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November banjo necks and half a guitar
The owner of last month’s neck kindly sent me this picture after reading that I had forgotten to take a picture of it after installation on the pot. November was a bit odd in the shop. I started off working on my first dreadnought size guitar, and got the soundbox completed and the neck blank
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Late October banjos and a neck
In the latter half of October and first few days of November I made one custom neck and three stock banjos. The custom neck was to fit a Deering pot. The owner brought the banjo up to have the neck fitted after I got it put together. It’s curly maple with a curly ash peghead
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Late September-early October banjos and necks
The shop is still coming along incrementally. I hope to have the insulation all covered with OSB panels by sometime in November, and to keep adding more shelves so I can be slightly less disorganized. From mid-September on I began working slowly on a couple of custom necks and three stock banjos, and now this
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Arrival at the new shop
I don’t have any instruments to post this time but figured I should make an update on the state of things, such as it is. I brought the last load of lumber and things up in the bus on the 26th of August, and now we are officially here. I misunderestimated (to use a once-popular
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A July banjo and (finally) an August departure
July saw the completion (or to be exact it was August 6 by the time it got done) of my final stock banjo made in Orwell at St. Francis Farm. #260 is a cherry C scale that I got about half built sometime in the latter half of 2021, as far as I can recall.
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June house repairs and a resonator banjo
I just completed my June banjo last night, though we’re well into July. That’s been how things go lately, but the end of the transition period may be in sight now, I hope. Banjo #259 is a custom resonator banjo with most of the hardware coming from First Quality Music. The tuners are the new
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May necks and house repair
My shop time has been very limited in May and it looks like more of the same for the next couple of months at least. I got two custom necks completed and mounted on the customers’ pots, and made a few armrests. Up in Piercefield the house is coming along. The replacement windows are all
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An April banjo and the shell of a new workshop
April was a mildly frantic month, but fairly productive overall. I only made one custom banjo, #258. It is made from red maple stained black with Fiebing’s Leather Dye. I didn’t have very good results with the dye on this wood, it came out somewhat uneven or blotchy even after 3 coats, and the grain
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March banjos and the start of the new time split
I’ve finally caught up with myself and am writing more or less contemporaneously again, so that’s a relief. March was a moderately month in the shop. By some freak of coincidence the three banjos I had on the agenda all had persimmon fretboards. Banjo #251 is a walnut 12″ fretless Ab scale with curly maple
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February banjos
I am even later this month, because of a delay in getting a part that was out of stock from the supplier. Since I wrote last I have made one custom banjo, #248, a tenor with a 3 ply maple rim and a hickory fretboard that the customer brought to me. The rest of the