Anyone have one of these?
1st, let me tell ya. These things have the "cool factor" going for them. It reads pretty dang high on the "Coolometer" IMHO. But, that said, these things sound freaking HORRIBLE. I made some rawhide friction washers for the tuners, and they hold pretty good now and they are actually friction tuners now instead of slick hard plastic on shiny smooth chrome for it's friction surface, (whos idea was THAT, lol). Kinda like soaking the soles of your sneakers in motor oil so you can get more traction on the floor. Anyway, Intonation? FAGEDDABODDIT!!!.. Intonation starts to go off at about, what, the #1 fret!!! lol.. That is of course once you get it to hold it's tune between adjustment, and actually plucking the string.. ...
Anyway.. I think this thing is cool anyway.. Sorry, it just is.. Regardless of how it sounds, and the fact that it is pretty painful to actually play it. But, I think I am going to pull the neck off this thing. I think the solid chrome plated cast metal neck, complete with cast frets, fretboard, and nut (all being cast along with and in the neck) is the issue with these things.. The chrome plated cast head, tension bolts, and all, is actually not a bad design. It has a cool "tinny" tin can resonance to it as you would expect. But, I think I am going to pull the neck off this thing, and build a neck out of maple, with a real fretboard (rosewood) with real frets, and some decent tuners, and a real nut from bone or maybe even ebony. I am thinking about a bit longer scale, like a super soprano or something. I think that would make these things actually a really cool, and even a respectable banjole.. This is gonna be fun... Let's make a "Dixie Dük" out of this thing..
1st, let me tell ya. These things have the "cool factor" going for them. It reads pretty dang high on the "Coolometer" IMHO. But, that said, these things sound freaking HORRIBLE. I made some rawhide friction washers for the tuners, and they hold pretty good now and they are actually friction tuners now instead of slick hard plastic on shiny smooth chrome for it's friction surface, (whos idea was THAT, lol). Kinda like soaking the soles of your sneakers in motor oil so you can get more traction on the floor. Anyway, Intonation? FAGEDDABODDIT!!!.. Intonation starts to go off at about, what, the #1 fret!!! lol.. That is of course once you get it to hold it's tune between adjustment, and actually plucking the string.. ...
Anyway.. I think this thing is cool anyway.. Sorry, it just is.. Regardless of how it sounds, and the fact that it is pretty painful to actually play it. But, I think I am going to pull the neck off this thing. I think the solid chrome plated cast metal neck, complete with cast frets, fretboard, and nut (all being cast along with and in the neck) is the issue with these things.. The chrome plated cast head, tension bolts, and all, is actually not a bad design. It has a cool "tinny" tin can resonance to it as you would expect. But, I think I am going to pull the neck off this thing, and build a neck out of maple, with a real fretboard (rosewood) with real frets, and some decent tuners, and a real nut from bone or maybe even ebony. I am thinking about a bit longer scale, like a super soprano or something. I think that would make these things actually a really cool, and even a respectable banjole.. This is gonna be fun... Let's make a "Dixie Dük" out of this thing..