Tag: acoustic music

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A Closer Look at the Magic Fluke FIREFLY 5-String Banjo

A little Get-Cha Started Background:

For some time I have been envious of great clawhammer banjo players. I love how “Clucky” and mellow their sound is, how they deliver simple bit elegant melodies that get stuck in my head, and of course that wonderfully woody, percussive sound of their chosen instruments. A great clawhammer banjo is often a simple design that doesn’t layer complex tones and structures together, but rather hands the player the basic quality of tones and lets the artist craft the colors and shapes of sound into something of beauty.

All of that sounds great… However, I am missing the “bum-ditty enzyme” and I seem to be physiologically and spiritually unable to play clawhammer (even a little) convincingly – certainly not “well.” Understanding my “limitations” I started looking for an instrument that would allow me, and my three-fingery ways, to mellow down and assimilate some of those clucky tones for myself. Along the way I acquired another terrific bluegrass banjo that tempted me beyond my ability to resist it, a fun and rambunctious folk banjo that gets me closer to what I was seeking, but the search for a mellow clucky fiddle tune banjo remained elusive.

Then, while I was working in Alaska, my wife ordered and received a gift for me… The Magic Fluke Firefly banjo. She had it waiting for me when I returned home to South Carolina. Buying the banjo is a simple build-to-order process of choosing from a handful of options (nylon string vs steel string / drum frame and fingerboard wood choice / head selection / position markers / frailing scoop / electronics / etc.). She thought this instrument would check off few of the boxes for me, and she was right. This is a delightful banjo, that is just what I was looking for. I had originally looked past the Firefly because I thought it was more of a “banjo-uke” but the model and configuration that I received is a serious banjo player’s banjo.

Before I go into my personal application of the Firefly banjo, let me tell you a little more about Magic Fluke and the design of this specific banjo.

The Magic Fluke company:

Magic Fluke, in Hartford Connecticut, is a purveyor of American Made instruments, using domestically sourced woods, and unique, affordable instrument designs that just work. They have several product lines and a great website that walks you through the company, their design philosophy, their build approach, and the retail plan for how you can get your hands on an instrument. See them at https://magicfluke.com/.

The Banjo:

The 5-string banjo that I am reviewing was built to order. This instrument features steel string construction, an engraved walnut drum frame and finger board, and a fiber skin head. The Gotoh geared 4:1 tuning machines for first through fourth strings are mounted in a unique single slot headstock. The nut design features a zero fret which allows very easy action on the first few frets. The thin skirt maple rim and the single coordinator rod deliver simple, effective adjustment for the full action of the instrument. An experienced banjo player will have no problem when setting the action to their preference.

The head tension comes from a top-tension type system that essentially pulls a tension form with a floating wood tone ring up and into the head, mounted under the stationary drum frame (versus, a floating tension hoop that is pulled down against a bead of the head that is stretched over a stationary tone ring.) While I have seen this general approach before, the Magic Fluke design is elegant and effective.

The entire banjo is on a smaller scale than any standard bluegrass or old-time 5-string banjo. The fret scale, head, and over-all pot assembly. The banjo is light and can be held comfortably while playing. The sound is woody and “clucky” while the over-all playability is outstanding.

My modifications:

I added a Shubb 5th string capo. I know there are a couple of “religions” dealing with 5th string capoing, nails, spring and rail, elastic, and clip on, but my preference is for Shubb. I used to use the spring and rail type, but I just got used to the reliability and workability of Shubb. Plus I met Rick Shubb and once the man himself talks about his innovations with me, and it kind of stuck. I purchased a custom Nechville a whale back and the factory nearly insisted that I get nails instead of a Shubb. My Nechville banjo has really well-installed nails for capoing, AND the fifth string pip is actually a spike that holds the string down against the fifth fret. They work great, and as far as capoing is concerned they are “as advertised.” Most of all, and I can’t stress this enough, I hate them (sorry Tom), and my beautiful Nechville banjo is ultimately destined for Shubb as well (I will likely keep the pip-less design and that will come up again in this review – stay tuned). Also please understand that I enjoy my Nechville banjo, I just don’t like the fifth string capo schema. I fret the 5th string all the time, so how this system works for me is actually quite important and makes me a real fussy customer when approaching it.

