Thursday 24 February 2011

Make Your Own Banjo part 2


We've finally assembled all the parts for the new banjo. Uncle Harry has been hard at work carving the neck, and today was the chance to have a first fit of the banjo pot and head with the tension hoop and all the tensioning brackets - it fit like dream!

This is the my new beauty! The big decision today was where to cut the body of the pot for the dowel stick, but it was easier to determine once the tension hoop was fitted and the head had been tightened. The engraved tension hoop looks fantastic and the 24 tension brackets give it a real tight head.

A shot of the master at work! I've sourced the parts but its been Harry whose done all the skilled work.
The next step is for Harry to carve out the dowel stick and the hole in the pot for it to fit through, then we can have a first look at it assembled with the neck and body together!!!

Thursday 17 February 2011

Hobo Heaven



You can't beat a bit of Hobo Heaven by Groanbox, this is my son's favorite and it was seeing these guys at Deer Shed 2010 and doing a workshop with them that got him playing the uke.

Sandy River Belle


Still plugging away at this tune and I think I've got the first part, but I tried to incorporate some tab from David Payne's Clawhammer Banjo site (see links) and I've not quite got the drop thumbing combined with a quick run up the neck, but one day....
Listen!

Sunday 13 February 2011

You Can't Always Get What You Want


This is special track recorded for the blog by P.B.Guttenburg and His Hawks (feat:the Hawthorne Gay Men's Choir)
Listen!

Saturday 5 February 2011

Make Your Own Banjo

 ... with Uncle Harry.


Some of you might remember my aborted attempts at making a cigar box ukulele last year. Well despite proving that I'm no carpenter, I did get the feel that, although very subtle and complicated, this whole making an instrument thing was possible. All I needed to do was bring in the professionals. So I went to see my uncle Harry - he's the man when it comes to making things.

Harry happened to have a piece of seasoned beech which was left over from making a table and was keen to have a go. So I bought a copy of 'make your own banjo' from Amazon he started carving the neck to the plans provided. Harry has the right attitude, don't rush, take your time and do it properly, all the attitudes that I lacked in my previous effort.



We've been using my Windsor as a template and reference when were the instructions in the book weren't that clear. I bought the 11" pot from Stew Mac which came with a pre routed brass tone ring. They were a special offer and despite having to pay import duty into the UK it saved a lot of trouble as this and the neck are most tricky parts of the instrument to make.

I've been picking up the other parts steadily from Ebay and Eagle Music and Brown Dog Banjos have been a good source of UK based suppliers.
Here's where it started to get really exciting I got a pre-fretted finger board from Stew Mac, but managed to get hold of the head and tension hoop in the UK and once the elements went together for a test run it started to look like a tasty banjo.
I need to pick up the hardware for fixing the dowel stick/perch pole and a tail piece but once I've got those we are going to assemble the body so we can work out exactly where to place the neck.

I'll keep you posted!