I had a chance to speak with Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters today, and he caught me up on a couple of projects he is working on going into the Fall. The band is heading into the studio next week, and Chris has a brand new banjo he’s planning to use when they start recording.

He is really excited about the banjo, a soon-to-be-released Chris Pandolfi signature model Huber. It will differ from the rest of the Huber line in that it employs a mahogany rather than a maple rim. The fingerboard is also fairly stark by modern standards, using dot inlays with a winged emblem at the 5th fret and Chris’ signature at the 21st fret.

Chris worked with Steve Huber to design the banjo, and is delighted with the result.

“I’ve been playing it around the clock for the past couple weeks and it’s really sounding great. It’s been a long process, and Steve has been really gracious with his time to make sure we get this right.

It has a very big dynamic range, which I think comes from the mahogany rim, allowing for a wider range of tone and dynamics – especially away from the bridge.

My goal all along with this banjo was to find something that suits my playing – a more modern as opposed to traditional approach. I still love to play grass, and I prefer a typical bluegrass set up, which I find more responsive.

You can set this banjo up with lighter strings and lower action, and the rim (to my ear) serves to mellow out the tone with a normal bluegrassy set up. But it doesn’t sacrifice anything when it comes to bluegrass playing.

Noam Pikelny (of Punch Brothers) came by the other day with his old pre war, and we got all the banjos out for some side-by-sides. He had his flathead and I had my two Hubers – the new one and my Lancaster – plus my Robin Smith banjo. Especially comparing the two Hubers, you could hear the difference that comes from the mahogany rim.

Noam really dug the new Huber too.”

Chris and the rest of the ‘Dusters will be packing it up and heading to Charlottesville, VA next week to record their next album for Sugar Hill Records. They will be recording at Haunted Hollow, the private studio of the Dave Matthews Band.

“Our manager works with their management on some things, and he hooked us up with this place. The Dave Matthews Band built it with the label advance for one of their projects a few years ago, and it is awesome. (more…)

AcuTab is soon to release a new instructional DVD from Mountain Heart fiddler, Jim Van Cleve. The product is actually a two disc set, featuring over 4 hours of instruction from Jim.

Disc 1 contains a good deal of instruction in the areas of technique, practice routines, ear training, transposing tunes to various keys, etc. Examples are given using familiar bluegrass tunes such as 9lb Hammer, Banks of the Ohio, and continues on disc two with Pretty Polly.

Following all that instruction, Jim then teaches several of his most requested tunes, to round out the program.

The video trailer for the project was just finished yesterday and we’ve got an exclusive look at it for our readers here on The Bluegrass Blog. This is just a short showcase of the techniques and tunes you’ll learn on this DVD.

Enjoy…

John adds: Is this April Fools Day and I didn’t notice?

OK…  I know what you’re thinking. How can a voice capo fit around your neck?

That’s not what it’s about. Voice is the name of this interesting new device from Artioli Designs which allows a guitarist to “hold down” a common first position chord form, leaving the left hand free to either solo over the chord or add alternate voicings. It fits over the first four frets of the fingerboard, and will hold down any chord shape which you make using the Voice Capo’s corresponding buttons.

Here’s a video that demonstrates its operation.

More information can be found on the Voice web site, including details an how the capo is fine tuned to work properly with an individual guitar. Retail price is listed as $99.

Just this past week, two major US banjo manufacturers have announced the availability of banjo hardware made to vintage specifications.

Both Huber Banjos and American Made Banjo Co. are now producing parts for sale to banjo builders – both professional and hobbyist – and as replacements in vintage, pre war banjos. In both cases, these are the parts used in the finished banjos these two companies offer, now available for the first time for sale as separate components.

The two catalogs of parts overlap for the most part, though Huber offers a mix of wooden and metal parts, and American Made has a more complete listing of machined components. In addition to tone rings, resonator hardware, arm rests and coordinator rods, Huber has their resonators and rims available for sale. American Made doesn’t have any wooden parts listed on their site, but has all the metal hardware for a flathead, Mastertone-style banjo.

Tom Mirisola of American Made Banjo acquired his own machine shop earlier this year to manufacture banjo parts, and installs them in his Kel Kroydon banjos. You can see the complete list of parts on their web site.

Steve Huber is continuing to work towards the point where all the components in his Huber Banjos are made in house, and has only a few parts left before that goal is reached. He will be announcing two new tone ring models and a new Huber engineered rim within the next few weeks.

See the list of Huber Vintage parts online.

Both companies also offer custom made heads, straps bridges and strings, and Huber makes a deluxe capo as well.