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What is the Bill Palmer Tone Bell (TM) System?
by
Bill Palmer
I have always liked the sound that Earl Scruggs' banjo had
on the Foggy Mountain Banjo album. When I first heard it, I did not
realize that there was a lot of reverb on the album, but I didn't let
that stop me from trying to achieve the goal I had in mind, which was to
duplicate that sound.
I tried all sorts of things. I changed brands of banjo, I used different
strings. I was always just a little bit away from what I was looking
for. As I tell you this, bear in mind that I did not have much money to
work with. I was still in college, and earned all my money playing gigs
and teaching guitar and banjo.
The key came to me in 1966 in a
letter from Davis Kennedy, who was a luthier and banjo technician for
the Gibson plant in Kalamazoo. He described a method of altering the
banjo rim itself. This was a radical system that was far more complex
than anything I wanted to try myself.
In 1969, I bought a prototypical Mastertone which had bowtie inlays, a
fiddle shaped headpiece and mandolin frets. There were only a few of
these made. It was pretty good, but the tone ring was a piece of die
cast junk! I ordered a tone ring from Stewart-MacDonald. This had no
holes in it, but it sounded a little better than the original Gibson
ring. I began to analyze the situation, and I realized what part of the
problem was. The chamber inside the tone ring did not communicate with
the outside world. It was a dead air space. Dead air is an insulator. It
is what makes acoustical tile work. If you seal off the sound hole of
your guitar, it muffles the sound. The sound was there, but it couldn't
get out.
I took the banjo to a friend of mine who turned wooden columns for a
living. He used a router with a 3/8" corner round bit to round off the
inner edge of the wood rim. Now the edge of the tone ring would be able
to vibrate like a bell.Well, the difference was amazing. The fellows I
worked with couldn't believe it was the same instrument. We played with
amplified instruments, and I played the banjo over a mike. This was the
best 5-string banjo I have ever touched. It had lots of bass, lots of
treble, and it would sustain a note for a long time--for a banjo. And it
was LOUD! And it sounded a lot like Earl's banjo on that album!!!
WARNING -- Do not do this yourself unless you understand that in doing
so, you will render any warranty you have from the factory absolutely
null and void.
Just so you will not have to damage your
instrument, I have authorized Janet Davis Music to manufacture Tone Bell
(TM) rims and to do the necessary routing on your present rim. I highly
recommend that you purchase a new rim, because this will eliminate the
need to risk voiding your warranty. Besides, they are quite
inexpensive.
If you have one of the following tone rings, the Tone Bell (TM) system
will probably work quite well for you:
Gibson-Kulesh 20 hole
ring
Stull Model 12 tone ring
Tennessee 20 tone
ring
Stewart-MacDonald or Buck Tone ring without holes.
For more detailed information, email Bill Palmer.
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