–This banjo was originally $1165, now reduced to $1048.– This banjo is a bit of an experiment. A longtime customer and friend had me put together a project for him this year and it was enough of a success that I wanted to try making another one mostly like it. He bought a used neck I had made for a vintage pot, and brought it up here to have a new pot assembly put together. He supplied everything except the brass hoop, and I assembled it. The neck was originally built for a 12″ pot, and the new pot is 11″, which changes the bridge placement, making for a slightly shorter overall length of the banjo while keeping the same scale length. I also made a nearly identical banjo with a Whyte Laydie/Electric type tone ring under the Dobson. It is #316 and can be heard in the video below.
This banjo is made from cherry with walnut trim and a jatoba fretboard. I will sell the banjo without the Romero-style armrest for $30 less. The rim is 11″ by about 5/16″ thick with a 1/4″ round brass tone hoop under a Dobson tone ring. The scale length is 25.5″ and the nut width is 1-3/8″. It has Gotoh tuners and a two way truss rod in the neck, accessed at the heel. The dots are brass, and the nut and pip are Corian. The rim blank came from Nordic Shells. The Renaissance head and No-Knot tailpiece came from Smakula Fretted Instruments, I made the dowel stick yoke, round brass tone hoop and Van Eps style tension hoop myself and the rest of the hardware came from Balsam Banjo Works. There is a brass plate on the dowel stick with my name, the town and year of production and the banjo number on it. I can install a Fiberskyn head on this banjo at no cost, and I can put in fretboard spikes for $5 each. If you’d like a case I can ship this banjo in a Superior CD-1535 ‘bump’ case for $175. To see a short video demo of this banjo and #316 please follow the link below:
