Fender Standard Concert Tone 55 Banjo

General

Instruments from Fender's Concert Tone Banjo series are modelled after Fender banjos from the sixties by the same name. Genuine sixties instruments are highly sought after and have a price to match their popularity. Luckily, this new series is full of reasonably priced versions. The combination of quality and craftsmanship make this a great-sounding, durable instrument. Moreover, you don't have to be blind to appreciate the Fender Concert Tone, as its body sports a beautiful Sunburst finish and its headstock and neck are richly adorned with elegant inlays.

Construction

The Remo head is held firmly in place by a high-quality brass ring with 24 hooks. Both the resonator (body) and the rim are made of multiple plies of mahogany. The top string has a standard machine head, whereas the bottom four have planetary tuners. Inside the planetary tuners is an ingenious mechanism (see the picture), which is beneficial for tuning the instrument and subsequently retaining that tuning. Thanks to the dual action truss rod you can adjust the neck minutely.

Blue Grass Banjo

A banjo wouldn't be a banjo without a nut resting on a tight head (usually made of synthetic material). This construction gives the banjo its distinct sound - it allows for the string resonance to make its way to the body at lightning speed, which is why this type of instrument has such a short, loud sound. In some cases - like that of this bluegrass banjo - the sound is amplified by a resonator. Additionally, bluegrass banjos are characterised by an added fifth string and are usually played with finger and thumb picks.

• The most common tunings for a bluegrass banjo are:
• dropped C: g C G B d
• open G: g D G B d
• double C: g C G C d
• modal G (mountain minor): g D G C d
• open D (Scruggs/Reuben): f# D F# A d
• Open D (D A D F# A D