A new banjo

[Patrick Hanna]

Hi, Friends,
I'm an arch top guitar enthusiast and play old jazz and swing standards with a group of musician friends. For a long time, I've thought it would be fun to double on tenor banjo for a few of the really old jazz tunes. This is not my first instrument, but it's my first banjo--and perhaps the only one I will ever build. Oddly, I found it a much more daunting task than building my arch top guitar. Metal parts came from various sources. I've had the tone ring, tension hoop and coordinator rods for about 30 years. Bracket shoes, hooks, tailpiece, etc., are recent purchases. The rosewood nut is temporary (I'm waiting for my bleached bone nut blank to arrive) and I have not yet made the resonator or arm rest (I have flange plates waiting until those parts are ready) but It's playable so I believe it's technically finished and I'll post it. This was also my first experience with mother of pearl inlay and I'm very satisfied with the results. The design process for all the visual elements including wood choices, dyes, laminations, inlay concepts, head shape, etc. was a very satisfying process. Many, many excellent luthiers inspired various elements and processes that went into this instrument. I'm indebted to all of them. I hope you enjoy seeing it. Cheers to all.
Patrick

[Patrick Hanna]

Here are a couple more views and details.
Thanks, all.
Patrick

[Bob Gramann]

It's beautiful. Please tell us about making the rim.

[Jason Rodgers]

Classy. Clean. Very nice. And the Art Deco ornamentation is simple and bold, but not overdone or distracting.

[Patrick Hanna]

Thank you, Bob and Jason.

I've always liked art deco motifs. Vintage banjos are usually fairly heavily ornamented, but I wanted a more understated look that wouldn't distract from the wood's figure or the head stock shape. It just seemed to me that art deco, 1920s, the King Tut tomb discovery that inspired so many Egyptian motifs in art deco, old banjo jazz and my visual goals could all be rolled into one package.

The rim was made in an outside mold with several thin layers of maple bent on my bending iron. Here you can see the plain maple and birdseye slats on the bench under a partially bent hoop:

The birdseye slats were used as the "show" faces of the rim. Once glued up, the rim was mounted on a home made longworth lathe chuck and trued up. A shelf was turned for the tone ring. There were a few shallow voids here and there between the laminations. These were tightly packed with fine birch sanding dust and then flooded with watery CA glue. I didn't much care for the seams where the ends of the hoops met, so I glued end graft wedges in those places:

Then I capped the bottom with a nine-segment lamination of walnut and maple veneers and a thicker layer of walnut. This was routed with a flush trim bit, then re-centered on the longworth and carefully rounded over. The bottom cap shows much better in the earlier photos that I posted.

I capped the top of the rim with nine segments of walnut veneer:

This was also trimmed with a router:

Here's the part I hate to admit: I then drilled all the holes for the bracket shoes too far below the top ledge. OUCH! Well, 48 maple plugs and 24 new holes later, I was back in business (so to speak). I knew the goof would be impossible to completely disguise, but I also knew the plugs would eventually be hidden by the resonator. The banjo is for my own use, so I decided to leave it as a reminder to be more careful the next time I drill a hole.

Patrick

[Jon Whitney]

Live and learn - but it's a fine looking banjo from some very nice wood. Thanks for posting it.

[Bob Gramann]

Thanks for the exposition on the rim construction. I've yet to try one like that. I've been building them up with blocks and then turning them.

[Patrick Hanna]

Hey, Bob,
I've looked at LOTS of discussion threads where people use the block method, as you have. I think it's probably more fool proof, and definitely easier in the glue up stage. I didn't know about that way back when I acquired those birdseye slats. If I were going to do this all over again, and knowing what I now know, I think I'd try the block method. Then maybe veneer the pot if I wanted a real fancy wood to show there.
Patrick

[Patrick Hanna]

Bob,
I should have noted that I staggered the butt joints of the various pot laminations all around the rim. Only the show faces butted at the eventual center line. Those were the joints where I inserted the walnut "end grafts". That seems pretty obvious to specify, but someone else might be reading this and wondering, so I thought I should clarify. I believe it's plenty strong, but probably no more so than the stacked block method.
Patrick

[Michael Lewis]

Very nice start! Now where is your resonator? Match some of your woods and , . . . . . well, you know.

A simple plate flange will do nicely and not add much weight. StewMac has some hardware for that, or First Quality Music in Louisville,KY.

[Patrick Hanna]

Thanks, Michael. Yes, the resonator and arm rest are in the works, although at my rate of production I'll probably have to resurrect this thread from the archives in order to post pictures when I'm done. Regardless, I'll update when I get there. Thanks for the encouragement.