Tight-ish

I did sit down yesterday to tighten Sea Monkey's head, but I forgot to print out anything that had the diagram of which nuts to tighten in which order, or even any vague recommendations on such adjustments, so I just kinda tightened everything a little bit (about a half turn, I'd say) in something like the pattern I remembered (I hope) from The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo.

I am a weenie, though, and while I did tighten some, it's not really obvious. The bridge is still rather sunken in. I think I'm still a good night of sleep away from working up the nerve to do it right. I didn't rupture anything, though, so that's worth something.

Practice was brief, but consisted of "Good Night Ladies" and "Cripple Creek" and some forward and backward roll exercises that I think sound pretty. Nothing fancy, just working those joints and fingertips to get 'em ready for some serious practice tomorrow. After the aforementioned good night of sleep.

Minor Update

Since I just got a shout-out from The Nikiverse, I thought I should mention that Sea Monkey and I are still weathering our Halloween costume-induced separation. That is just about over, though, and I am literally itching to get back to pickin' soon.

Over the past weekend I went up to Different Strummer and got a new thumb pick (size small, for those days when it's cold and my thumb *isn't* bloated--drawback of shopping for picks in mid-August), some fresh new strings, and one of those little wrenchy things so I can adjust Sea Monkey's head tension. I haven't actually done that yet, as I'm waiting for a night when I am not completely exhausted, but soon. That's what I've got to get done before any more practicing happens, because I must have a banjo that sounds right.

But the coolest thing about visiting the Old Town School was the vending machine just as you come into the building, which sells sugary confections as well as, you guessed it, strings for various instruments, including banjo! I love that place. I talk to a different employee every single time I go there, but they're all nice and knowledgable and they don't mind when I agonize over thumb picks.

The only other thing is that I trimmed my nails tonight. I've decided to take it easy on my right-hand nails, because it looks like I'll be needing those a bit longer for when I make my foray into frailing. Since there's some nice instructional material online, I may alternate that in with the bluegrass stuff to keep things lively and give me some new skills. Left hand work should be about the same, but I don't know about this clawhammer business.

oh, and maintenance notes, so I don't forget

Last night as I checked Sea Monkey's tuning, I was a bit alarmed that the fourth string suddenly got a lot deeper after I hit it. It went from in perfect tune to . . . well, farther and farther from perfect tune. I tightened the screw on the tuning peg, which had worked itself loose, and string four was back in action. And I tightened up the other screws on the other pegs just to be sure they're all happy. Planetary tuners FTW. :)

But that reminded me that Sea Monkey's head tension is a little off, so I need to get me a banjo bracket wrench. And while I'm at it, I may as well get some new strings. I can probably wait on changing them out (and that will be a special day, since changing banjo strings is more complicated than changing guitar strings), but it would be good to have them handy for when I work up the nerve. We've had new strings for the ukulele since July and I still haven't overcome my fear of epic fail enough to change those out. Of course, the uke is mostly a toy for Gaz, who doesn't care all that much if she's missing a string. In fact, she insists on keeping the uke so out of tune that the strings are quite slack.