Banjolele... How do you use it? What do you think about it?

Claw-hammer all the way :music:

That's what I expected out of a banjo uke, but the one I bought, as well as the few others I've tried, don't do clawhammer in a way that suites my taste--just not enough sustain after the initial bark of the hammered string. I much prefer standard ukuleles for clawhammer.

Where banjo ukes excel, for me, is on jazzy, strummy, ragtimey, dixieland stuff. Needless to say: YMMV.
 
If you want it, it's worth the money.

With that said I personally opted to just get a banjo. A banjolele sounds cool and is fun to play (because a uke is fun to play) but IMO it's kind of an unnecessary mash-up. Get your banjo sounds from a banjo and your uke from a uke

I play both banjo and banjo uke. Honestly, folks, you don't really have to make a choice. Play what you want to play.
 
I played banjo before playing uke. At one point, I had 35 banjos .... now I have 3 in playing condition but the only one that I ever play is a 1920's "Own Make" 17 fret tenor that I've kept strung high G with nylguts for the past 12+ years so's I can play it as a uke.

Back in the days when I had BAS, any number of vintage banjo ukes passed through my hands but I never bonded with any of them because I found them too thin in tone. That is taken care of with the full size pot of the tenor... something which Deering seems to have figured out as well.
 
I was a drummer all my life and have always played the uke like a percussion instrument. The banjole is my most "percussive" uke, so I think I have the most fun with it.

That said, it rarely comes out except for Christmas time, when I play it almost exclusively. I love the joyous tone it brings to "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," and all those non-religious Christmas songs.
 
Yesterday, I played my newly-acquired Firefly with my uke group, and I was very pleased with the sound. I'll definitely be playing that a lot.
 
I am not sure about the rules of this forum regarding thread resurrections, but I will take my chances with this one :)

I have been thinking of setting up a sort of bluegrass / roots project, where I would mainly play electric upright bass and do some backing vocals, and have a lead singer/guitar player on (preferably [semi-]acoustic) guitar But to diversify the sound I would like to add a second instrument from my side. I'm a poor guitar player, but do slightly better on the uke. However, I was thinking that either a banjo or a banjolele would be better suited for this type of project.

I posted a different thread on another part of this forum, inquiring about learning the banjo but was told it would take ages to properly learn. As a uke player, I guess the banjolele would be simpler, since I could approach it as the uke that it is. For those of you with experience on either instrument, but preferably both: would a banjolele work in a 2- or 3-man setting as described?
 
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