Blackjack Banjo vs Granada Banjo

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My music buddies in Marion, VA, were skeptical that I could receive my new Gibson Blackjack banjo in late October, and keep it packed away until Christmas, but that's what I did. After checking it out for damage during shipping, and seeing that it came through in fine shape, I tucked it away until Christmas morning. I've got to say it, Janet. You were right. You took a lot of time with me helping me decide on my next banjo, asking me to compare recordings of different banjos made of different woods, listening to banjos made by different builders, talking to me about my right hand and about what sound I was searching for, and getting me to study the tones different banjos made, to help me determine what was most pleasing to my ear that I didn't already have. I guess it was time for a little more Mahogany in my life.

But there's more than just wood in this Blackjack. It's a cannon. I've played my Granada for a year. I've installed Raejusters in the Granada to soup it up a little and I probably got another 20 or 30 % from the Granada with the Raejusters. My Granada is loud enough to annoy some of the people at a large jam I go to, unless I play very well at the jam and blend with the other instruments very considerately, and this is a very loud, very noisy, fairly energetic jam that can get frenzied at times. The new Blackjack is louder than the Granada, right out of the box with the original strings. The Blackjack can hurt you, even if you stand behind the person playing it, and the Granada can't do that. The Granada has this round, sweet, mellow tone, a big voice with lots of character, and a special tonal quality up the neck that the Blackjack can't come close to producing. Being a maple banjo, the Granada will grow in the power it can produce for another five or ten years, if I play it enough and keep it set up correctly.

But there's a different quality and power to the Blackjack. I love the voice each banjo produces, and they're both set up to give a strong primary tone without a lot of overtones, but they are definitely different. The Blackjack "cuts" in a way that I haven't heard out of the Granada yet. The Blackjack sounds "woody". It almost barks. It's bright without being metallic, or zingy like the old Stellings tended to be before thin skirt Joe Pass rims came along. My bluegrass buddies, who already knew their way around mountain music before Carlton Haney's first bluegrass festival in the 1960's, say the Blackjack has an "old bluegrass banjo sound" that is distinct from the tone the Granada produces. Even with a very light right hand, which I have to use when picking fast tunes, the Blackjack produces a powerful tone. The Blackjack sounds more old-timey up the neck, eliciting images of a dance fiddler. The Granada sounds sweeter and rounder up the neck, with more of a vocal quality, and may actually be louder in the higher octave.
There's an unusual tonal property to the Blackjack that none of my other 4 banjos has, which I've heard from just a very few banjos. It seems as though the leading edge of each note has a crisp attack to it. Call it a "strong leading edge". It seems as though note separation is better with the Blackjack. Now, I'm aware that the Blackjack changed my playing, so that I found myself emphasizing note separation more effectively and timing notes more evenly that needed to be timed evenly, but the banjo pulled that out of me by giving me a taste of it all by itself. My friend Carson Cooper let me play the Blackjack for him, and he said it's a better banjo, to his ear, than my Granada. He says the Granada will take anywhere from 5 to 15 years before it completely "opens up", and that is only to be expected. He plays a 1926 RB-3 flattop that Snuffy Smith set up, and a killer early 1980's RB-250 that Snuffy set up also, by way of referencing his comments. My buddy Mike Goodman, who plays a Granada in the award-winning band Fescue, was floored by the Blackjack when I first let him play it. We all agree that the Blackjack has a big, fat, "grinding" 4th string tone, which I specifically requested when I ordered the Blackjack, and the Granada can't match the Blackjack's 4th string volume or tone (yet). Keith McKinnon, from Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, played my Blackjack, and he got a big goofy smile on his face from playing it. Keith is usually the deadpan twin who doesn't show all that much emotion, so the big goofy smile said volumes.

So, here's what I'm going to do. I now have two banjos, each of which I should think of as "the banjo of a lifetime". Each one is different, and does different things better than the other one does. So I guess I'll learn how to use the different voices that they speak with when I play. Some songs will be Blackjack songs, and some will be Granada songs. Mixing with other instruments, I'll have a broader range of interpretation and blending available to me.

This is getting to be terrific fun. Thank you, Janet.

Jay V

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