Well, I have just about finished Lloyd's giant gourd banjo. After stringing it up and playing it this evening, which concludes several weeks of work, I think I can safely say that it is the finest sounding gourd banjo I have yet produced. Of course, I think that to be the case every time I finish any banjo, but it seems particularly true at the moment.



There are certain key structural differences that are working together to give this banjo a massive, deep, and full-blasting growl of a tone. First, the size. Lloyd wanted the neck to have a 28" scale to match the giant 14" pot tackhead I keep at home. Longer scale necessitates higher string tension, the end product of which is greater sustain and a richer (in my opinion) tone.



Second: the gourd. The gourd I used for this project came from Paul Sedgewick's shop. In the first place, it is gigantic, being about 13 inches in diameter. Another interesting thing is that it is also very thin. So thin, in fact, that I had to reinforce it with an epoxy resin. The resin coated the interior of the gourd, creating what is essentially one big resonator. Frequencies that would have been previously absorbed by the sound-deadening, soft, rough interior of the gourd are now projected with great clarity.

The most tedious part of building a gourd banjo (the way I do it), comes in creating the fit between the heel of the neck and the gourd, with its multiples asymmetries.

Here is a photo of the banjo I'm working on right now, the fit for which is around 95% after 3.5 hours of work:


The heel:


A jumbo canteen gourd that I just reinforced with a two-part epoxy resin:

walnut, cherry, and sugar maple: great ice cream flavors on their own, but also my favorite hardwoods. i've got a number of full sized billets of each headed here to my shop, as well as red and white oak, hickory, and butternut (i swear i dont pick my materials based on what sort of imaginary desserts they would make). they are all coming from sustainable, independent sources in wisconsin, indiana, and pennsylvania. i am particularly excited about the lumber on it way from pennsylvania, which is coming from a small milling operation that i have never worked with before.

after the stock of exotic hardwoods i have runs out, i am gong to make a concerted effort to only build with native species. even though its already too late to save the planet, i have reservations about the supply lines for some of the fancier african and asian hardwoods, regardless of claims that they have been harvested in accordance with CITES.

Things have been very busy in the shop this summer, with multiple banjos on my bench for the past several months. The upcoming months will be no different: I will have completed Stichter and Boucher copies, along with several other custom orders. In addition, I am happy to say that I am working with a very talented designer to completely overhaul the website. Aside from a new layout, there will be an expanded audio-visual section with new video and audio recordings, a better, more functional gallery, new text, and an all-around cleaner, richer visual experience for visitors. Keep a eye out for the new site to be rolled out in the next couple months.