It's been nearly two weeks since inventor Mark Peet unveiled his newest, and highly anticipated invention, the Banjometer™, which monitors a banjoists TPB, converts it into hours, and displays it in a graphical format which is shaped like a banjo. Even with its limited release, the wave of excitement has emptied 85% of all rocking chairs in Eastern Tennessee.
"This will constitutionally revolutionalize my practicing charts!" stammered a shirtless Colt Hickory, as he left Colonel's Music Store in Memphis. "Hot Damn!", he added.
I managed to catch the elusive inventor for this abbreviated and exclusive telephone interview.
| "Good Morning Mr. Peet. It's truly an honor. Please tell me a little bit about the Banjometer™ and how it works." "Sure, Mike. In layman's terms, it adds a line of red for every hour that is spent picking banjo. This particular version, V_2.1, is my 500 hour model. When it's red all the way to the top, I will have 500 total hours of picking banjo." "Like a thermometer?" "No, it's nothing like a thermometer. Thermometers measure temperature. Banjometers measure TPB. Listen, pretend that it's an empty glass, and you're slowly pouring orange juice into it. It fills up the bottom first, eventually reaching the top of the glass. The Banjometer™ works just like that, only it's red, not orange." "You know? It kind of looks like a thermometer. Like one of those giant fund-raising/goal-meeting ones?" "No it doesn't. It looks like a banjo. (click)" |
No information has yet been released about what platforms the Banjometer™ will be available for. Other models compatible with ukelele, mountain dulcimer and slide whistle are still being tested and are due for release midsummer.
