Modified tuners

Modified (cut down and re-drilled) raw brass mandolin tuners for 6-string slotted headstock.

Banjo #6?

New neck blank. Black walnut, cherry, and wenge strip.

What will it be?

I'm thinking a short-scale (20"?) neck with 6-strings and a tunnelled drone string. Possibly using cut-down mandolin tuners.

Banjo #5 Mini 5-string

Maple and rosewood neck, 15" Scale length.

Rosewood fingerboard.
Inlayed brass ring side position markers.
Rosewood tailpiece.

8" extra deep (3") maple rim.
Finished with plastic-coat varnish.

Nylon classical guitar strings (for tuning to standard G/C pitch).

Handmade raw brass tension hoop.

Slotted headstock.

Grover tuners.

Banjo #4

24 1/2" scale length walnut and cherry neck with rosewood fingerboard and peghead veneer. Finished with pure beeswax, heat impregnated into the wood.
Inlayed brass ring side position markers.

1/4" brass rod tone-ring, raised on brads over scalloped, 10ply thin maple rim.

African goatskin head.

Handmade tension hoop.
18 flat-hook tensioners with raw brass shoes.

Grover tuners.

Fielding tailpiece.


In this sound sample the skin head is slightly dampened with a cloth under the dowel-stick, behind the bridge.
I'm interested to try this rim out with a plastic head and compare tones. 

Building Banjos #4 and #5 part 2

Here are most of the parts for Banjos #4 and #5. The smaller rim is from a cheapo hand-drum, and in the end I decided to order a higher quality drum-shell and use that instead. You can see that I decided to try my hand at making my own tone-rings, tension-hoops, and flesh-hoops from raw brass bar.

I made position markers from brass tubing. While testing it out (from which I learned that you have to be very careful with the edge, or it bleeds when filed down) I made this fish, more or less by accident. Later I turned it into a broach.

Building Banjos #4 and #5 Part 01

As soon as I finished banjo #3 I felt I wanted to push what I'd learned and make at least a neck entirely from scratch. I began work with a plank of American Walnut and a thinner one of British Cherry.

I decided to use just a single carbon fibre rod down the centre, since this neck would be thicker than the last, with a rounded dobson-style heel, and with the central strip of cherry adding to the stability.

Banjo #3

11" 5-string with Dobson-style tone-ring.

2-ply steamed maple rim.

Raw brass hardware.

Peghed geared, fiddle-peg style tuners.

MOP inlayed moon, stars, and side position markers.

26 1/2" scale length.

12 steel tension hooks.

I've since removed and smoothed the experimental scallops from inside the rim and re-stained. I found that they seemed to cause the overtones of the dobson tone-ring to reverberate with a muddy sound. With a smoothed and thinner bearing edge the sound is clean.

This sound sample uses ground nylon strings (with a steel 5th). Incidentally, the tune is one I wrote on this banjo just after putting it together. The renaissance head is lightly stuffed behind the dowel stick, which is a general preference of mine with nearly all openback banjos.

I will put up a sample of the sound with all steel strings if I get the chance.