I became interested in building musical instruments in my mid-teens. I made this fretless mountain banjo in 1976 following instructions in the Foxfire 3 book. The date 7/4/1976 is scratched inside to coincide with the US bicentennial . I used salvaged wood that I found in an old cellar hole on our property. At the time I didn't have all the materials to finish it properly, so it has remained in a semi-finished state until now. 44 year later it sports a new goathead skin, tuning pegs, and brass tailpiece.
The pot is made from popular and the neck looks like maple. The nut is a very hard white wood, and I suspect I used hornbeam. I rolled a 3/16" brass rod into a hoop for a tone ring. I cut the tailpiece from some scrap 1/8" brass. In the original version, I carved the friction pegs from some kind of hardwood but they didn't hold up. The current pegs are oud pegs from ebay.
Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
- Karl Wicklund
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Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
When you say the original pegs didn't hold up, is it that they stopped working, or that they disintegrated, or...? Thanks.
I've looked at that Foxfire banjo a few times but never went ahead with it.
I've looked at that Foxfire banjo a few times but never went ahead with it.
Kaptain Karl
Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
I ended up twisting the knobs off. I probably made them from red maple and they weren't strong enough. Also when I first built it I was using steel strings. Now I'm using Nylgut.
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Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
It looks great Tom. How does it sound?
Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
Thanks Bob! I'm really happy with the sound and I'm surprised it plays as well as it does, considering it's the first instrument I ever made and really didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't a banjo player until now and I'm still getting used to playing clawhammer on a fretless instrument. I can't play like Leon Ballard does in this clip, but my banjo sounds a lot like the one in the video. https://youtu.be/DwrplEyF4eM
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Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
Good looking instrument, Tom
Has it really been 44 years?
I have an unfinished "lute like object" laying around in the shop gathering dust that I started in the late 70's, but never finished. Perhaps I should follow suit and do it. I wonder how many others have unfinished projects left on the strand?
Has it really been 44 years?
I have an unfinished "lute like object" laying around in the shop gathering dust that I started in the late 70's, but never finished. Perhaps I should follow suit and do it. I wonder how many others have unfinished projects left on the strand?
Re: Fretless mountain banjo: 44 years in the making
Well, almost 44. I don't know when I started it in 1976. Funny you mention the "lute like object" because that was the next thing I started making. I had some birch or something from a tree I cut down and had bent into a teardrop shaped one piece side. But that's as far as that project ever got.