The Steel Guitar Forum

I was wondering. Do any of you guys run your banjo through a pre amp, specifically an EQ pedal before your amp? I just installed a Shatten PU in my banjo and I was just curious.....

Robbie

A preamp is best unless you are running it through an amp designed specifically for use with acoustic instruments, then it becomes redundant...FYI: Blocking the holes in the flange with foam rubber strips will help somewhat, but if you are playing with a loud band you still may not be able to turn the volume up high enough to be heard without causing feedback. I finally gave up trying to compete with the drummer and purchased a solid body electric banjo.

I have a Ibanez banjo with a piezo pickup under the bridge with a twelve inch circle of foam rubber two inches thick jammed in it to kill feedback..I run it through a MXR six band-eq, rolling off the bass. I can run it into my pedal steel amp just backing off on the reverb and have a usable volume with a six piece band..JS

Thanks guys...The foam rubber idea sounds like a good one......I'll give it try with an EQ...

Robbie

I have a schatten pu in my recording king banjo and usually have no gain problems interfacing with various PAs and amps. I do throw a Baggs Para DI in the cable box, just in case I'm somewhere in which I need to notch out a feedback frequency.

No! I use a magnetic DeArmond pickup.

Rob, I play a Deering Crossfire Banjo for plugged in gigs and have no feedback concerns but I still need to EQ that banjo with a Boss GE-7 Equalizer. The EQ rounds out the sound a little. The Crossfire is not 100% banjo sounding like a miked banjo. The convenience factor on the bandstand and larger venues is worth the sacrifice . The GE-7 on the pedal board is very handy when I switch to steel for dobro simulation and just good old boost when you need it. I should probably be running two GE-7 stompboxes, one for the banjo as a pre amp and the other dedicated to the steel guitar.

Thanks for the advice guys. I tried running it through a Danelectro Fish And Chips EQ the other day and there was quite difference in overall boost and tone.....I'll keep using it. See how holds up on a gig,...

Happy New Year to everyone...

Robbie

In their Fender amp days, Sonny Osborne glued an iron "chip" to the underside of the head, and put a pickup mounted on the rod. It always sounded good to me.
No preamp, just a banjo, a ridiculous curly cable (in fairness, it WAS the early 70s) and a Twin.

What Lane is describing is the 'Fishman' banjo pickup system.

Rob,

In the past I found a good compressor to be helpful when using a pickup on a banjo. I would set it to slightly soften the initial string attack which can be overwhelming with a pickup. You might find adding a line buffer like a Freeloader or Black Box would help a lot. The bass player in the band I currently play with added a Black Box to his standup rig and it made a world of difference. It smoothed out the attack, warmed up the tone and balanced the frequency response giving his sound a much more musical quality to overall. Good luck.

Gary Meixner

Robbie,
You didn't specify if your banjo is a solid body electric or acoustic built. If its acoustic and of a decent build, keep it as such. Acoustic. When its time for a banjo tune and if your band mates are of professional quality, your banjo will sell the song. I suppose there is new technology out there to amplify an acoustic banjo, but I ain't heard nuffin yet....

Best idea I've heard for acoustic banjo is to put a piece of magnetic material under the bridge and mount a magnetic pickup underneath it. A tiny piece would do... say, inset into the bottom of the center leg.

We don't allow banjo players in our band, just kidding. The best system I've seen is like Bela Fleck's, which is a mic mounted to the top rod, and has an adjustment to allow it to be 1/4" below the head, and then some foam insulation for feedback. I don't know the brand, but you can probably check the banjo hangout forum.

Audio Technica makes a nifty clip on sax mic that I used at many different venues. Great tone, plenty of flex for mounting, never a complaint.....

Gary Lee Gimble wrote:Robbie,
You didn't specify if your banjo is a solid body electric or acoustic built. If its acoustic and of a decent build, keep it as such. Acoustic. When its time for a banjo tune and if your band mates are of professional quality, your banjo will sell the song. I suppose there is new technology out there to amplify an acoustic banjo, but I ain't heard nuffin yet....

Gary, what's wrong with old school?
Sonny did what Stephen and I talked about.
I think it sounds banjeriffic!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3lvuSK8KjY
(I tried to find one from the same show with more banjo, Camp Springs, 1971, but I got the wrong search terms: this is all I find)
EDIT: I found Ruby, with Sonny showing off that low string. I miss that 6 string ("EVERYBODY has a banjo that goes 'ping.' MINE goes 'pong.')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiOaSWu ... 3lvuSK8KjY

I use a K&K twin head in both my banjos (5-string and tenor) and for a preamp, my favorite is the Tonebone PZ-Pre (for 2 instruments) or the PZ-Deluxe (for one instrument). The Twin head is a dual magnetic pickup, so no worries about feedback.

This is the setup used by The Punch Brothers. Need I say more? Actually, Thile and the guys also use a condenser mic ( Audio Technica ATM-35)and a Line 6 multi-effect. All 5 guys have the same set-up. I spoke with their tech after a gig and he said they tried everything and ended up with this setup.

Also, you could forego the preamp if you have a really good acoustic guitar amp, such as a Phil Jones Cub or an AER.

Lane, "old school" at best sounded nasty; the 'ole 5 just didn't have that crack, IMO. I don't ever recall seeing Emerson, Arnold, Eldrige, Crowe, Adock, W Hensley, C Johnson, Keith, Munde, Dillard, & Thomson incorporate what you suggest. But hey, if you like banjoeriffic, who am I to argue

Hell, nothing but an archtop REALLY has "crack."
(Admittedly, I LITERALLY cut my teeth on 'em, both Ralph and Eddie: Tom STILL has the records I chewed)
But I thought electric Sonny sounded like miked Sonny.
And I meant the old school electrification. I haven't heard a plugged-in that sounds better than Sonny got it 42 years ago. Maybe the secret is a Twin instead of a soundboard?

Forget all of this stuff about preamps and foam and separate EQ's and get a Gold Tone electric. Cut the highs on your amp and turn up. I had one that looked like a tele.

Contact Janet Davis music.

Larry Behm

Buy a Stelling Red Fox banjo, get behind a good condenser mic and pick it son......becareful not to peel the paint off the walls

Rob, I think the situation can be different between banjo types in principle. I started with a Fender Banjo + shadows SH930 bridge PU + DI and the PA. I had problem about the volume and background undesidered noise. SO that I insert in the line also a Volume pedal to adjust signal when required. SHR930 needs anyway DI to conect to our PA. At the moment I'm playing a RK-R80 Recording king amazing banjo. Really bluegrassy banjo with Fishmann rare earth (under the skin)and I've solved all the problem. Even if the band rise their volume I can rise banjo volume too w/o problem and the sound remain really close to the MIC. IMO. I still use volume pedal in the chain . My volume pedal can be set wit 2 volume so I can use low volume (pedal closed) during the back up time and higher volome (i choose it depending on the band volume) for solos.

I haven't tried the Schatten (although I've read great things about it), but for my Fishman pickup (pre-Rare Earth, so no built-in preamp), I use a stompbox preamp to get the level up. Actually, I use two -- the second one is to give me more gain for solos. More wires than I'd prefer, but this is a lot less expensive than using a Radial or Baggs preamp-with-boost.

I have a Whirlwind DI box for running straight to the PA board, although I have also run the banjo to my lap steel amp, and with drums, electric guitar and bass all cranked, it still sounds enough like a banjo to work. I wouldn't record with a pickup, but it sounds fine for stage use.