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.

quarter-sawn oak. the king of all woods, and sort of a nightmare to work with. but the end results are, without fail, beautiful. here is the neck for a jumbo gourd banjo im making for lloyd here in boston. i am inlaying 12 flush-frets after the style of the 1860s and '70s.

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Jim Bollman and his extraordinary collection of banjos and banjo-related ephemera last night. It was a fantastic experience, and I hope to return often. The purpose of my visit was, ostensibly, to visit one instrument in particular—the ca. 1848 Henry Stichter banjo, which I am currently working to reproduce. The banjo itself was built by Stichter when he was just 16 years old, and the features of its construction are marvelous and bizarre.



The banjo originally had two drone strings—one on each side of the neck—but one has since been removed, leaving the more familiar 5-string construction intact. The oak rim itself, which is enormous, is only 3/16” thick, and joined only to a radiused block of wood by way of four screws, rather than the scarf joint that is more typical of a single-ply rim from that era. The numerous quirks represent a challenge where reproduction is concerned: should a copy be 100% faithful, the banjo itself would be difficult to play and feature modes of construction that would make it a somewhat undesirable option where durability is concerned. Thus, the challenge in this project is to strike a balance between modern standards of playability and an adherence to the original design and overall aesthetic. In short, this banjo would be faithful in appearance to the original but far more playable and a lot more sturdy. It should be done some time in September. Keep an eye out.



In the mean time, I am working on a number of interesting custom projects to be completed in the coming weeks.

If you're feeling lucky, you can head over to the banjo hangout and enter to win the banjo pictured here (click for full size):



I built this instrument specifically for the banjohangout. It's a great site worthy of your support if you are at all interested in the banjo, so check it out.

My workshop is once again located on dry land, and I only had to stay up until 4AM pumping water out of the basement twice in a row. Tomorrow I will have to put the whole shop back together (not the easiest task), and production should be up and running by Friday.

On an unrelated note, the cost of tool black is appallingly high. Oh, the price we are willing to pay to make new things look old. . .

New England is being obliterated by a massive nor'easter right now. High winds and some of the most incredible flooding I've ever seen in this area. The real problem for me, though, is that my workshop is currently flooded out. I had to tear it apart at high speed to save my tools and supplies from water. It'll be a bit before I can rebuild it.

I made this banjo for mark a couple years ago. It was a pleasure to build and a joy to play. I hated to put it in the mail, but I'm glad to see it found such a happy home.


Find more videos like this on Minstrel Banjo

002 is born

New custom-order neck. Lucas asked me to make him a minstrel banjo with a double ogee and a horizontal 5th-string peg. It's looking good so far.

new oak and cherry neck blanks fresh from the sawyer's kiln.

Hardware!

First banjo to ship with a full set of minstrel hardware is nearing completion. My friend Aaron at Trimount Ironworks in Boston lent his expertise to the project, and we hammered out some very nice looking parts.

Hi everyone -

Emails through the website have been filtered to my spam folder for some unknown reason. So sorry if I haven't been getting back to you. Normally I take a long time to reply to emails, but not this long!

New Project:

Banjo season is back, and so am I. Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, flickr season seems to have passed: I changed the permissions on my account, and it also—to my surprise—changed all the URLs of my photos, turning this blog into a huge mess of "this photo is currently unavailable" messages.

I will slowly be bringing the photos back over the next couple weeks so the blog will actually useful again.

I'm currently working on two banjos at once—twins, as it were. Both will feature cherry necks with flush ebony frets and aged brass hardware. They should be done by the end of the month. Here they are getting ready to take shape. . .



More photos to come.

I have been getting a lot of banjo inquiries of late. Unfortunately at this time the demands of my day job, along with the grad program I'm in make it impossible for me to also dedicate the time and attention necessary for custom instrument work. In order to keep up with demand I have also sold off several pieces from my personal collection and no longer have any banjos in stock or for sale. This is why I will not be able to take on any new projects until after the semester comes to a close in May. If you are interested in arranging something with that time period in mind, please feel free to get in touch with me.

FREIHEIT

Marks' banjo has been added to the gallery. See photos here.

Testing out Mark's new Banjo

Finished, save for the final coats of oil

Another reason to love Ralph Stanley!

Inlay