PrairieDog

Ah, I thought you were having issues with how it sounded. If it sounds great, why mess with what you paid for? I understand tweaking electrics, that is an industry unto itself, but acoustics are so individual to woods and build used, it seems a shame to shake up the combo that you liked enough to buy.

I’d let it settle in before you start tweaking. It’s going to take some time to come into its full voice, to really open up. Folks keep saying it here, and I have experienced myself now, you can play 5 different guitars of the same model and they all sound different. I’m sure it all has a lot to do with chance of when you walk in, and how long since it’s been since any of them came off the truck. Also, humidity, how much it was played in the store, age of strings, etc. Depending on where you are, the mid and higher end guitars can languish at GC for months, this gives them more time to settle in when you try them out. The J45 I first played at GC had no tone at all, just dead. The guys here told me it sounded like it was wet and try others. Tried the same one again four months later, it was sweet and hard to put back on the rack. I suggest you just let it get adjusted to your place and see what happens before you start tweaking. This is the reason GC gives you that 45 day return. We picked up a gorgeous sounding 2019 NAMM Taylor Ltd that thrilled in the store but it sounded like a lead pipe in our house. We were so disappointed, figuring we had been swayed by acoustics in the special room our shop has for the better guitars. We set it aside, intending to take it back. Picked it up a few weeks later to get ready to return it, and honest to god, angels sang out of it. (Don’t tell my DIF, but now it’s my favorite sounding guitar. ) There was nothing wrong with it after all. It just needed to rearrange itself to fit in the new digs.

☺️ and a good razz it is. But seriously, for someone who loves making music, I have a near phobia about drawing attention to myself. Reason my early promising career never launched. I had folks interested, but when it got down to it, the stage fright had me quit entirely rather than take the risk. Of course, at 17, I really believed death from embarrassment was a thing. Decades older, I’m getting better. I even got up and sang a decent few songs at a trad song a capella meet up. As much as regaining my finger chops I’m working on quashing the bugaboos, and even looking forward to jamming with our friends this summer on the deck without hyperventilating 😄

Thanks Sparq! Yeah, I can’t believe this is, “My first banjo!” I can’t put it down. thanks for the encouragement about the situation, too. Being new here, I gotta ask, you seem hip to banjos, do you play? I was going to post over in the banjo area, but that room seems kinda quiet these days.

🤣 You hit the nail on my head! I’m so shy about playing out loud, note it’s the open back version, already quieter compared to the resos, and I can even stuff a towel in it to mute it more, if needed. Plus I’m playing with my fingerpads instead of picks. Practically can’t hear myself, much less anyone being offended outside the music room, even with the pass through hole in the wall 😆

Loved them, Very sad. I’ll confess, Tommy was the brother I felt closest too, being mostly a comical dweeb myself.

Well, there we go! Elderly came through, and their great rep is justified. Last night we heard back with a modest offer that we hadn’t been able to reply to yet. Before we could, on their own, they sent a new note, offering a more sizable adjustment (bringing it closer to the 2019 price) and a very kind acknowledgment there was a disconnect in the listing and apologizing for the confusion it caused. It is an excellent, much appreciated resolution, we are very happy and won’t worry about doing business with them again. Thanks everyone for the comments, both the reassuring and the “that’s a problem” ones, chuckle . Knowing we weren’t just being “those people”, but they would likely do right helped keep everything from rolling off the rails. Another reason why you all are a good group of people. I just realized I never paid the image tax. Here’s the Possum: Cherry rim and neck, persimmon tone ring and fretboard, raw brass hardware. With lovely simple purfling and binding details. Everything is sourced and made here, from the woods, down to the specialty machined hardware. Pisgah makes a point to partner with small local vendors for all their supplies and gear. A really great shop if you are ever looking for a banjo.

Score!!! Merry Christmas to you. I have the odd distinction of never having been to a drive-in. Not on purpose, there were plenty around when I was of the age, just never got it in my wheelhouse. Now I’m kinda bummed I can’t play “remember when?”

