Banjos are loud and although its nice to let them ring out around the room, often , this is luxury is reserved for the single man or woman 🙂
When we share space with other people , maybe young children etc you often have to tone things down. Or If like me you live in a flat and have upstairs and downstairs neighbours who wouldn’t know Jimmy Martin from Doctor Martin and care even less, you might want to think about using some sort of mute.
I was at a banjo clinic held by UK five string super talent, Leon Hunt. One of the very first things he did was to pull several packets of Blu Tack out of his case and get everyone to put some across their banjo’s bridge.
This is what you can do with 4,000 packs... Though it's about a £1 a pack and your kitchen table's going to be out of action for a while....
It made me smile, he was like, “Have as much as you like “. When you get twenty five banjo players together in a room , the volume can keep creeping up.
This stuff make a great mute.
Simply roll a piece into a sausage shape about the size of your little finger and press it carefully across the top of your bridge.
Over the years I must have stuffed just about anything that would fit into the back of my banjo to quieten it down. I’ve tried more than a few mutes . Some were crude, some where very nicely made and very expensive but none of them really did what I wanted. Most of them where either a pain to take on and off or buzzed and rattled etc too.
Why did I never think of Blu Tack ?
It’s cheap and works great. I could have kicked myself for not thinking of such a obvious, simple , effective idea. In fact, if you’re Bono from U2 and your reading this, sell those Facebook shares you’ve just bought and get straight into Blu Tack.
Make poverty history, said the man with the two thousand dollar daft looking , blue sun glasses……dont start me on Bono ! 🙂