u/FrenchToastKitty55

Yes I know the picture is awful. It's the only one I've got.

I just got back from seeing the Punch Brothers and it was a great show. For most of the show Noam Pikelny was using his regular top tension Gibson banjo (not pictured), but when the band played the song June Apple he swapped it out for this. Looked like a regular bluegrass banjo for the most part but the bridge was totally different. You can kinda see it in the picture here, it was white and very thick. It looked a bit like a wedge of Styrofoam. It wrapped around 3 sides of what seemed to be a regular wood bridge, covering the side in the direction of the neck.

The tone on this thing was INSANE. Blew me away, I'd never heard anything like it before and I don't know how to describe it. The best I could say was that it sounded like what I'd imagine an electric gourd banjo to sound like. Ethereal alien-like sound but almost similar to a telecaster guitar. I wish I'd gotten a video but I just sat there in awe instead.

I suppose I'd just like to ask if anyone knows anything more about this or has done something similar. Someone in a banjo group I'm in said that it was "probably inspired but he tonal experimentation of Richie Stearns". The song played on it is not released officially yet, but if I can find a video or audio clip of him playing it I'll add it to this post. It was really special.

I'm primarily a Scruggs player but I dabble in melodic. A few days ago I was outside a jam that I'm a regular at, I never play melodic in the jam itself but I was sitting outside practicing Blackberry Blossom. The other banjo player at the jam heard me and said very rudely "don't play that melodic shit". I don't think he was joking he sounded pretty serious.

I also see a lot of disparaging comments under videos of melodic players (there tends to be people saying that they should take the fifth string off). There's a lot of people saying they hate melodic on this video in particular.

So is it just my experience or have y'all also noticed a dislike of melodic players within the community? What do you think is the reason for it? Is it just that it's not traditional?