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September banjos
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,
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August banjos and a mandolin
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
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July banjos, a neck, house and shop painting, and forgetfulness
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
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June banjos, a guitar, a hammered dulcimer and camping
June in the shop started with a bang and ended with a whimper. I began by building a curly maple parlor guitar. It is for sale at Tupper Arts in Tupper Lake through July 4th, and assuming it has not sold I will then bring it back here and it will be shown on the
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May banjos, a guitar, and porches
May was not my most productive month in the shop, but I got a few things done. Early in the month I called my friendly local excavator operator to see if he would have time later in the summer to tear out the failed concrete porches at either end of the house here in Piercefield
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April banjos and an octave mandolin
In the first few days of April I put the finish on banjos 282, 283, and 284, and wood topped banjo #4, but I got sick for about a week and didn’t get them set up and listed for sale till near the middle of the month. They are shown on the Banjos page. During
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March banjos
This month was a busy one in the shop. Banjos 273-277 were all stock banjos and were completed in the first half of the and are all listed on the Banjos page. It’s nice to have a cello banjo in stock again after almost a year without one. Banjo #278 was an all black banjo,
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February guitars, banjo necks and a fiddle
Early in the month I made a mahogany squareneck resonator guitar and when it got warm enough I put the finish on that and the archtop guitar and chicken-head fiddle that had been waiting. They are all shown on their respective pages. My first custom project for the month was a practice koto, the same
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January banjos and some other beginnings
I spent the first 17 days of January on a batch of 3 banjos. #269 was a walnut 12″ with internal resonator, Whyte Laydie-type tone ring, and a slotted peghead. Banjos 270 and 271 are stock instruments shown on the Banjos page. In the last couple of weeks of the month I made a cherry
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December banjos, a neck, and the other half of the November guitar
The first completed work this month was a couple of banjos. #267 was a custom banjo, made mostly in a familiar pattern but with a narrower nut width, and using bubinga and wenge for all the parts except an ebony fretboard. This was my first time using either of these woods. This banjo has a