019 – Aluminum Rim Conversion Banjo

by Will / Sunday, 23 October 2016 / Published in Banjos

This banjo was built for a local friend and fellow woodworker. He found a couple old banjos in his basement and wanted to use whatever we could to create a simple tenor banjo. We found that one of the chinese made banjos he found had a nice aluminum pot without the ‘bottle cap’ flange that most of these aluminum pots have. He had recently dismantled an antique bed to salvage the wood and found that is was made from old growth Beech. It had a beautiful tight grain that was very straight and it was incredibly stable because of its age. He brought me the neck blank and I whipped up this little left handed tenor for him. I ended up being very surprised with how great the salvaged aluminum pot sounded.

23″ Scale Length
1-1/4″ Nut
11-1/16″ Aluminum Pot
Nickel Plated Hardware
3 Piece Beech neck with Curly Maple center stripe
Hardhack/Ironwood fretboard
Bubinga Peghead Overlay
Left Handed