(image by Ulf Jagfors)

Here is a recording of Paul playing a song on one of his akontings yesterday. Absolutely incredible.

Here are some recordings that Paul made on the new 14" tackhead today.

Old Dan Tucker

Lucy Long Polka

Walk Into de Parlor Jig Medley

rick's oak neck, after rough shaping.



the finery of final shaping can be pretty time consuming, and that's where this neck is at right now. as may or may not be visible in this photo, the rays in this piece of wood are exceptional. i am suddenly making all of my necks out of oak - and i just got a shipment of new oak blanks. i may have secured a large order of cherry neck blanks to be delivered late in the spring, so things might change then. somehow i feel a lot better about working with domestic hardwoods, and most of the blanks i am using now have been harvested by very sustainable means.

here are the six pieces of oak in my front hall

new banjo in the gallery

the skin is drying on this banjo. i had a disaster last night, where i dried the surface faster than the sides, which caused the head to tear along the tacks, forcing me to do it again today. above you can see the head as it looks just after it is tacked on, then again after the skin has been rough trimmed and dried slightly. the rubber bands help keep the edges of the skin from getting wrinkled during drying. on the right, you can see the tailpiece, copied from an instrument on the banjo sightings database.

i should get to shaping rick's banjo neck tonight. you'll notice that many of the recent photos of my banjos in progress are not taken in the workshop. its wintertime, which means the workspace is a little colder than normal, so i've been doing most of the non-dusty work inside my apartment.

new banjo almost done.

winter wonderland: not so beautiful, really

one more update for the night

A new banjo is born

this clip is from a while back. it shows tim twiss - faithful customer, correspondent and minstrel virtuoso at the antietem early banjo gathering contest, wielding the gourd banjo we came up with last spring. if you scroll down to my blog entries from march, you can see this gourd banjo when it was still a little bay banjo - little more tha a block of wood with the outline of a neck drawn on it.

Well, John Barr's banjo is just about wrapped up. You can see the final photos in the gallery, 5th from the left. It's a real nice one - real nice, indeed.

Anyhow, the first heavy snows are falling something awful outside the banjo factory here in Jamaica Plain. Happy holidays. This is the time of year when your faithful banjo maker finds himself in an annual winter melancholy. Inevitably due, if nothing else, to the short, cold, and dark New England days of December, the only cure seems to be a strict course of laying on the floor and listening to the carters until the sun starts shining again in April.

Meanwhile, the workshop is a little bit colder, and I can't sit outside on the front step carving away at my banjo necks, as I am wont to do under friendlier climates. But the work is still peaceful, and the banjos still roll off the line as true to form as ever. Rick's is next up on the bench along with a little number I've been working on for myself.

well, johns banjo is pretty much wrapped up. im going to have to take it apart in order to get the final coats of finish on. i think i'll also make a more interesting tailpiece.
this banjo sounds absolutely fantastic. the tone is perfectly balanced between thumpiness and kick. or, to use non-vague terms: the lows and the highs are good. the neck is made out of a piece of ash from indiana with a scale length of 26.5" and the pot is made from a modern, 12" maple rim. as always, click for full (huge) size.

getting very close to the end with this banjo. looking great so far...

johns banjo is coming along. will likely assemble tomorrow, save for skin. its a real beauty. click on the thumbnail to see.

Inlay work (click for full size):

johns banjo is underway, as is darius's second banjo order, which he may or may not opt to keep. anyhow, john is a civil war reenactor, and he also wanted an instrument he could learn on. i settled on using incised frets, as that solution is both historically appropriate, aesthetically pleasing, and still very functional. the neck is made from a piece of ash. click to see full size.




darius wanted a gourd banjo with an oak neck much like the last gourd i made. this one is stained just slightly darker, but you can still see the grain very nicely (the photo makes it look darker than it actually is, so some detail is lost here). click to see full size.

still alive!

working on a gourd order right now, and have two tackheads waiting to be started. busy, busy, busy. getting a masters degree actually takes time and effort. who could have predicted?

