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At the OLF St. Louis meeting this spring, I told WudWerkr I would post this up here. I intended to play with the setup and then go back and finish the French polish on the top and fill/finish the pores on the rest. After the meeting – filled with inspiration – I started the next project. So here it is, still with unfinished finish, but what the heck.
There was a fair amount of experimentation on this but for the most part I am happy with the end result. There are some things I would do differently but the sound is pretty close to what I was aiming for. I wanted a quiet more mellow sounding banjo that wouldn’t drive my family crazy. . .
This is for the most part made from scraps and off cuts:
Back, neck and sides are from lumberyard offcuts from a sawmill it is some sort of African Mahogany. The top is a B grade WRC guitar top. Fretboard and top bindings are from a piece of oak that was in the basement when I bought the house.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

The f holes made it difficult to use a bolt on neck. I also didn't want to use a 5 string banjo tail-piece, so I used an access port. A long ratchet extender allows me (with some finagling) to bolt/unbolt the neck. The strings go through the tail block and are held in with stainless steel pins, then pass through the soundboard and over to the bridge. If I do this again, I'll do a few things differently and hopefully it will look a little nicer. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I'm going to try to post a sound clip, I hope this works. . .

Looks like I can't upload an M4a file. Anyone know how to post a sound clip?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I love it bryan , thanks for posting the pics . That is nice work and I am anxious to hear a sound clip . I did enjoy chatting with you about that build and look forward to seeing your new work !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Hey Jim, is it wrong that I already can't wait for next year's gathering? I keep finding myself wondering what stage of completeness my current build will be when I bring it. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Heck no My man . I also am looking forward to it , Kicking around an idea as well . See if anyone would like to make it a two day and have some pickin and grinnin as well . Just an Idea .

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I just noticed that the pictures in the first post are stretched for some reason and the proportions are off. It looks much longer/narrower than it really is.

Jim, I wouldn't mind a two day event. I am completely unable to pick (unless I am the only one in the room), but I will be happy to grin and listen.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I just stumbled across this thread again and realized that I meant to post an update months ago. I'm not sure if anyone really remembers (or cares) when I showed the locking mechanism at the gathering last spring, that it was a pit awkward to lock the plug in place. I finally got around to making a proper endpin; the little bolt is glued into the wood which was then turned to make the pin. This accomplished two things 1) you now no longer see the ugly screw head when you look at the endpin, but more importantly 2) having the threads frozen to the pin make it a quick half turn to lock the plug in place. If I ever do this again, I will make the tail block and plug much less bulky (I wasn't sure how strong it would be but now I am confident that half the size would work well).

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.