I am planning to replace the bridge. Well, maybe. The Firefly bridge works. I would love to explore having a Katz Eye, pegged, McCormick factory floor bridge made for the banjo. Fingers crossed on that. More to come.

I am not altogether fond of the metal 5th string pip that comes installed on the Firefly. It came with unusably high action on the pip and a distractingly “tinny” sound. I have a passive plan to replace it with a bone pip, but a strange thing happened when I got the action set where I like it. The darned thing mellowed out, and to my ear it sounds – well – “OK” now. Maybe it has something to do with “break angle” or thinning out the amount of bulk metal in the pip itself… I dunno, but I may just not follow through with my plan to replace the pip. Another thought is to go the “Nechville” path and put a spike behind the fifth fret and see how that works. My concern is that the fret wire on the Firefly is about the same gauge as you would expect on a mandolin, so it may not be hearty enough for that design. But we will see, enough “advice” from my picker friends and it could sway me one way or the other.

Another “was gonna” replacement was the 4:1 tuning machines. I was going to replace them with 20:1 butter bean tuning machines. But I have actually grown to like these tuners. I think I am sticking with them unless a “deal” comes along. Maybe. I guess. But you gotta see this headstock slotting system with these tuning machines… It’s inspiring and just “cute.” It’s a feature that makes you wanna pick the darned thing up and pick for a hot minute.

As far as playability I decided to take advantage of the short scale and “up-tune” the banjo a full step to make it a fiddle tune machine. The banjo is really responsive to standard G-Tuning, and you certainly don’t have to up-tune if you don’t want to, but I gotta tell ya – it works. I will say that after setting the action and head tension I am impressed with the bass response of this mighty mite, and the Firefly handles G or C tunings like it’s many bigger cousins in the folk banjo family.

I don’t really have a good “Strap Plan” yet, but so far so good with just holding it without a strap. Yeah – no kidding – it is THAT light. It’s like holding a uke w/o strap. Am I gonna get tired of the “hold it and pick it” strategy and turn all “old guy cranky?” Of course I am, so I will need to think through the strap plan a little further, but it will be an adventure, so I am looking forward to it.

Recommendation:

Yes – Recommended! For an instrument in the $700 range, it is a more serious consideration than a banjo-uke… But this is not a banjo uke (don’t make the same mistake I did when I first saw it online and write it off as such).  

The musician that would benefit from owning this banjo is a 5-string player with at least a reliably fluent ability on the instrument, and a good working knowledge of banjo set-up and maintenance, who is looking for a cool banjo with a unique and distinctive voice to add to their playing collection. To that player I fully recommend the Magic Fluke 5-string banjo.

I should mention that if – by some chance – you are a musician that is indeed looking for a banjo uke, check out Magic Fluke for that too. They make baritone and tenor versions of their “banjolele,” but make sure you look at their cute little 3-string banjo uke called a Friendly Banjo that would be great for kids.

Below is a link to my YouTube demonstration of the Firefly banjo that my wife custom ordered from Magic Fluke and gifted to me. I am sure you will see this banjo more on this blog and on my YouTube channel.

LINK TO YOUTUBE Video Review:

FREE stuff!

I would like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. That way you won’t miss any of my acoustic and traditional music ramblings. When you subscribe to the NekkidMusic.com blog, you get a FREE get started e-guide to learn the 5-string banjo! You will learn the basic blocking and tackling to get you started playing chords, rolls, and fun old tunes on the instrument that launched the ship that Earl sailed upon. (I hear angels singing.) Please subscribe!

Take a leisurely look at my general store where I keep some links to important things that you can buy to help your pickin’. >>> Link to NekkidMusic.com general store <<< 

Thanks for stoppin’ by today! Ya’ll come back and we’ll do some pickin’.

