166 – 12″ Ashborn Rim Nautilus Banjo
This was a very fun and unique project with my friend Marc Horowitz. Marc had me make a rim design that I’ve always been intrigued by, the James Ashborn style rim with an integral wooden flange instead of shoes or a bracket band. I pondered on how I’d like to make it and how it would handle tension over time and I landed on a combination of my typical steam bent rim and a block laid flange. I laminated a regular rim, split it in half and then glued the block flange in between the two halves and then machined it from there. This gave it a very unique look and structure. One that I feel like will be incredibly durable and stable over time. Along with this rim design Marc really wanted to try out a couple of different tone rings for this project and the best way we figured to do so would be to create two rims. With my Sustainer neck brace (patent pending) this was quite easy as my necks bolt on with two acorn bolts. Very easy to swap the rims with this hardware I’ve created! Marc wanted a Bacon Silver Belle tone ring and the other with just the walnut top of the rim shaped to a bearing edge. We both had a feeling if we liked both rims that a second neck would be needed but we wanted to make sure our design and construction choices were going to work out the way we hoped. Sure enough it did and another neck is on the way…
- 12″ Ashborn Style Walnut Rims – Silver Belle Tone Ring (166B) – Walnut Rim Bearing Edge (166W)
- 26.4 Scale Length
- Figured Walnut Neck
- Richlite Details
- Nickle Plated Hardware
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- EVO Fretwire
- Ivoroid Binding
- Green/Black/Green Purfling
- Magnetic Truss Rod Cover
- Seeders Adjustable Walnut Armrest
- Seeders Hand Engraved Tailpiece
- Seeders Wide Relief Tension Hoop
- Seeders Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Black Tusq Nuts
- Vintage Thin Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer