April started off fairly normally, with a banjo that was a stock design but built to order for a customer. #338 is a walnut 11″ with a zebrawood fretboard, much like #326.

Banjos 339, 340 and 341 were all completed in the same batch and are shown on the Banjos page. The next batch contained two curly maple custom instruments, one a guitar body with a banjo neck, and the other a new guitar-banjo neck for a banjo body. I found it very mentally challenging to keep track of which parts went together in this batch, but in the end everything got put together in the correct order. The customer designed a headstock and bridge for this guitar body-banjo neck instrument, and wished to do his own finishing, so this was shipped set up but unfinished.

The guitar neck for a banjo was a fairly straightforward conversion with a slot head and customer-supplied tuners.

Also included in this batch were banjo #342, another like #338, which is shown on the Banjos page, and a cherry mountain dulcimer of stock design but made to order for the same customer who ordered banjo #338.

This month’s bit of random irrelevant news from here is that I bought a 2021 Chevy Bolt EV to replace my 2013 Subaru which was gradually becoming less reliable, though it did well for me over the three years I owned it. I’ve been thinking about an electric car for a while and this seemed like the time to make the change. I get my electricity from a co-op that only uses hydroelectric, wind, and solar generation, so even though I don’t generate any power here it may be relatively sort of cleaner, as it were. The only engine I have now is in my old chainsaw, which I hardly ever use since moving up here but still keep for emergencies. I also use propane and MAPP gas for the torches in the shop, but otherwise everything is done with electricity or wood.

So far in May I am working on a couple of custom banjo projects and getting started on the 3/4 size bass which is scheduled to be picked up in July. It’s to be built following the Gofriller plan, and will be a learning experience.

My first project completed in March was another walnut octave mandolin. It is shown on the Mandolins page. Now that I have one walnut and one cherry in stock I won’t be planning to make any more till one of these is sold.

Next I got an inquiry for a cherry fiddle with a scroll instead of a chicken head. I built it at the same time as another walnut chicken head to replace the one that was bought early in the month. I made a second fiddle mold in the winter and it’s nice to be able to do two at once. Fiddle #32 is on the Fiddles page, and these pictures are #31. I have decided that from now on I will charge an extra $100 for a fiddle with a scroll because they take hours more work, sanding and carving, than a chicken head.

Next I got to work on a batch of 4 stock banjos and a custom banjo. The stock banjos are #334-337 and are shown on the Banjos page. The custom one was #333, an 11″ curly maple C scale 5+1 slot head with a tunneled 5th string. It was a combination of design elements that I had not tried before. It has a Rickard Banjos tension hoop, which was very nicely made, as all their hardware is. The customer ordered the inlay and I installed it at his direction.

I was a bit distracted during the latter part of March by some more band saw drama. I bought a 1970 Rockwell/Delta 28-350 from a National Guard base in Colchester VT in an online auction. It is the kind of machine I have wanted for years, and I have bid on several but they always went higher than I wanted to bid. This one went for less than half the max bid I put on it, and my mother rode with me over to Vermont to pick it up. We crossed Lake Champlain on two different ferries, and the trip took all day but mostly went well. Then I had to get it into the shop, which took an hour or so since it weighs 400-450 pounds with the table and motor removed. I made a small photo album of the moving process, which involved some off-label uses of a floor jack and some wooden ramps and rollers.

Band saw moving album link

I have put all new bearings and tires in the saw, and a new blade, and made a mobile base for it. The VFD enclosure and the plug are still delayed in the mail, but I hope to have the saw running and cutting by the end of this week. Then my goal is to get the shaft repaired properly in my current bandsaw and sell it, as two large bandsaws are too much for my workshop in the long term.

Now I am working on a batch of four more stock banjos to replace ones that were sold in March, and then I have a custom banjo neck/guitar body instrument on the agenda. There may also be a custom banjo neck to be built, pending delivery of materials. Before the end of the month I intend to start work on an upright bass, also a custom order, that will be picked up in July. I want to give myself enough time so that if I run into a problem I can still get it done before the owner comes to get it. Tomorrow is the eclipse, and we are right in the middle of the path of totality, so we will be at the Wild Center in the morning to help for four hours and then I’ll spend the rest of the day at the fire station, as the county wants them manned in case of emergency, with so many people expected to come through the area.