TH

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4 Good Reasons to Tune Your Soprano Uke in 5ths, and 1 Great One

Fun factoid…. Avocados are not a vegetable. They are a berry. A single seeded berry. So if an avocado ain’t gotta be what it (obviously) is, then a ukulele can be a mandolin! That is to say that a soprano ukulele can be tuned in 5ths, just like a mandolin or violin with some help from a custom-gauge set of strings.

BUT HOW?

Since a ukulele isn’t specifically engineered to be tuned with the tension required for 5th tuning (E-A-D-G) you absolutely have to get your string gauges perfect to adapt the machine that is your ukulele to a more high-tension tuning. Aguila is one of the companies that makes a custom gauge set of string for 5th tuning, and they are fairly easy to find. SO please start by restringing your uke. As a note, it really doesn’t work well to tune the 5th tuning gauges to a standard tuning, so… you hear it coming… maybe you need to get another uke just for this experiment. I have a couple soprano ukes so I was set to go.

BUT WHY? (Here are 4 good reasons and 1 great one)

1: It gives you another voice to layer into your ukulele playing. This sounds nothing like a uke, more punchy like a mandolin, but kinda harsh like plucking a violin with a pick.

2: You will get to explore learning something new. If you don’t know anything about a mandolin, you should grab a chord chart, and maybe some tablature for some old fiddle tunes. Mando lin tablature is written on just four lines, so you wont have any trouble using it for a 5th tuned ukulele.

3: Very few other musicians, especially folk musicians, take this approach… So that means you aren’t copying ANYONE! That also you can’t do it wrong… In fact, you are the trendsetter. Getting on at the ground floor is pretty cool.

4: It is really fun to be the unique musician in a jam session, and this will a but assure that will be the case. Just before writing this blog is the first time I have tried tuning a uke in 5ths, and I can’t wait to give it a more public premier.

5: You will develop new techniques that inform and influence your playing on other instruments. This could be the best reason of all. I found that when tuned in 5ths, my soprano uke would kind of “wolf note” on any open string when soloing. So I tried to palm mute everything. This ended up sounding pleasantly “pizzicato” (when a violin is being plucked instead of bowed). After doing this I started trying to incorporate the pizzicato effect into playing the mandolin. I have always palm muted the mandolin, but not so much that the notes sounded super plucky. So, my mandolin playing evolved as a result of playing the uke tuned in 5ths.

MOVING FORWARD

If you would like to try this approach, please please please visit your favorite local music store first and pick up a set of ukulele strings designed for 5th tuning. Shopping local first is the best default strategy anytime! Please support your neighbors.

If you need to shop on the internet your favorite string shop probably has them available, and if you are an Amazon shopper, I have a link below to the strings I bought.

Also, I have a little YouTube of my 5th-tuned-uke experiment below. If you watch the video please watch through to the very end… I just really like the little cartoon of me on the very end of video – no other reason – just want to share the funny.

https://youtu.be/WADAwqm-bGY

FREE stuff!

I would like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. That way you won’t miss any of my acoustic and traditional music ramblings. When you subscribe to the NekkidMusic.com blog, you get a FREE get started e-guide to learn the 5-string banjo! You will learn the basic blocking and tackling to get you started playing chords, rolls, and fun old tunes on the instrument that launched the ship that Earl sailed upon. (I hear angels singing.) Please subscribe!

Take a leisurely look at my general store where I keep some links to important things that you can buy to help your pickin’. >>> Link to NekkidMusic.com general store <<< 

Thanks for stoppin’ by today! Ya’ll come back and we’ll do some pickin’.

TH

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Pickin’ in Open D and DADGAD Guitar Tuning

Spice it up a notch

Sometimes, my guitar pickin’ all sounds the same, and sooo… “predictable.” At least it sounds that way to me, and that ain’t no fun. A quick way to spice it up is with a new tuning. I often turn to the open D tuning and DADGAD to add the flavors I have been missing.

Open D Tuning

Drop your first string to D, second string down to A, third down to F#, leave the fourth as D, the fifth stays at A, and the sixth string tunes down to D. At first, it’s fussy with all the button turning on your tuning machines, but it’s worth it. And since you are taking tension off the strings and the neck it is a very stable tuning. I use open D to add something fresh-sounding to my repertoire without having to learn something new. For instance, I can take a song that I play in open G and directly translate that to open D by moving my fingering up a course of strings. (A melody line played on the third string in open G is played on the fourth string of open D tuning) With very minor modifications, I have a great old familiar song, in a new key, and in a fresh-sounding timbre.