Yep, probably the reason I can be so sanguine about it all since Patrick pointed that bit out.

Well, it was such a spectacular, unexpected gift the shine polishes all blame off the sweet banjo itself (don’t punish the kids because the uncle is a cad). Plus it doesn’t reflect on Pisgah at all. Patrick has been really cool about helping and answering questions through the whole purchase and after. And again, there will always be lots of places to spend our money. And it wasn’t like it was supposed to be a “deal,” if you want one, you pay full price, they are so sought after. So we have to consider, the price paid was the price we were willing to pay. That is why an adjustment for the condition would be a nice gesture, but it’s not really mandatory. They shipped a warrantied instrument in the build paid for, it only had been hanging around a long time and was a bit shop worn. I’m telling myself if it was the prime rib I bought, they’d call it “dry aged” and charge a premium for it, chuckle.

We hear ya. At the moment we are there, if they come back today with good news, maybe we will get to remember them for correcting what might have been an honest mistake. Since they obviously had 2022 stock at some point based on the pic, they may have kept the listing at the current price list without checking which instrument was getting shipped. I can see that happening. Hope still springs eternal. However, the dubious voice reminds us they said, “they were going to check with Pisgah about the date.” Uhhh, don’t they have the stocking date for that SN in their inventory books?

Nod. Retail is a tough gig. I don’t envy what stores have to deal with, especially at Christmas. Like I said, we’re sorta hoping they will do a good turn to make it up, everybody says they are a great company to work with. Otherwise, in the grand scheme of things, life could certainly be much worse.

You summed it up exactly. We will see what they come back with.

Nod, I appreciate the comment. You touched on the thing that does irk. It was listed at the 2023 price, a markup from what they paid in 2019. We just got a nice but non-committal response from Elderly, they are going to check with Pisgah on the actual build date, along with a comment to just go ahead and buff the fingerprints out, like we wouldn’t think of or understand that fingerprints happen. They didn’t seem to grasp, and didn’t look at the photo, that it wasn’t that kind of normal, expected smudging. The acids had actually etched into the metal and 0000 steel wool and some work was required to spiff it back up, (at Pisgah’s direction it was okay to do, since it is raw brass). We heard Elderly was known for taking care to freshen up instruments, making sure they were right before shipping them out. This looked like they had just pulled it out of the garage and boxed it up. Anyway, as I mentioned above, I have it now. I hate to give it back. Patrick confirmed is the same build as a newer one, other than now he has a label with the model and SN inside the rim. I might ask if he could just send one along, since we don’t have any other official documentation for it. He also mentioned as one good thing, this one is settled in now, where a new one would take some time to come into its own, so that is a plus. I’m not sure at this point the iffy issues with Elderly would be worth the hassle of returning and the long wait to get a new one. If they come back with some kindness, they’ll have loyal customers. Otherwise, there are other places to shop. We just really wanted to love them like everyone else does.

Thanks Guys, So we thought to check with Patrick at Pisgah (super nice guy). He said he shipped that one to Elderly in 2019 and it hasn’t been registered yet in their books, so the warranty is ours. Talking it over with him, perhaps the short scale neck might be the reason it lingered. Short is absolutely fine with me, my stretch isn’t what it used to be. We sent a note to Elderly at Patrick’s suggestion. He thought it did sound a bit shopworn and thought they might make an adjustment since it had to be touched up, not to mention the strings are pretty well aged looking closely at them. While it will be great if they offer a consideration, we are mostly relieved Patrick gave us the thumbs up everything looked right from his records. Plucking on!

Thanks Dave

Ooh, you got a good one too! 🙂 Thanks for the thoughts. I was thinking a call, but before dialing just want to make sure we understood how they operated. We’re late in life new to all this, so want to be good customers and respectful to vendors we might be dealing with for a long time, fingers crossed.