the shop has been quiet in august. i am slowly working on a banjo for darius, but also trying to figure out the future of my workspace and whether/where i will be moving. however, if anyone is interested in purchasing an instrument without waiting, the wenge gourd banjo is up on ebay right now (item no. 330157336001).

who would guess that TWO gourd banjo makers would end up living within a mile of one another? i guess anything is possible... in jamaica plain. anyways, i paid my first visit to paul sedgewicks house and studio today. its a mind-blowingly inspirational place. a) its a workspace that is actually nice. b) the banjos and other gourd instruments there are wonderful. c) AKONTINGS!!!

paul seems like a great guy, and it was fun to talk to him and hear him play the banjos and akontings. i was really inspired by some of the different, and more 'primitive' designs for banjos i saw there, and i think i am really going to have to start experimenting with some new forms now. and of course, the akontings were positively mesmerizing. this voyage had a two-fold effect. one, it reminded me of why i love the banjo, and why i love gourd banjos in particular. two, it reminded me og how awesome jamaica plain is.

i have been in the midst of looking for a new apartment and workspace, and therefore havent really had much time to work on banjos of late. but work should start back up as soon as all this uncertainty is resolved.

new gourd banjo is up. its god a dark oak neck with some nice medullary rays, and a large, thumping gourd. it looks really nice, and plays well.

newest gourd banjo is all but done. tomorrow im going to turn my own custom pegs, file the nut blank, make the tailpiece, then string it up and play it. its looking great right now assembled and waiting for the final touches.

new oak neck. should be done by saturday. i love working with oak. its really got such a rustic character, and is very easy to shape. click the thumbnail for full size...

new gourd banjo is up in the gallery, front and center. check it out.

new gourd banjo almost done, and should be finished this afternoon. this one has a walnut neck, and an exquisite wenge fingerboard with a very distinct, beautiful grain swirling patter that i integrated into the shape of the neck itself. the gourd is on the larger side, and quite eccentric, such that the cut i made for the head results, because of the gourds shape, in a non-round surface. this sort of makes it look as though the dowel is not centered, but it actually is running through the middle of the gourd. something different, i suppose. i would love to keep this one, but it is going to be up for sale. the bills dont pay themselves.

as always, click the thumbnail for larger images...

well, a new order is in. will i never have time to build a few banjos for myself?

this is going to be a beautiful musical instrument. im going to be making a gourd banjo. it will be based on a single-piece oak neck that im going to ebonize with rust and vinegar. therell be a small sound hole, rimmed with tacked-on skin. the peghead design hasnt been finalized yet, but there are myriad, interesting possibilities.

this is a second order for darius, who will soon be featured on the web page playing a few tunes on his last tack head. i am happy to see a smattering of returning customers of late. its fun to work on a second banjo with people, because i come to it knowing a lot more about them, and what types of things they are interested in. additionally. of course, it means that they were happy with the instrument i sent them, and thats really the most important thing.

updates will be posted as they come.

well, there a new banjo up in the gallery. its the eighth from the left, and another copy of the korda-style banjo.

in the next month i will be building two banjos - one will a gourd be based around the walnut neck and exquisitely grained wenge fingerboard that i've already made. the other will be a flush-fret tackhead with an oak neck that is yet to be started. i have to get as much work in as i can before grad school starts, so it will be busy.

these banjos will both be offered for sale.

now almoster done than before

the banjo: today i sanded down to 600 grit and burned the makers mark onto the back of the peghead, stained the neck, and tacked the ribbon (which i spent the after looking for in various boston-area fabric stores). it is looking very, very nice.

this summer, michaela and i were surprised to be allowed into the nicest community garden in j.p. i know its not banjo related, but here are some photos of the progress. oldest photos are on top, most recent on bottom. click to enlarge...

much progress today. the skin has been mounted, rim finished, tailpiece cut, nut slotted, etc. i put it together and it played well. this banjo is really, really responsive, and plays/sounds particularly nicely out over the scoop, though i left the tailpiece too far out and need to shorten the string that attaches it to the end pin, so that might move the sweet-playing spot back a bit.

i know need to disassemble and stain/finish the neck. i also need to make two bentwood laminations on the inside of the pot - one to go over the dowel where it enters, and one where it sits with the end pin. additionally, i need to cut a slot through the dowel for the wedge of ebony that will help tighten and secure the fit of the neck. all finish work should be done by mid week. once again, i sort of wish i could afford to keep this banjo. alas...

the flash on these photos really tends to darken the pot and, in general, exagerate contrasts. but it gives an idea of where the build is at.

