Instruments
The following selection of instruments represents a sampling of current favorites. There have been so many over the years. I look back on many with nostalgia. Good riddence to a few.
Tenor Banjo
This tenor was custom built for me by
Deering. It is based on their
Maple Blossom design. It's a fast and accurate instrument. The heft
and resonator make it quite powerful. I use internal damping to mellow
things when necessary. This is a good instrument for Celtic music and
modern variations thereof, such as afro-celt. The resonator gives a brighter
punch than open back designs, which is more traditional for Irish music, if
one can claim that banjos are traditional - a dubious assertion and one
depending in large measure on your comfort with time scales.
Octave Mandolin
I use a Petersen
octave mandolin for Celtic rhythm support. This is a beautiful
level 3 instrument built by Bill Petersen from Nebraska, though I picked
it up through Elderly. One of my earliest introductions to Celtic music was
through a player in Atlanta named Albert Persons who played jigs and reels
on a mandola. The size of the instrument gives the sweetest sound you can
imagine but wreaks havoc on the keys of most traditionally set music. The
octave mandolin isn't the same melody instrument that a mandola is, but it
provides a fine accompaniment, especially for driving rhythm and the airy
portions of reels when the rhythm drops out, like when the wheels of the plane
have just lifted off the ground.
Mandolin
The mandolin I use is one I built myself from a
Stewart McDonald
kit many, many years ago. It's showing some age, but still has a good
bark. A crack has developed in the top, but I can't seem to part with
an old friend. I think that building instruments is one of the noblest
activities of humankind. The long years of quiet work selecting woods,
shaping, finishing... All of that care to create something that is going
to be used to unleash a tremendous amount of power into the world once
it makes it out of the workshop. My small experience with this project
has given me so much respect for luthiers. Perhaps all of our world leaders
should either be farmers or instrument makers. Something to think about.
Guitar
I am currently playing a Martin
DC-Aura. It's got great traditional tone and is accurate, but not so
expensive that I'm afraid to take it to a gig. I use dropped-D tuning
quite a bit. This instrument has a built-in pickup. I generally do not
like pickups, but for dance gigs I think it can work well to use a pickup
for guitar in the monitors, while keeping the house mix coming from the
mic. This reduces feedback and lets the guitar be loud enough to support
a barn full of dancers.
