August was another mildly non-productive month in my corner of the world, but I got a little bit of work done and have more to do this month. I started with a batch that included banjo #397, a walnut 11″ with a custom slimmer neck.
#398 and 399 are both stock banjos and are shown on the Banjos page. Next came banjo #400, which was a combination of design elements that I have made before, but not together like this in one instrument. It has a 13″ cherry pot, 8 cm deep, which is on the deep side of what I normally build. The scale length is 55 cm, which puts it between the A and C scale banjos that I routinely build. The fretboard is elevated over the pot and the neck is reduced to almost zero to have the bridge a normal height. The strings are nylgut except the 5th, which is steel for better use with spikes. This is my first banjo being shipped to Switzerland, and I hope the customer will find it to be what they had in mind. Sometimes in custom work I will ask the customer if they are sure they want to go ahead with something that seems unusual to me. If I am able to I will build whatever someone wants, but sometimes I have to say that I have no idea how it will sound or feel because it’s new to me.
In the last week of the month I started a batch of 3 banjos, 2 C scales and a 12″ internal resonator banjo. They are well more than half done and I hope to have them completed in another week or less. After them I have plans to make a batch with two A scale banjos and an 11″ banjo with a Gold Tone tubaphone tone ring. Then maybe another octave mandolin and/or a mandocello to replace things that were sold, unless I get custom orders. I’m down to only 9 banjos in stock now, so I’ll stay busy even without having custom work at the moment.
I went for a trip down the Raquette River on Labor Day and the day following, and will put in a link to the trip report below. I got some pictures with dramatic light effects towards the end of the trip when the weather got a little wild. My sister will be visiting for the last part of September, so I will be mostly out of the shop then, and I am almost done with emergency vehicle operation training but still have pump operator training from mid-September to early October. During October normality should be restored, as far as I know now.