(as always, click to see the full-sized image.)

its been a tumultuous month, but i have continued to work on banjos. as it happens, i will, sadly, not be attending clifftop in august. though it pains me to miss out, it is just not possible. that being said, the banjo i am making for dennis in honolulu is coming together nicely, and should be ready for final finishing later on this weekend. once again, dennis wanted a similar banjo to josh korda's first banjo - the black one - in the gallery. dennis is a luthier himself, so i have to make sure everything is perfect, or at least as perfect as i can get it. the fact that this banjo will also reside in the most completely humid conditions imaginable only adds to the challenge. here is what it looks like so far. the neck has been completely shaped, pegs fitted, dowel turned and attached, and the rim has been stained and sanded.

It's been a busy year here in the workshop, and it only stands to get a little more busy in the coming months. Having just shipped my last banjo out to Connecticut, I will begin work on a new tackhead that ships to Hawaii in July. Simultaneously, I hope to complete at least two new banjos to bring along to Clifftop (if anyone is looking for a new tackhead, meet me in West Virginia) at the beginning of August. Should be a bustling next eight weeks here in J.P..

there is a new banjo in the gallery. check it out.

the new banjo, before all the photos get prettied-up backdrops. click for full size

in case anyone actually cares, i made all new images for most of the sub-sections of the website. now they look better, causing some of the pages to actually look - dare i say - good.

take a gander!

just finished turning the dowel stick, and fitting it to the neck and pot. its looking pretty sweet. below, you can see the stages of the dowel stick as it was being turned on the lathe, as well as the test-fit banjo. click on the thumbnails to see full-seized images:

well, the pot is reinforced now, and its a lot stronger. there's still a tiny bit of give, but not enough to cause problems. next up, i have to start turning the dowel stick.

the grain measure. this was a very expensive antique grain measure. but the hoop is simply too thin to support a stretched skin, so it has to be reinforced with an oak lamination. once it is glued in place and dried, it will be more than sturdy enough. however, all this extra work and expense is why i now prefer to use modern wooden shells to build my banjos.

darius's banjo moving along into the final neck shaping stage.

joshes second banjo, finished. fancy pics to come...

New banjo ordered by Darius is under way. Still working on churning out extra bridges for past two banjo buyers (sorry guys... band saw died, work, etc. slowed me down. they are coming very soon, though, i promise).

Well, there's been some progress. Joshes second banjo is almost done. If I can, I would like to finish it this today. The huge pot actually fits rather nicely with the shorter neck, aesthetically speaking, which was something I was uncertain about when he requested it. This weekend I have to begin a new tackhead for Darius in Connecticut, so it's been busy here for sure. I'm still working on hardware fabrication plans for the adjustable headed banjos, but I've been so busy making tackheads that I haven't had much time to get going on those projects, which are now looking likely to be in full swing during the dog days.

I will hopefully have the time to slow down a bit and work on some new projects in the coming months. I have a neck building project for an old, birds-eye maple pot to take care of. I have also been getting ready to start fabricating hardware for some adjustable-headed minstrel banjos. I dont have the ability to make castings, so fabricating the parts is going to take som ingenuity. However, it should be a fun and worthwhile undertaking, when all is said and done.

In the meantime, I have two banjos to comlpete for people, and am still taking orders.

The paduak banjo is coming along. The neck is mostly done, save for finish work. Most of my time this weekend is gong to be spent working on our garden, but this banjo should be done in about ten days. The lighting was terrible, so the photos arent so great, but to give an idea of the banjo...