DADGAD Tuning

DADGAD – named for the notes of the open strings, is only different from open D by how you tune the third string… An open G note versus an F# is open D. This makes the open strum a D sus 3rd. This change in timbre and tuning ‘plays’ more radical than the simplicity of the tuning would lead you to believe. This is a great tuning for composition and experimentation.

Below is a diagram of how the simple 1 – 4 – 5 chord progression compares between the open G, open D, and DADGAD tunings.

Below is a link to my video where I am demonstrating my approach to the Open D and DADGAD tunings.

Can I gitcha some FREE stuff?

I would like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. That way you won’t miss any of my acoustic and traditional music ramblings. When you subscribe to the NekkidMusic.com blog, you get FREE get-started e-guides to learning the 5-string banjo AND the ukulele! You will learn the basic blocking and tackling to get you started playing chords, rolls, strums, and fun old tunes. Please subscribe!

Also – take a leisurely look at my general store where I keep some links to important things that you can buy to help your pickin’. >>> Link to NekkidMusic.com general store <<< 

Thanks for stoppin’ by today! Ya’ll come back and we’ll do some pickin’.

TH

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Two Fun Banjo Songs I Learned To Play WRONG

Not how J.D. played it

Being an individual is a beautiful thing. Yet it seems that being a banjo picker has one overriding motto. “Always be yourself, unless you can be J.D.*, then always be J.D.” *Actually, you can insert any icon’s name for ‘J.D.’ – Earl, Ralph, Sonny, Bela, or Allison, so on.  It always hurts a bit to hear “that ain’t how J.D. played it”  as a commentary to your carefully crafted, totally unique, jazz fusion solo to ‘Old Home Place.’ In this post, I am actually headed somewhere else, though. I learned these songs “wrong” because I picked them up on the wrong instrument, but then ended up loving to play them.

I’ve looked at  bluegrass from both sides now

I picked up an LP copy of ‘The Earl Scruggs Review, Live at Kansas State’ and heard Randy Scruggs play a wonderful version of the Joni Mitchell classic ‘Both Sides Now.’ I had to learn it… Like ‘right now!’ I didn’t have a guitar available, but there sat my trusty old banjo. An hour later, I had a fun little version worked out. Inspired by, or better an homage, to a foundational folk/pop songwriter and a late great guitarist. Both true favorites of mine. Hats off Joni, and Randy. It was all wrong but really felt right. That was years ago and I have never forgotten a lick.

But what does it all mean?

OK, I am a huge fan of the viral video from Yosemitebear. For the Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg classic, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ I immediately knew the answer to the question, ‘but what does it all mean?’ It meant that I needed to learn it on the banjo. In fact, I learned it as an instrumental version of a standard crooning ballad, and breakdown style. My friends would ask me, “Have you heard Tuck Andress? Have you played it on your ES335?” The answers, yes of course, and no – I don’t wanna. I wanna play it as I learnt it… “WRONG.” 

Being musically unique

I do enjoy learning the note-by-note versions of banjo solos from the masters. In fact when a friend shared the TAB for a note-by-note transcription of Allison Brown’s mind-blowing ‘Leaving Cottondale,’ I thought I would wet myself with joy. (I didn’t, thank goodness, but it was close, very close.) But I have to say, I find the better angels of my instrumental covers to be found dwelling in the versions that are more uniquely… ‘me.’

How to catch a one-of-a-kind rabbit… Unique up on him.

So be yourself. Pick up your banjo, and figure out that swing-chord version of Sally Goodin. I swear Earl will smile down on ya, and J.D. will at least give ya an approving wink. And – ‘I’ WANT TO HEAR IT! Sally Goodin is doggone hard to play, and western swing fiddle versions are my favorite.

Listen up

Below is my video so you can give witness to nekkidly true confessions about my song learnin’ wrong-doin’.

