More banjo-related news

  Since my blog already seems to be heavy on the banjo-related content lately, I guess it couldn't hurt to pass along the following item:

Folk singer Pete Seeger pulls old banjo from eBay

FISHKILL, N.Y. (AP) — Folk musician Pete Seeger has pulled his famous banjo from the eBay Internet auction site and intends to donate it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

The 90-year-old Hudson Valley resident had put the head section of the banjo up for auction with the intention of donating the proceeds to a nonprofit organization that plans to plant trees in Haiti.

But Seeger says he'll instead donate the item to the Hall of Fame and Museum, where the singer was inducted in 1996.

The banjo head, similar to a drum head, bears the words "This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It To Surrender."

Seeger played the banjo for decades but was told by R.J. Storm, who repairs his instruments, that the head needed to be replaced.

Storm says bids reached $6,400 before it was removed from eBay.

   I'm curious about why Mr. Seeger would take this action; I assume it's because he thinks this move will bring in more money for charity than selling his banjo head on eBay. The headline is misleading, by the way — he isn't selling the whole banjo, just the head (the round white skin that produces the sound).

   Banjos are interesting instruments in that their parts are interchangeable. That makes them easily customizable. For example, I have a banjo that is perhaps 90 or 100 years old, but some of the parts on it are fairly new, such as the bridge and arm rest I put on a couple of years ago.

  Can you imagine being able to do this sort of thing with any other kind of object, such as a car? I'm picturing a lime green 1925 Ford Model T with hubcaps from a '67 Mustang, a bicycle rack from a 2005 Subaru and Yosemite Sam mudflaps.

  That would look almost as pretty as my old banjo sounds!