January was my most productive month yet, I think. I got back into the shop on the evening of the 30th after a Christmas break while my sister was visiting for a week.  I had been gradually working on an unusual project and got my part of it completed early in the month. It was a Kraske-inspired hollow rim, made from two pieces of Keller drum shell and a lot of little blocks of maple. I shipped it to the customer set up but unfinished and he did a very nice job of finishing, including making the dowel stick I had made match the neck he had bought. 

On the 30th I started a batch of 3 small stock banjos, #321-323. They are all shown on the Banjos page. The next batch was four banjos, including #324, a custom cherry A scale banjo with a rectangular brass tone ring, a tunneled 5th string, and a persimmon fretboard.

#325 was a stock walnut C scale that was built by request, as I didn’t have one in stock. This is something I’m always happy to do, as I am not able to keep all the combinations of wood types and sizes and designs that are part of what I build as stock banjos on hand at the same time.  This way the customer gets the lower stock pricing and the 7 day approval period, and it’s still easy for me to make because it’s a design I’m used to. This one has nylgut minstrel strings for tuning to open G on a short scale. 

Banjos 326 and 327 are walnut stock banjos, and are shown on the Banjos page. Along with this batch of banjos I also made my first walnut archtop guitar, with a one piece back from a wide board I got in Harrisville last spring. I’ve got enough left to make two more from the same piece. This was also my first archtop guitar to use zebrawood for the trim pieces. I like the walnut and zebrawood combination and have been using it a lot, but I know some people prefer more traditional dark colored fretboards and such, so I try to make some with thoser too.  Guitar #17 is shown on the Guitars page. 

My last batch for the month was two banjos and a walnut chicken head fiddle. Banjo #328 was a cherry 12″ fretless, just like the 12″ cherry stock banjos of which I have made quite a few over the years, but without the frets. 

Banjo #329 is a stock cherry A scale with curly maple trim. It is shown on the Banjos page. Fiddle #30 is a walnut/zebrawood chicken head and is shown on the Fiddles page. This is my first time using zebrawood on a fiddle too, and I figured it would match with the guitar. I’ve got a couple of custom banjos I am working on now, and am about to start a stock octave mandolin in walnut. If more custom work comes in this month I’ll have time for that, or if not I hope to make a curly maple fiddle and perhaps an internal resonator banjo to replace the one that was bought last month. I’d also like to make a 14″ experimental archtop guitar and a 12 string flat top guitar soon, depending how things go.