1920s Model T era banjo
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 8:30 pm
This is me playing a 1921 vintage Van Eps Recording Banjo. There was a lot of different music recorded in the teens and twenties. This type of music can be found on the Edison cylinder and diamond disc records from that period.
Fred Van Eps was one of the best known banjo players of this style and he also designed banjos specifically for making the acoustical recordings that required the musicians to play directly into a large recording horn.
This particular banjo was designed by Fred Van Eps and features the peculiar internal aluminum resonator and hole in the head to direct the sound. I originally learned how to play this style in my teens from Paul Cadwell, who was a student of Van Eps. He was in his eighties at the time, living in a suburb of New York City and I took the train from the outskirts of Philadelphia to New York to visit him. That experience stayed with me and has helped me to appreciate how older people can spark an interest in
younger people.
This is a link to an Instagram video
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6rXzPPAf98 ... lg3lfc995i
Fred Van Eps was one of the best known banjo players of this style and he also designed banjos specifically for making the acoustical recordings that required the musicians to play directly into a large recording horn.
This particular banjo was designed by Fred Van Eps and features the peculiar internal aluminum resonator and hole in the head to direct the sound. I originally learned how to play this style in my teens from Paul Cadwell, who was a student of Van Eps. He was in his eighties at the time, living in a suburb of New York City and I took the train from the outskirts of Philadelphia to New York to visit him. That experience stayed with me and has helped me to appreciate how older people can spark an interest in
younger people.
This is a link to an Instagram video
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6rXzPPAf98 ... lg3lfc995i
