A Mini Banjo
Jan 03, 2011
The peghead end of WIll's third banjo
Happy New Year Everyone !!!
Will has just completed his third banjo from scratch .. It’s for a little kid; a present from his grandmother because she knows he likes to watch Will play the banjo at the local farmer’s market …. Treat ‘em right, I say. Get a musical instrument in a kid’s hands and it could change their life …. The third photo and the fourth one show the difference in size between a regular old time or bluegrass banjo (11” pot) and the mini he just completed (8” pot) …. The head for the mini is a standard size for something called a banjolele, as it sounds, a cross between a banjo and a ukelele … Shortening the scale and fretboard was one challenge. Figuring out the neck to pot angle and getting those tuners in that little peghead were others … It all works though. Will says it is easy to play and I think it’s about the happiest sounding instrument I’ve heard … Here’s a link to a 50 second youtube concert and here’s one to my recent blog post with more and bigger photos…
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The peghead end of WIll's third banjo
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side view
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it looks tiny but will says it is very easy to play and you can hear it here on this 45 second youtube concert
i
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same guy, same chair, first banjo, regular size
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back side ... the neck is offset to center the 'g' string, bnot the neck itself, on the perpendicular to the pot ... fussy little detail
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swan .... the recipient's last name
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neck to pot jig
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turning the pot
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slotted and inlaid fretboard and peghead
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fret cutting jig ... figuring out the scale length and making the template for the shortened fretboard was one of the challenges of the design
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second banjo .. it didn;t get it's own post, but he did that one, like the last one, totally without my help ...
Comments
This really is great! I'd love to make one some day. Can you recommend a good source for all the hardware?
@PORC,
Stewart-MacDonald (http://www.stewmac.com/) has a wide assortment of banjo components.
-Steve
@saschafer,
Thank you Steve! I'll have a look. Jason
hello everyone ..regarding PORC's question about the hardware, while we do get a lot of stuff from stew-mac, this particular brass hardware, which Will antiqued himself, came from bill rickard banjos in ontario canada ... beautiful stuff … here's a link to his website ... it might be best to give him a call... http://www.banjo-workshop.com/index.htm
to see more of will’s furniture work, click this link and scroll down … all for now … dan
-- dan,vermont,http://dorsetcustomfurniture.blogspot.com/
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