26 Feb 2009 9:29 am

OK all you hardcore "banjer" haters, how many would turn down the Marty Stuart gig on RFD TV if it were offered?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 9:35 am

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 26 Feb 2009 9:45 am

Only under an 'assumed name'. (I'm nearer bankruptcy than Doug!)

I'm sorry too.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 26 Feb 2009 9:48 am

You all know the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, don't you?

Did you know that, after he got rid of all the city's rats, he went through the streets holding a banjo, and headed for that same river.....

Alan Kendall · Post by **Alan Kendall** » 26 Feb 2009 9:48 am

Jeff Evans · Post by **Jeff Evans** » 26 Feb 2009 11:18 am

I view banjo players with the same high regard as I do any musician who has learned to play his or her instrument to high level.We all know how many hundreds of hours must be put in to gain any degree of proficiency on any musical instrument, so why the constant berating of banjo players? The banjo is an integral part of country music, just like the fiddle, mandolin,and acoustic guitar, and has been around much longer than the pedal steel. Lets not forget they are fellow "Pickers",and I'm sure they love their chosen instrument just as much as we love ours.

Let's not have any more reasoned, intelligent outbursts like that around here. If necessary, you'll be deported to Dnt Undrstnd.

The fact is, most people in the world do Not like the sound.

Great. When the People of the World have any questions about what our opinions are, we certainly know now whom to ask. Thank you, Czar of World Opinion, Final Arbiter of Tastes in Music.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 26 Feb 2009 11:31 am

I'm always fascinated by people ascribing their personal opinions to thousands of other people they've never met or talked to.
I'm glad I have no problems playing with banjo, I would have missed out on a hell of a lot of fun and a couple hundred grand over the past few years!
Here's a look at the front section of around 12,000 banjo haters. You might notice them hating the banjo player, gray shirt, front and center...

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 26 Feb 2009 11:50 am

The fact is, most people in the world do Not like the sound.

A steel player at night, a statatition for a day gig, very impressive

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 11:58 am

Jon Nygren · Post by **Jon Nygren** » 26 Feb 2009 1:03 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote:Banjo has UNITED the people of the world.

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It's UNIVERSALLY Hated!

That is awesome. I'm not much of a banjo fan either- reminds me of 'deliverance' too much. I may just print that out and hang it up!!

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 26 Feb 2009 1:10 pm

Perfect Pitch" for a banjo player- hitting the middle of the dumpster with it without touching any of the sides!

I wonder how many banjo players are guilty of telling the same joke over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over....

-John

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 1:44 pm

John McGlothlin · Post by **John McGlothlin** » 26 Feb 2009 1:50 pm

No offense toward the steel guitar or steel players but I love the 5-string banjo and always will. I love steel guitar and dobro and guitar...I'll play steel guitar along with a good banjo picker anytime I get the chance. I done some music back in Virginia with a friend by the name of Dicky Robbins and learnd that he was an uncle to Butch Robbins who played banjo for the great Wilma Lee Cooper of the Grand Ole Opry and he later went to work playing for Bill Monroe and before that, he helped form the Newgrass Revival along with the famous Sam Bush and John Cowan. I respect and loved the work that Rabbit Easter and his first cousin Russell would do together on banjo and steel guitar. I also remember meeting a great legend of pedal steel guitar from Bluefield WV named Buddy Pennington who was also a great 5-string banjo picker and also Eric Weisburg who played dueling banjos was also a pedal steel guitarist. I love to play steel guitar but the great music of this wonderful world is not just steel guitar.

Steve Broatch · Post by **Steve Broatch** » 26 Feb 2009 2:07 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote:
The fact is, most people in the world do Not like the sound.

That's not a fact.

The fact is you do not know what most people in the world do or do not like - be it banjos, bassoons or budgerigars.

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 26 Feb 2009 2:21 pm

Ok Doug, take this....

Ulric Utsi-Åhlin · Post by **Ulric Utsi-Åhlin** » 26 Feb 2009 2:59 pm

Interesting...the Swedish "Nyckelharpa" is sometimes
considered "hokey" & "homegrown" IN IT`S HABITAT...
the BANJO is empirically defined as THE American
instrument,and DOES it gets bashed by You..?..
do we eat our own,or what... McUtsi

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 3:45 pm

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 26 Feb 2009 4:05 pm

Hey, here's one everybody is sure to love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=FR&hl=fr&v=XMslcp2WYHg - I guess I'll have to try to dig up some new ones when banjo-hate threads come up.

I emphatically don't think anybody should like or dislike banjo based on anything I or anybody else says. Everybody has stuff they can't stand - don't get me goin' about Idol or soap operas. But this gets beat into the ground a lot here. I understand that some of this is in fun, but a lot of it seems, to me, to border on rancorous. No problem as long as it works both ways, but I get the sense that it doesn't. I guess everybody needs a whipping boy and I admit, banjo players often step right up to the plate, but more on that below.

As far as Deliverance and all the other banjo stereotypes go - I find it rather ironic, if not amusing, that the 'majority' of a board with thousands of "country-only" pedal steel players argue that a banjo is too hillbilly for them. Pedal steel is a perennial whipping boy for millions of people who hate country music and everything it stands for. Seems I left a couple of bands because of that "pedal steel is too hillbilly for me" rigid mindset. What goes around generally will back around.

On the banjo jokes - it's because they know what a banjo is and the stereotypes associated with it. Millions love it, millions hate it. I imagine if even 5% of the population knew what a pedal steel was, there'd be a lot more jokes about it. I would not argue mainstream acceptance of pedal steel over banjo, not by a loooooong shot.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 26 Feb 2009 4:18 pm

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 26 Feb 2009 4:26 pm

Are all six string banjos tuned like a guitar?
I saw Gary say to tune the 6th string to C.
What tuning/string is that refering to?
Do any six string banjos have that extra tuner at the 5th fret?

fwiw, I run into crappy, annoying, same lick in every key playing, never stopping playing, too loud with crappy tone, "hamonica players", at a rate of about 10:1 compared to banjo players.
Surely way more people hate harmonica than banjo, no?
I've never heard of anybody giving their kids a banjo in order to covertly torture their ex-wife, but I am aware that this is commonplace with "harmonicas" at pretty much every gift giving occassion.

I'm an "Old and In the Way" type of banjo guy, myself.
I want to get a banjo and play all the Jerry Garcia licks in an O&ITW Tribute Band (I'm being Dead serious [pun intended though])!