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July banjos, a resonator guitar, and an archtop octave mandolin
July started with a small batch including banjos and a rim. The first banjo was #345, a 12″ curly maple banjo that was pretty much a remake of #282. This was a banjo that was a stock banjo but built to order, so the customer had the option of returning it if he had wanted
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June bass completion and one banjo
June started off with a bicycle and paddle board trip to Cranberry Lake, which is pretty close by and is reportedly the third biggest lake in the Adirondacks. I’ll put in a link to the trip report in case anyone wants to see it. https://www.adkforum.com/forum/the-adirondack-forum/trip-reports/461527-cranberry-lake-by-bicycle-and-paddle-board-june-2-4-2024 Once I got back to work on the 5th the
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A May banjo and the beginning of a bass
May was one of those months that start with “And now for something completely different…..”, but I did build one custom banjo in a normal way. It is #343, with an 11″ maple pot with a shallower depth, a Dobson heel and a few other minor changes from what I keep in stock. I also
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April banjos and such, a dulcimer, and an electric car
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
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March banjos, fiddles, and an octave mandolin
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
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February banjos and octave mandolins
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
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January banjos, an archtop guitar, and a fiddle
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
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December banjos and a fiddle
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
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November banjos and a neck
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
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October banjos, a mandolin, and a fiddle
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