This is my first banjo that doesn’t have either a round brass tone hoop or a wood tone ring profile turned into the top of the rim.  I’ve been fitting tone rings to custom rims for other people for years, but I didn’t try making my own banjo with one till now.  This is also the first Whyte Laydie/Electric style tone ring I have made, now that I have a ring roller.  I will have tone rings for sale by themselves soon, on the Parts page at hoytbanjos.com and at BanjoHangout.  The tone ring has a scalloped truss with a 1/4″ round rod on top, just like any WL/Electric tone ring, but it does not have the thin metal skirt that covers the outside of the original tone rings since I am not able to make them and they were primarily meant to address the wetness of newly applied skin heads according to what I have been told.  This banjo’s design is the same as my last banjo, #58, except that #59 has an ebony fretboard instead of rosewood.  It has a 25.5″ scale length, curly walnut peghead overlay, EVO fret wire, two way truss rod accessed through the neck heel, 12″ pot with a curly walnut rim cap, and brass hardware.  I made the Van Eps style tension hoop, and the dowel stick brace.  The Renaissance head and No-Knot tailpiece came from Smakula Fretted Instruments and the rest of the hardware came from Balsam Banjo Works.  The tuners are Gotoh raw brass.  To see a video comparing the sound of #s 58 and 59 please follow the link below: