Alabama Joe played on one of my tackheads.

Of the many questions people ask about my banjos, one of the most common is regarding their ability to hold up in high humidity. People have either read a lot about sagging tackhead skins or played inferior instruments - either way, the concern is understandable. While humidity does affect the feel and sound of any banjo with a skin head, mine included, a properly mounted tackhead will hold up and be playable in extreme weather, especially with a set of different sized bridges. Here is a quick little clip of one of my 12" tackheads at 78 degrees and 93% humidity (during the eveniing and between two thunderstorms). The head is a little softer, to be sure, but I'm still using the original short bridge.

4 new black cherry neck blanks just in from indiana

After much experimenting, I finally figured out how to steal Tim's videos of my banjos from youtube and save them as .mov files. The result is that a bunch of them are now hosted directly at jaymoschella.com. Check them out in the listen section!

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to work on banjos since I finished the last two tackheads. The end of the semester has been very, very busy. I've had a couple of presentations and papers, as well as a final project that entailed researching and cataloging an unprocessed collection of about 60 original civil war photographs. But school finally ends next Tuesday, and then it's back to the workshop - this time to hash out some brass hardware and tension hoops for a new series of banjos with adjustable heads.

Amidst all the stress of full-time work, plus two nights a week in the master's program I'm doing, I've taken to the bracing thrill of collecting 19th century photographic processes. I've mostly been going in for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes - nothing fancy, but I've been looking for portraits with interesting or appealing sitters. Here are a few samples of what I've been picking up: