TOPIC: Long Neck Banjoes

Could someone tell me what the advantages or disadvantges are
to playing a long neck 5 string, as opposed to a conventional
neck?

i've heard of 3/4 scale and standard but never saw a long neck.

My understanding is that they were more popular for folk and celtic music and are played more in a clawhammer style than any other. I believe that Pete Seeger played one. I am told that unless you have a pretty high end one that they can be a nightmare to not only keep tuned but just keep properly adjusted. The longer neck allows for the banjo to be tuned an octive lower than a standard banjo according to my source.

After rereading my copy of "How to Play the 5-string Banjo" third edition-1962 by Pete Seeger, it appears that he did not invent the longneck banjo (they were already made by Vega and ODE) but had a lot to do with making it popular amoung folksingers in the 1960's. The advantage of the additional 3 frets to Pete was that he could play and sing in the key of Bb or F which suited his voice range without loosing the bass by capoing far up the neck.

Yep! Had a Gibson long neck in the '60s and they were used by groups like the Limeliters, kingston trio and Dave Guard, John Stewart and Peter Seger. The most popular long neck banjo was made by Vega and came without a resonator but I noticed that they were almost always capoed to the third fret. They were very graceful looking.