This has been a bit of an odd month, but mostly in a good way. At the start of the month I was working on two custom banjos and a stock octave mandolin. Then the bigger bandsaw (a Parks 18″ from the 1980s or so) had a bearing go out on the lower shaft. For three or four days I was doing all the things I normally do on this bandsaw with the little 10″ Rikon, which worked better than it might have but was a bit inconvenient. I found that Sturdy Supply in Saranac Lake sells bearings in some of the more common sizes when I was in that town to get my teeth cleaned, and I was able to get back into business sooner than I had expected. I found some wear on the shaft where a bearing had spun, but the saw is running fine now. Then once I got the big saw back together the little one had a motor bearing go bad. Luckily I had a couple of bearings on the shelf that had been spare thrust bearings for my old 18″ saw, and they happened to be the right size, so I only lost an hour or two. Then I caught a cold and was sick for a few days.

Once I finally got back to work in a steady way I completed banjo #330. It was an 11″ walnut fretless banjo with 24 brackets and a double cut peghead, and the customer cut out his own inlay for the peghead out of brass. I told him I will install anything but I don’t cut my own inlay, and he was not able to find a pre-made inlay in the shape he wanted. He did a very nice job making the inlay.

The second banjo (#331) I had been working on before the saw issues and the cold was delayed because I had to order padauk for the trim pieces and the place I got it from on eBay is one of those that prints the label right away but doesn’t actually put the box in the mail for a week or so. I should have ordered it further ahead. The banjo is a curly maple C scale with padauk and pau ferro.

At the same time as banjo #331 I completed octave mandolin #7, made from walnut. I listed it on Mandolin Cafe as well as here on my website, and much to my astonishment it was bought within 4 hours, and three other people wrote to express an interest after it was sold. I began working on a cherry octave mandolin, #8, but when it was completed there was much less interest, and as of now it is still available. I then began another walnut one since two of the folks who had written had expressed a definite preference for walnut. One had asked to be notified if the first buyer sent #7 back, so I offered him first refusal on #9 and he bought it. All three of these guitar-bodied octave mandolins are shown on the Mandolins page.

#9 was built concurrently with banjo #332, which was an 11″ walnut internal resonator banjo with a wider shallower neck and a radiused persimmmon fingerboard with ebony flush frets. I am always interested in trying to build instruments that will fit people better, if they know what they want and it’s something I can do.

I’ve been without an internal resonator banjo in stock for a month or two now, and also I have not had 12″ walnut banjos since last fall, so I’m hoping to make the usual two of those and the internal resonator this month, and an 11″ banjo with some of the spalted beech I located while organizing the lumber cart in the shop this week. I knew I had the beech somewhere but could not remember where, and the only other time I used it to build a banjo was 8 or 9 years ago. I’ll be starting first on yet another walnut octave mandolin, and will plan to keep one in stock, and replace it as soon as possible when it’s sold, since there seems to be an unexpected demand for these.

This week I met two folks from further east in the Tri-Lakes area who came to try out the instruments I have on hand and for one of them to get a spike put in his banjo’s fretboard. He has agreed to play the new batch of stock banjos when they’re built so I can have better demonstration videos. I never learned to play clawhammer, or to play well in any style, so it will be helpful to have someone nearby enough to demonstrate my new stock banjos regularly. I’ll plan to build them all in a batch so they’re all ready at once.

January was my most productive month yet, I think. I got back into the shop on the evening of the 30th after a Christmas break while my sister was visiting for a week.  I had been gradually working on an unusual project and got my part of it completed early in the month. It was a Kraske-inspired hollow rim, made from two pieces of Keller drum shell and a lot of little blocks of maple. I shipped it to the customer set up but unfinished and he did a very nice job of finishing, including making the dowel stick I had made match the neck he had bought. 

On the 30th I started a batch of 3 small stock banjos, #321-323. They are all shown on the Banjos page. The next batch was four banjos, including #324, a custom cherry A scale banjo with a rectangular brass tone ring, a tunneled 5th string, and a persimmon fretboard.

#325 was a stock walnut C scale that was built by request, as I didn’t have one in stock. This is something I’m always happy to do, as I am not able to keep all the combinations of wood types and sizes and designs that are part of what I build as stock banjos on hand at the same time.  This way the customer gets the lower stock pricing and the 7 day approval period, and it’s still easy for me to make because it’s a design I’m used to. This one has nylgut minstrel strings for tuning to open G on a short scale. 

Banjos 326 and 327 are walnut stock banjos, and are shown on the Banjos page. Along with this batch of banjos I also made my first walnut archtop guitar, with a one piece back from a wide board I got in Harrisville last spring. I’ve got enough left to make two more from the same piece. This was also my first archtop guitar to use zebrawood for the trim pieces. I like the walnut and zebrawood combination and have been using it a lot, but I know some people prefer more traditional dark colored fretboards and such, so I try to make some with thoser too.  Guitar #17 is shown on the Guitars page. 

