January was a busy month in the shop this year. The first couple of custom projects were banjo necks. One was a fretless neck to fit banjo #352, which was a stock banjo. The customer wanted to have both fretted and fretless necks for the same pot, so I made a fretless neck and then shipped the banjo and the spare neck to him together.
The second neck was for a vintage Whyte Laydie pot, which the customer sent to me to have the neck made and fitted.
Then there was a project which I had begun in late December but which took longer, as it was a new thing for me. Octave mandolin #13 is the first A style octave mandolin I’ve made, but I’ll make another one soon to have in stock, I hope. I made a video since it was a new class of instrument for me. The customer sent myrtle wood for the back, sides, and neck, and it was a little scary working with such expensive wood, but it’s very pretty. The western red cedar on the top was something that a kind person gave to me, after he had retired from making dulcimers some time ago.
Banjos 365 and 366 are shown on the Banjos page. Banjo #367 was also going to be a stock banjo but a customer inquired for a 12″ banjo while it was still half built. She wanted a slimmer neck than I usually make for stock instruments, so I reduced the neck on this one, but it is otherwise a stock 12″ cherry banjo.
Banjo #368 was the first time I have been asked to build a banjo optimized for classic banjo playing, with no neck angle, very high (1/4″ or so) action, and a very lightweight bridge and special strings that were provided by the customer. I don’t know much about this type of banjo music or the banjos it requires, but the customer did so I just followed his instructions as closely as possible.
Banjos 369 and 370 are shown on the Banjos page. February is going to include three custom banjos, according to the current plan, and some mandolin family stock instruments, as I am currently out of stock of all three kinds of octave mandolins I have made, and regular mandolins. There may also be some stock banjos depending what gets bought during the month. Here is a random picture from the beginning of January. Two turkeys came to look at our bird feeder just as the sun was rising, but only one was in the right spot to get the full benefit of the light.