The gallery has been updated with high resolution photos of the oak banjo. I liked the way it turned out so much that I am ordering a large batch shipment of oak blanks to make more necks out of.

Anyhow, I should have at least one new instrument finished, photographed and shipped by the ned of the month. check back for progress!

Well, new banjos are underway. Here are some photos. You can see all the ingredients for the banjo - a giant, 14-inch pot, the walnut block for the neck, and the paduak fingerboard. Once I set up the break angle for the peghead (2nd photo), i found that there was some beautiful grain and figuring around a knot in the wood that will sadly be covered up. I then clamped the paduak peghead overlay on and let it sit for the night (3rd photo). You can see what itll look like on monday when all the glue dries (4th photo). The deep orange paduak is going to contrast wonderfully with the washed-out brown of the walnut.



I'm also working on a non-commissioned banjo. A very long time ago, when I was more interested in exotic woods, I found this fantastic piece of wenge with a phenomenal grain pattern. I'm trying a little bit of a different design for the neck, and I think this one will come out really nicely, if I ever have time to finish it.

Tim's banjo came out well. It sounds excellent - a nice, crisp tone that retains a good degree of thumpiness due to the small f-shaped sound holes. I cut the hell out of my thumb while cutting out the tailpiece, which wasn't great. I have to take the strings off and contour the fingerboard to simulate a little up-bow, due to the fact that the fourth string is buzzing when it's hit hard, but that's not a major operation, and always has to be done - I just thought I'd try to see if i could get away without having to do it. The answer is no. In any event, I'm really happy with the way the oak neck looks, and will definitely be making more oak-necked gourd banjos in the future. So, I'll wrap this one up in the next couple of days, ship it out, and start on the next banjo order. I've been asked to make a giant, fourteen inch tackhead with a short-scale neck and paduak fingerboard. It should be pretty sweet.

Here are a few photos of the banjo that I just finished. Official, high-resolution gallery shots will be up later in the week.

well, i got some work done since this morning. i made and attached the dowel, finished cleaning, leveling, and fashioning sound holes in the gourd, and i managed to put it all together. i mussed up the break angle on the neck somewhat, so had to surgically graft on a shim to one of the dowel holes in the gourd. the piece of gourd shell that i grafted on is very nicely matched, but even so, it will end up covered. one of the more challenging aspects of building a gourd banjo is getting all the geometry right with respect to setting the neck. its much harder than the same process on a banjo with a hoop-shaped pot, as the gourd is completely irregular. thus, you have to calculate everything based on three separate axes, which can be quite difficult, especially for someone as impatient as myself. in any event, here's the product of todays work:

friday is my day off from work, and therefore it's the day that i get most of my banjo making done. today i'm about to cut and attach the dowel stick the neck of tim's banjo and, when it dries - which should be done in a few hours - i'll fit the neck to the gourd. carving the heel of the neck out to match the countours of the gourd is the most time-consuming and frustrating part of the process. here are a couple of shots where you can see the heel countoured-out to match the gourd.

I was extraordinarily ill for the past week, and therefore was not able to get much work done. But things are looking up now. I finished shaping Tim's oak neck. It's been a long time since I have worked in oak, and it's been really fun. I definitely have to do some more projects with this wood. The neck already has a solid, but very primitive, plain look that I love.

I also added a number of new recordings to the, "listen" page, sampling two more banjos.

Tim's new banjo is finally underway. Here are some photos. Taken on my low-res camera phone, they reveal not only a new, oak neck in the early states of construction, but also a) my messy workshop for the first time on the internet, and b) my other main project at the moment, waiting quietly in the corner while i wait for a new head gasket.

Well, I finished a major overhaul of the gallery. It might appear to be a minor redesign, but it now allows me to post three images of every banjo, which means I can also include shots of miscellaneous details for each instrument. Almost all of the banjos in the current gallery were sold long ago, and thus I don't have additional photos on hand for all of them, but many have been updated. Here's one example of a newly included detail.