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My first chicken-head fiddle
I’ve been thinking of trying this for a couple of years but didn’t get myself together to do it till now. I am not fond of carving scrolls on fiddles, and the chicken is easier and more fun to carve. This fiddle and a banjo (#62) are going to be on display at TAUNY (Traditional…
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Whyte Laydie/Electric style tone ring prototype
I bought a ring roller earlier in the fall with the idea that it would make the production of tension hoops faster and more precise, and would also enable me to mess about a bit with tone rings and such. This is my first experiment. It’s an Electric/Whyte Laydie type tone ring made from brass…
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My first longneck build
I have thought sometimes about making a longneck banjo, but I never actually did it until last month when I was lucky enough to get a custom neck building job for a short longneck, which ended up being a 29″ scale length. The owner wanted the flexibility of the longneck design without having to reach…
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10% off on two banjos
These two banjos were the first I made with hickory fretboards, and since neither of them were bought in the year since then I decided to mark them down ten percent. The discounted banjos are #39 and #40, both shown on the Banjos page. I’ve recently acquired a ring roller and am starting to experiment…
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Back from my trip and back in the shop
I had a good trip and am now ready for another year in the workshop. I’ve got a couple of fiddles to make to replace ones that were sold, and some banjo projects are in the works. Here’s a link to my trip report from this year’s excursion: http://www.adkforum.com/showthread.php?p=261949#post261949
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I will be away August 23-29
I am going on my annual bicycle-powered vacation to the Adirondacks from the 23rd to the 29th and will be out of reach of email and all other forms of long distance communication other than smoke signals (which I don’t know how to read, unfortunately) and yelling during that time. I will do my best…
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Making an armrest for banjo #44
In January I did a series of posts detailing the construction of banjo #44, which is to be the prize in a free drawing on BanjoHangout coming soon. I got to thinking that I should make an armrest for it, so I did a little bit ago but didn’t get it posted till now. This…
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An experimental 6 string banjo
I made this banjo after thinking about a number of ideas that I wanted to try. Over the course of a few weeks I came up with an idea in my head and when I had time and all of the materials I went ahead and put it together. The first idea I had was that…
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Building banjo #44, part 8
I spent a couple of hours or so on getting this banjo assembled and set up. My first step was to use a single edge razor blade like a scraper and run it around on all of the finished surfaces where it will work. Then I used 400 grit sandpaper or #0000 steel wool on…
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Building banjo #44, part 7
Yesterday I put the finish on Banjo #44, as well as a ukulele and a refinish job on a used banjo which is going back up for resale soon. I took a couple of pictures after the second of 5 coats of Tru Oil. I can’t use the camera while I have my gloves…