Custom builds usually take 1 to 2 weeks, and much of the time I am able to start right away, though sometimes there is a backlog. Custom designs take more time to figure out and build, so I have been thinking about having separate prices for custom work for some time. A banjo that is a stock design I make but with a different combination of woods or a different tone ring than I happen to have in stock at the moment will be priced as a stock banjo at a $1150 base price for a 12″, for instance.
Base price for a custom banjo for 2026 is $1250 for a 12” block rim pot with 18 brackets and a Van Eps style tension hoop, a one, two, or three piece neck, cherry, mahogany or ash wood with jatoba, hickory or hop-hornbeam fretboard. Each inch added or subtracted from the pot size affects the base price by $25. Each bracket added or removed is $4, so for example a 10″ banjo with 12 brackets has a base price of $1126. I have built banjos with pot sizes from 8″ to 16″. Feel free to send me an email for a quote, as I know my system can be confusing.
Other specs included in the base price are:
- Any scale length
- Any nut width
- Tru Oil finish
- Gotoh brass tuners
- Scoop or full fretboard
- Two way truss rod
- Paddle or figure-8 shaped headstock
- Corian nut and pip
- Brass hardware
- Dowel stick neck
- No-Knot tailpiece
- Nickel-silver fretwire
- Vega or Dobson style heel
- Wood tone ring profile in top of rim
- Renaissance, Fiberskyn or top frosted head
- Brass fretboard dots
Options include:
- Left handed neck—no charge
- Walnut or curly maple +$30
- Rocklite Sundari fretboard +$35
- Ebony or Royal Blackwood fretboard +$30
- Blackwood Tek $20
- Rosewood fretboard +$20
- Persimmon, zebrawood, or granadillo fretboard +$10
- Other woods please inquire
- Bound fretboard +$30
- Radiused fretboard +$30
- Either side or front fretboard dots are included, to have both costs $10 extra
- Wood fretboard dots of any dark wood I have on hand, +$10
- Pearl dots +$1 each for 1/4″ or 3/16″
- Tunneled 5th string +$30
- Fretless -$40(note the minus sign, this is $40 off the base price)
- Stainless steel fretwire +$20
- Another simple headstock shape +$10
- Complicated headstock shape +$20
- Slot head +$40 (the tuners I mostly use for this are $40 less, so the price difference ends up being a wash, unless you pick other tuners)
- Bone nut and pip +$10
- Other tuners and tailpieces—the cost or savings is whatever the price difference is from what I normally use.
- Armrest +$30-35 depending on wood, for more information please see the Parts page
- Round brass tone hoop +$40
- Rectangular brass tone hoop +$70
- Brass Electric/Whyte Laydie style tone ring +$110
- Other metal tone rings and hoops: you pay the cost of the part from your preferred supplier.
- 5th string spikes +$5 a spike
- Internal resonator +$100
- Aged brass hardware +$60 (this includes all of the pot hardware and the peghead tuners, the 5th string tuners can’t be aged due to the plating)
- Simple pre-cut inlays (stars, coins, etc) +$10 each to install, plus cost of pre-cut inlay
- Large complex inlay is $40 an hour to install. I don’t cut my own inlay so you’d have to order what you want and have it sent to me. I don’t start work on the neck until the inlay has arrived, as sometimes it can be backordered for months.
- Nickel plated hardware-Please inquire for current pricing as it is changing often, and I don’t keep much on hand
I have Superior bump cases that fit 11″ and 12″ banjos with a range of standard scale lengths for $175. I don’t have cases to fit A scale and C scale banjos or other rim sizes.
Please send an email if you’d like to get a quote on a custom banjo or to discuss the design you have in mind.