Two new banjos: Part 1 – The Shackleton

Okay, so I got a bit carried away – I have received both a Shackleton banjo and a Barry Sholder fretless gourd banjo in the last week and they’re both, frankly, stunning and very different in character. I’m going to split my musings over two posts because each instrument is exceptional in its own way

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Shackleton Incoming

Here’s a thing of beauty. March 2014 will go down in history as the month when British-made Banjos reappeared after a sixty year hiatus.

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2013 in Review

Music This really was a tough one. So much great stuff this year – both discovered and newly released. Turisas released the quirky but still good ‘2013’. Great though it was, it was a little bit of a let down after ‘Stand Up And Fight’. In the end, though, it came down to two albums

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Preparing for the year in review

So, I skipped my annual ‘year in review’ post last year as everything was a bit strange, so I need to make up for it this year. I don’t think I’m going to do a double-event as, frankly, I can’t remember that far back 🙂 This year, though, will be a mixed bag – I

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Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

And so it continues. I’m about 140 hours in now and ploughing through the 7 and 8 star quests, and I’ve ever started doing a bit of the online stuff. I finally got a nice checkmark on the 6 start quest section today by getting around to doing the annoying egg-fetchy-quest. It turns out it

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The Shackleton Banjo

This is great news – a factory produced British banjo, for the first time in decades. And from the designers of the legendary Ash Leaf, no less! If you’re looking for a top-notch beginner-intermediate banjo, you could do a lot worse than backing this kickstarter.

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MH3U – Heat Exhaustion

Oh Good God. That was a bastard. Heat Exhaustion is a five star quest (but fairly early on) which requires a big of thinking to do. Firstly, it’s set in the volcanic area, so naturally you’ll need a good supply of cold drinks. Secondly, it requires carrying burning hot rocks which constantly deplete your health

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