My last batch for the month was two banjos and a walnut chicken head fiddle. Banjo #328 was a cherry 12″ fretless, just like the 12″ cherry stock banjos of which I have made quite a few over the years, but without the frets. 

Banjo #329 is a stock cherry A scale with curly maple trim. It is shown on the Banjos page. Fiddle #30 is a walnut/zebrawood chicken head and is shown on the Fiddles page. This is my first time using zebrawood on a fiddle too, and I figured it would match with the guitar. I’ve got a couple of custom banjos I am working on now, and am about to start a stock octave mandolin in walnut. If more custom work comes in this month I’ll have time for that, or if not I hope to make a curly maple fiddle and perhaps an internal resonator banjo to replace the one that was bought last month. I’d also like to make a 14″ experimental archtop guitar and a 12 string flat top guitar soon, depending how things go. 

December started with #318, another stock C scale mahogany banjo that is shown on the Banjos page. Banjo #319 started as a custom rim and tone ring job and ended up as a whole banjo. It is my first banjo with a 13″ pot. The customer sent a box of flooring offcuts of reclaimed old growth pine, and I made them into the rim and armrest. The customer wanted to show the original marks from when the pine was still beams, so I included some of the holes in the armrest and rim cap instead of cutting so as to avoid them. The neck is curly maple. The pine was a little harder to work with than the hardwoods I normally use, as the pitch would load up the sandpaper pretty heavily, but it seems to work fine and this pine was as heavy as some of the hardwoods can be. I don’t know how to assess the sound of the pine specifically, as there was an Electric type tone ring on top of the pine, and a goat skin head, which both would also contribute to it.

#320 was my last banjo of 2023. It was a custom order, made from cherry, with a full fretboard and a Dobson tone ring. The post office got clogged up and the Dobson was delayed for a few days, so I had to borrow one off #315 to fit the rim to, and then hope that the new one would identical in size, which it luckily turned out to be. 

My other instrument project in December was fiddle #29, a cherry chicken head which is shown on the Fiddles page. It is the second one of the two necks I carved while camping at Middle Saranac Lake in early October, and I’m hoping to get another walnut and a curly maple fiddle made in the next month or two.  Right now I am making an unusual rim for a customer, and have three stock banjos, two C scales and an A scale, that will be ready soon. After that I am going to make a walnut 17″ archtop guitar to replace the one that was sold in December, and I hope to also make an octave mandolin this month.

In non-instrument news I finally got the last of the high shelves that I have had in mind for more than a year made for the house, and also put in the range hood that I got for the kitchen stove in October. The big ones in the kitchen will get some floating shelves at some point, but for now there’s not a lot in them yet. I couldn’t back up quite far enough to fit all four in the picture. The smaller ones in the living room make it so I can store quite a few more stock instruments in a safe and out of the way place. At present I don’t have enough on hand to fill them, but I did run out of room for a while on the other shelf and the hangers in the stairway a few weeks ago. There is still more trim and detail work to be done in the house, but the big things are pretty much in place now. 

I forgot to say in my October news that banjo #313 was built as a stock mahogany C scale, but was spoken for before it was completed and thus is not shown on the Banjos page.

November was disrupted by some back trouble, but the first and last weeks were pretty normal, so I was able to get some things done. I started a batch of 4 banjos and a neck at the beginning of the month. Then when I was able to work some again I put aside the three stock banjos and completed the custom banjo and the custom neck. The banjo was #314 and was a mahogany 12″ slot head with a WL/Electri type tone ring and a zebrawood fretboard.

The neck was a curly maple 5+1 fitted to a vintage Vega pot. The customer found the pot and shipped it up here for the neck to be made to match, and the neck was shipped unfinished so the customer could apply lacquer, which is beyond my skill level.

Once the custom work was caught up I completed the three stock banjos. 315 and 316 were experimental cherry 11″ thin rim pots with Dobson tone rings, and 317 was another mahogany C scale. They are all shown on the Banjos page. #317 was purchased within a day or two of being listed, and I plan to have another C scale completed by the end of this week. They seem to have begun to have a moment of temporary popularity, like happened back in 2018.

