Ryan Harlin's Customer Testimonial

“Hey Ric! Tonight I got some time to record an A/B comparison of my banjo with and without the Banjo Bolster that I'd imagine you'd be interested to hear.

The result is pretty dramatic, as you already know, but I was surprised to hear just how much overtone yuck there is in the raw "without" clip. There's some whistling frequencies that are just a constant annoying presence that's almost like feedback in its quality. I would've notched those out via EQ if I wasn't trying to just leave it untouched for the honest comparison. But beyond those whistling tones, the whole things sounds more like it was mic'd further away (it wasn't) and there are overtones that are so overpowering that the fundamental note pitch on the 4th string tends to get almost completely swallowed up by competing frequencies.

With the Banjo Bolster in, all of that goes away and it's just the pure notes.

Side note: The more time I spend with this properly fitted bolster in, the more I'm enjoying it. In my San Francisco apartment I've always tried to appreciate on behalf of my neighbors that foam dampening also made my banjo quieter and, more importantly, less punchy. Last night I was playing around 10pm and realized how punchy it was now, so much so that I started worrying about noise but quickly decided that was a wonderful new problem to have because it's nice to have the punch back in the sound. ”

- Ryan Harlin  San Francisco, CA
(Musician, Sound Engineer and Music Producer)