When we left off Lonnie was
working on his 1976 Stelling banjo…and he is STILL working on his 1976 Stelling
banjo (his first banjo). We have had lots of musical interruptions and
distractions but it has been GOOD musical interruptions and distractions.
The Stelling banjo, so far
Lonnie has tried the frosted Weather King Head purchased directly from
Stelling. That was okay but he wanted to hear more tone and volume.
So he purchased another lighter weight, thinner frosted banjo head (no name
brand). That experiment did not go well as he pushed the tension too far
and fractured the banjo head…It did not blow up the head…but put a slight crack
in it at the rim that caused the tone of the banjo to sound like
“boing-boing”. He thought he would try a Five Star banjo head as he
really likes the one on his Stanleytone banjo. While he was waiting for
the Five Star head to arrive (idle time is a bad thing, too much time to think)
from Stu-Mac he put the new banjo head from Stelling back on to give it another
try. For some unknown reason the second time was a charm. This time
the banjo sounded awesome with the Stelling head AND a new Bart Veerman bridge
made it come to life.
The order information that came with the banjo bridge |
Installed and ready to go...signed by Bart... just like a piece of artwork |
Ready for a test drive |
More about the Veerman bridges: First, Bart Veerman is a wonderful and nice person who is great to communicate and work with. Lonnie has had great success with his previous purchase of a Veerman Archie red dot bridge for a Stanleytone he set up for a friend. That Stanleytone #25 banjo loved the
Here is a link to the Bart Veerman website: http://www.banjobridge.com/
Lonnie was
working on the Stelling most of the afternoon Saturday, when he got it
assembled and new strings installed…WOW! Right from the very first note
he had found the combination. The banjo is bright, loud and rings clear
as a bell. I think he surprised himself. We had plans for the evening
so the banjo head settled in overnight. In the morning the head tension
was holding at 93 on the drum dial…sweet!
We had an
afternoon jam to attend on Sunday at the Gatchellville Store in New Park , PA.
Since Lonnie was pleased with the tone of the Stelling there was no reason to
wait for its re-début. A couple of quick banjo case changes, a double
check for the tuner, picks and capo and out the door we went. A fresh set
up on an old banjo that felt like a new banjo once again.
Lonnie
played his Stelling softly the entire afternoon just to make sure all was
okay. Sure enough the banjo felt and sounded great. He is very
pleased with the tone, the new Bart
Veerman Bridge
and the over all familiar feel of this old friend, his first banjo. The
neck is true and plays clean the whole way up the neck, no sharp
notes.
As fate would have it…and things just keep coming full circle for us…who shows up at
the jam? None other then Chris Warner the owner of the string shop
(closed his shop many years ago) in Hanover ,
PA where the Stelling Bellflower
was first purchased in 1977. Now Lonnie being the modest person that he
is did not say anything to Chris but took great delight in playing his Stelling
banjo in Chris’s presence knowing it was another “full circle” moment.
Pretty darn cool.
The jam was
great; the Stelling banjo sounded great and has met all Lonnie’s
expectations. And I can now say I have had the opportunity to play bass
(my 1941 Epiphone B5 named Ruben) with another great banjo player…Chris Warner. I tell ya... I have had a run on picking with
some great players here of late. Hope
that streak continues.