Also, do yourself a favor and crane an ear to these great albums that influenced me, and so many of our contemporaries. These are really different genres, but as my old Dad used to say… “it will stretch your ears out somethin’ fierce, but it’s good for ya, we call it growth.” 

Amazon links to: 

Live At Kansas State / Earl Scruggs Revue / Rockin Cross The Country

Tuck Andress… Over The Rainbow / If I Only Had A Brain


FREE stuff!

I would like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. That way you won’t miss any of my acoustic and traditional music ramblings. When you subscribe to the NekkidMusic.com blog, you get a FREE get started e-guide to learn the 5-string banjo! You will learn the basic blocking and tackling to get you started playing chords, rolls, and fun old tunes on the instrument that launched the ship that Earl sailed upon. (I hear angels singing.) Please subscribe!

Also please take a look at my general store when I keep some links to important things that you can buy to help your pickin’. >>> Link to NekkidMusic.com general store <<< 

As always, ya’ll come back and we’ll pick a spell.

TH

Posted on

Thee Insanely Cool Ukulele Chords

Yookin’ good!

I love playing acoustic string instruments, and I am simply infatuated with the ukulele. I come from South Carolina, where we call this little instrument, a yook-LAY-lee. I know that’s not the correct pronunciation, but we also consider pimento cheese and shrimp-n-grits the two food groups that make up the base of the nutrition pyramid. It’s a Southern thing.

One of the things I like best about the ukulele when played in American folk music, even in hillbilly music, is that you can vamp really cool chords and bless a song with something totally fresh and jazzy that other instruments may need to stray way outside of their traditional space to accomplish without distraction. Three of these favorite insanely cool “blessings” are: the root 6th chord, root augmented chord, and second diminished chord. I LOL’d writing this. I was just remembering my old Dad calling them “augminished and demented chords…” I miss ya, Pop.

Let’s Look at the chords

A major chord has a root note, a third note, and a fifth note. In the G chord, for instance, that is G (root), B (third), and D (fifth). Think of the “numbers” in terms of the major scale… Do (G – root), Re (A – 2nd),Me (B – 3rd), Fa (C – 4th), So (D – 5th), La (E – 6th), Si (F sharp – 7th), Do (G- octave).

Root 6th

G 6th would simply be adding a sixth note (E) to the G chord shape.

Root augmented

In the root augmented chord (in the example G augmented) we just replace the fifth note with a sharp fifth note – or D sharp note.

Second diminished

The second chord in the key of G is A major. We use the diminished shape of the second chord. Which will have us flat the 3rd and the fifth note of the A major chord. So the A diminished chord triad is A, C and D sharp (E flat).

Chord shapes in standard (my dog has fleas) tuning, and slack-key tuning for baritone ukulele.

Note that the Chord symbol for augmented is a little “+” sign, and diminished is a little “o” shape.

Now the cool stuff

As an example, we will use the G augmented chord as a transition to get us into the C chord and the A diminished chord to transition us from C back to G. The G 6th chord will simply be the root chord that we resolve into and finish with.  Try this progression…

G /// G+ /// C /// Ao /// G/// D7/// G6 ///

Note that these chord shapes work the same for soprano or tenor ukuleles, however, when playing the soprano or tenor ukulele these shapes will be the key of C. ( C      C+      Do      G7      C6th )

Please take a look at my video demonstration of a couple of examples of the ukulele applying these cool chords to a standard folk song.

So when you pick up that ukulele, spice with augminished, demented, and 6th chords to taste… and enjoy some insanely cool pickin’.


FREE stuff!

I would like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. That way you won’t miss any of my acoustic and traditional music ramblings. When you subscribe to the NekkidMusic.com blog, you get a FREE get started e-guide to learn the 5-string banjo! You will learn the basic blocking and tackling to get you started playing chords, rolls, and fun old tunes on the instrument that launched the ship that Earl sailed upon. (I hear angels singing.) Please subscribe!

Also please take a look at my general store when I keep some links to important things that you can buy to help your pickin’. >>> Link to NekkidMusic.com general store <<< 

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