latest goings ons

walnut mountain banjo started

gourd banjo #7 completed

more mountain banjo parts

went to see Daniel Jatta give a talk on the Akonting and the history of the banjo. then he played my gourd banjo.

Old English banjo restoration

Finally got the head on this old 6 stringer. made a flesh hoop out of a piece of stainless welding rod i found at work. I still need to fabricate some brass tension hooks and hook nuts. i also need to make  tailpiece and a rosewood nut.

 Im getting quite excited about hearing this one now

more restoration

I bought this 1930s parlor guitar from a charity shop for just £`12. its had a seriously hard life and probably needed chucking away. but i couldn't resist dabbling with it: The headstock was split (screwed together) the neck had severe saw tooth and someone had glued a slither of wood on the neck to repair it! It had been painted over with a nasty gloopy varnish. So far ive done a bit of gluing, a bit of filling a dn a lot of sanding / stripping. Its looking better already.

This is a 6 string English (made by Jordan of Liverpool circa 1880). The head had a floral painting witch Ive removed an kept somewhere safe. Ive polished the 12" brass (no wood!) pot and ive re-french polished the neck keeping all the patina and grime in place. Next is to replace the head, make a few tension hooks, replace the nut, make new tailpiece and bridge. Im really looking forward to hearing this old girl sing again.

I got this old fretless Lyon and Healey banjo on Ebay (circa late 1800 / early 1900). Its in a very poor shape but ive so far cleaned up and re ebonised the pot. re polished the neck and repaied the fingerboard (i think it was japanning. on sanding it released a white dust and smelled like poo). It needs the neck fitting correctly as the radius is very wrong, i need to make some more tension brackets and hooks then fit a new head. I will also be fabricating a brass tailpiece (unless i can find an original)

4 gourds

Ive recently had a batch of gourd banjo commissions.

Nicely figured sapelle neck with double ogees

 Nice and simple iroku neck

An interesting project to convert a Griffin banjos (unfinished) lefty neck to fit a gourd. I added flush fret position markers and a star inlay.

This one just started. A nicely flamed piece of meranti I found at my local wood yard. with big scroll peghead and double ogees. Its laminated with a maple stripe in the centre and a stained mahogany finger board and peghead overlay.

Antique(ish) mountain banjo

A project to make an Appalachian mountain banjo that looks ancient. Lots of ageing techniques to learn and experiment with. Its made from reclaimed English elm. I must say that im pretty happy with the results (ironically it took more work to get this worn out beaten up wood-wormy look than to get  a nice polish)

1920s banjo restoration update

After playing this banjo for a few weeks i felt that the neck warp was to much to live with. I attempted to straighten it using force (clamps etc) but to no avail. Then i decided to sand out the warp. This left me with hardly any fretboard material so i decided to replace it. on top of the original ebony i added, maple - walnut - maple veneer then a walnut fretboard. I also cut a bigger frailing scoop to allow for thumb action. Im very pleased with the results. and the banjo now plays and sounds great. Next will be to fit "PegHeds" tuning pegs and maybe a little tweak of the nut.

 

  

1920s banjo restoration pt2

Pot polished and looking dandy

I then noticed something strange - and remembered a problem i had with the banjo when i first bought it. The action over the head was very low, making clawhammer very tricky, and the banjo was very quiet. I soon realised that the neck to pot geometry was out. There was no angle at all... possibly because in its day it would have been played in classic banjo style and non of that vulgar American oldtimey... this needed rectifying.

so once dismantled again, i planned to remove the dowel stick and re cut the heel, then re fit the dowel stick at its new angle.

i need to make myself a proper steam injecting tool for this job but i managed it with a hair dryer and some hernia inducing tugging... not recommended as it has a detrimental effect on the french polish and as the heel was made in two parts this could have easily split... so i used cam claps to prevent separation.

re fitting the dowel stick at its new correct angle

 
Re cutting the heel. You can see marks on the heel where the heat of the hairdryer damaged the polish... the beauty of french polish is that its not too tricky to repair.

Here it is all strung up with Nylgut and looking lovely

Although its a nice looking banjo, there are design features that i have issues with. One of which is the peg head design. They opeted for a nice elegent looking peghead but it narrow profile means that the strings fouls slightly on the other pegs. I also planning to fit PegHeds tuning machines for ease of use and to retain the antique look.

A closer view of the frailing scoop.

The next lttile tweak is to notch out the tension hoop at this spot so that the hook sits flush. At the moment its quite raised making frailing at the the scoop awkward.