March started off with a walnut mandocello and walnut 6 and 12 string dreadnought guitars which wrapped around a bit from the end of February. I am pleased to have finally gotten the 12 string guitar done, and the others were fun too. They are shown on the mandolin and guitar pages respectively. I didn’t allow for instruments as thick as these when I was putting together shelving in the house, so the only places I can keep them easily are on the top of the kitchen shelves, nearly 10 feet off the floor. I took a couple of group pictures of the 5 mandolin family instruments I have on hand at the moment.
Custom work for March started off with a pair of Vega necks for different customers. One was a curly maple neck that the customer wanted to be 1-1/4″ inches thick from front to back. He also wanted some more Vega inlay, which he ordered, as I am not skilled to cut inlay.
The other Vega neck was more similar to the necks I usually make. It was made from cherry with an ebony pinstripe.
Next came a couple of 6 string banjos. #374 has a 23″ scale length, with an internal resonator and a Whyte Laydie tone ring.
Banjo #375 is a stock walnut 12″ thin rim banjo with a Dobson tone ring. It is shown on the banjos page.
Banjo #376 is a cherry version of the walnut 6 string from back in the winter. It has a 25″ scale length, more like a regular guitar.
My last custom banjo for March was #377, a 13″ mahogany banjo with a skin head. I am not confident of getting the crown height right on skin heads so I don’t use them often, but in this case it seemed handy given how much more expensive 13″ synthetic heads are.
Now that it is April I have begun a batch of four stock banjos to replace ones that were sold in March. I have a couple of tentatively scheduled April custom projects but don’t know what the month will bring overall.