My plans for December start with the C scale banjo and a custom build, and then I plan to make a body for the cherry chicken head fiddle neck I made back at the beginning of October and carved on my last camping trip of the year. I’d like to make another octave mandolin this month too, time permitting. I’m hoping to make time to work on either a 14″ archtop guitar with a 12 fret neck or a 12 string guitar at some point this winter, just for fun.

My first completed project in October was Banjo #309, a custom walnut A scale with an Electric-type tone ring.

#310 and 311 were stock banjos and are shown on the Banjos page. #312 was a left handed 12″ walnut banjo.

I also made a walnut mandolin and chicken head fiddle which are shown on their respective pages.

November started off well, with a batch of 4 banjos and a neck getting about half built in the first 6 days. Then some back trouble that had been slowly creeping in my direction caught up with me when I spent 16 hours working in the town hall on Election Day, and I was out of the shop for just over a week since I couldn’t stand still or sit for more than a couple of minutes. Starting yesterday I have been able to work a few minutes at a time and I’m hoping to be able to gradually increase productivity over the next week or two. I had hoped to make a cherry fiddle in the latter half of November, but that will be pushed back to December or later depending how things go.

September was not a terribly productive month, but I got 4 stock banjos built. Banjos 305-308 are shown on the Banjos page. I also had a fun project fitting a neck I had made for another customer’s banjo pot onto a newly assembled thin-wall pot with a Dobson tone ring. The rim was very nice, and the customer got it from Nordic Shells. I had had an email from them about the banjo rims they are offering now, but this was my first experience and I was favorably impressed.

I was gone for 5 days in September to visit my sister in Massachusetts, and then I went for an unexpected camping trip to Middle Saranac Lake in the first 3 days of October. One of the nice things about being a banjo builder is that I can just wander off on short notice at times. I had thought it was too late in the year for summer-like conditions, but we had them and also scenic foliage, which was a nice combination. Here is a link to the trip report and pictures if anyone would like to see them:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nTPyvrFhw4WVgt5SA

In October I have a custom banjo scheduled, and also hope to make one or two chicken head fiddles and at least one more stock banjo.

August was a moderately productive month. It was a bit damp and cool on the recreational side of things, so I stayed in the shop more and got more done than I had expected. Banjo #300 was an 11″ walnut slot head with a tunneled 5th string.

Banjo #301 is a stock slot head, shown on the Banjos page. #302 was a custom 11″ walnut A scale with the 5th string tuner moved closer to the pot. The customer supplied the armrest for this one.

I also built an A style mandolin in early August and will list it once this Shop News is written. I built it to have on hand when a friend who plays mandolin visited, but he hasn’t had time to come up yet. It will be shown on the Mandolins page, and is my first A style made from walnut.

I started two banjos in the last week of August and completed them in the first week of September, so I’ll go ahead and show them now since I’m this late writing the August update. Banjo #303 was a cherry 11″ slot head with a longer scale length and narrower nut than what I normally build to have in stock.

Banjo #304 is a cherry 11″ with a Whyte Laydie-type tone ring.

My other project this month was a batch or armrests. I currently have 9 in stock in various woods and sizes and am always happy to make others. For September I have just started work on two 11″ stock banjos with Whyte Laydie-type tone rings, to be made from curly maple and cherry with walnut trim. I’m also aiming to make a fiddle this month, and if any custom work comes my way of course I’ll be happy to do that.

For some reason which is not clear to me slot head banjos have suddenly become the thing that people are asking me for. I’m happy to make slot heads, though sometimes these changes (or maybe they’re just random chance) take me by surprise. Banjo #294 was a custom walnut cello banjo. The customer wanted nylon strings so I asked for help on Banjo Hangout and someone there pointed me to a site that sells monofilament nylon harp strings. I bought one of each size and found the ones that seemed to work the best for the pitches required.

#295 and #296 were stock banjos, and are shown on the Banjos page. #297 was a custom 12″ cherry slot head.

#298 and #299 were also stock banjos. The other shop project this month was an unfinished neck for a smaller sized Vega pot. The customer picked this one up in person, and it was nice to get to meet him and his wife.

Also during July I painted and installed the baseboards in the house, painted the outside of the house, and stained the outside of the workshop. I still plan to stain the woodshed and tool shed too, though I ran out of July. I forgot to list the guitar I brought back from the Tupper Arts show till today, but it is now shown on the Guitars page.

I’m now working on a custom slot head banjo and a custom A scale, and a stock walnut slot head. This month I will be in the shop less if the weather and other factors cooperate, as I hope to go on a few paddling and camping excursions while summer is at its peak. August is the best month here for recreation for me, as the bugs are dying down and the water and air are still warm.