The Grass Is Bluer On This Side...

Comment

Comment by Ben on November 1, 2009 at 2:40pm

Mark, tuning that way is pretty common. "Chicago Tuning" I believe. Good luck!

Comment by Dianne Woods on November 1, 2009 at 2:32pm

Thank you Ben for asking me to join your group.

Comment by Mark Werner on October 31, 2009 at 9:56am

I'll likely experiment when I get it done (just shaping the neck now). I'm tempted to tune the same as the "top four" of a standard guitar just to simplify fingering.

Comment by Ben on October 31, 2009 at 7:54am

Mark, I've got a tenor CBG that I love. I personally think its got a great sound! I tune it the traditional CGDA. What were you thinking for yours?

Comment by Ronnie Retherford on October 31, 2009 at 1:44am

Man of Constant Sorrow would work on a CBG.

Comment by Ronnie Retherford on October 31, 2009 at 1:41am

Here is a video of the Bluegrass band 'Pure and Simple' playing 'Steel Guitar Rag'. Not a Bluegrass tune but it sounds great played on a 'dobro' guitar. The dobro player is playing this tune on a three stringer that I built for him. (That's me playing the mandolin). Hope you like it.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/pure-simple-bluegrass-perry

Comment by Mark Werner on October 30, 2009 at 8:20pm

I started out my guitar-picking learning bluegrass and string-band stuff; everyone else I knew back in the 70s was playing fingerstyle folk (they called it "Travis picking") and I wanted to be a little different.
Developed into a pretty fair flatpicker...
I tend to like the "Newgrass" stuff; the hard-core traditional material gets a bit boring after a while. (also, I don't have anything like that "high lonesome" voice..)
New Grass Revival, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, guys like that.

I have my cigar-box mandola that I'm gradually getting more proficient at, and I find that I can do a kind of banjo-like frailing on my resonator box.
I'm working on what will be (hopefully) a tenor-guitar sized box that I can really flatpick.

Comment by Ben on October 30, 2009 at 4:23pm

I love the plaintive sound of a fretless banjo. Since we're talking about banjos now, I was in my local music shop today and played the best-set-up banjo I ever had. It was a Fender (usually when I play something made by Fender I think to myself that they should have stuck with electric instruments) so I was pleasantly surprised. It gave me a little kick in the butt to come home and fiddle with mine a bit to see if I can get it set up a bit better.

Comment by Randy S. Bretz on October 30, 2009 at 6:34am

I saw a real cool fretless banjo on youtube the other day. The fingerboard had formica on it. The player said it was smooth as butter when playing it. Sounds like I might have to try that on an up coming build.

Comment by Tam Givens on October 29, 2009 at 3:14am

I play bluegrass songs on 3 and 4 string, Long journey home, worried man, Jesse James, Columbus stockade, New river train, stuff like that.
Tam

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