So yesterday I was gobsmacked with a new Pisgah Possum banjo under the tree. (Big smooch to my dear spouse, who was delightfully “naughty” for going there, chuckle). It was bought at Elderly, and the listing implied it was new as they are a vendor for Pisgah. In showing me all the features, noticing the serial number, it came to my beloved’s attention that the instrument is actually 5 years old, not close to the serial number in the listing which had a build date of ‘22. We know the ads say, “you may not receive the exact same instrument” but as these banjos tend to fly off the racks as soon as they come in, shipping a five year old “new” instrument is raising some concerns about it’s real status. To be clear, I love it, it sounds great, and plays beautifully (as far as this wannabe newbie can tell) so before we decide to raise an issue, can someone help talk us down off the roof? Like how big a deal is this? To summarize: a highly desirable, handmade, small shop instrument, sold as new from a great rep seller, but maybe used, should we care? This was the first purchase with Elderly. We know they are known for being a great store, and didn’t expect any hiccups. So we aren’t sure if this was an innocent error (ie they shipped a used one by mistake) or is it common that they have new instruments that are that old in stock? Does anyone know if banjos “open up” like guitars, so an older one might actually be a good thing? It doesn’t look played, but there were some etched in fingerprints on the metal parts that needed to be buffed out with steel wool when it arrived to look pristine again. If this was a resale, and the warranty is no longer active, would it be appropriate to ask for a price adjustment? Or does that not matter when ordering from Elderly, you get whatever they have in stock, new or used at the price listed? Since it could be many months to return this one just to get a certified “new build” with a warranty, my gut feeling here is a banjo on the knee is better than one on the truck. But it also doesn’t seem quite right to pay the not insignificant full retail price for a previously owned instrument, especially one that hasn’t quite crossed over into vintage/collector territory yet. But if that is how Elderly works, it can be a lesson learned. Anyway, any advice about whether to press it, or just happily pluck away would be much appreciated. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Nothing would be more fun!

Merry Christmas, E. Hope it’s a good one for you. Thanks for all the help and patience since I showed up.

Grin, turns out we get to mosey. The party just got bumped to next weekend, thanks to an uninvited case of plague. Confessing, I’m looking forward to enjoying a quiet Christmas morning of our own, sipping coffee, opening presents at our leisure, and playing guitars, instead of rushing through the motions so we can get down to family in time. Now, the only problem is what we’re going to do with the 9 pound Honeybaked ham we were bringing…. May set up a roadside stand and offer free slices to passersby, lol. Merry Christmas to you Murph!! Glad I’ve had the chance to “meet” you!

yeah, wow, it’s AI answering the questions, badly. They asked ChatGPT, or one of the others, and then it trawls the internet for the most common combinations of answers and that is what it spits back out. Note how the most of the answers are mostly non-definitive, equivocating comments. I weep for the future.

Love this!! You sound great, and I love simple, really lets the great song shine. Thank you for sharing!

Inch long, I thought by saying it didn’t go into the wood it was implied I meant in length. I was Just saying they aren’t merely surface marks. You can feel the edges when you run your fingernail over them.

Here’s the listing. Sadly the ivoroid (I think) G tuning button is missing now. Otherwise seriously looks all original. Neck looks fine. Even still has the notes sheet on the fretboard, perfectly legible. I couldn’t tell if it was one of the Dobro production ones, but the finish in the headstock valleys was tree bark rough. The plate has a lot of pitting, and it didn’t have a lot of “voice.” and I’m not sure, but I’d almost wager it still has the original strings, chuckle. I didn’t have a bar with me, but finger playing it didnt’ grab me. If they hadn’t just picked up a 34 National duolian, I might have been tempted for a gift just for the collection history, but somebody who knows/appreciates relic reso’s better ought get the chance to show love for it at the price. https://www.musicgoround.com/product/40111-S000156533/used-other-brand-hawaiian-radiotone-resonator-resonator