173 – 11-5/8″ Walnut and Zircote Banjo
This is a variation of #123, which is my own personal banjo that I play. My friend Jason Scaggs, of Jatoba, came to me wanting something very similar with a fancier twist.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 11-5/8″ Walnut Rim
- Rolled Brass Tone Ring
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Reconstone Gibson TB-3 Style Inlays
- Zircote Details
- Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Walnut Armrest
- Flush-mount Truss Rod Cover
- EVO Fretwire
- Menzies Goat Skin Head
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
Gibson MB-1 Mandolin Banjo 5 String Conversion
This banjo started it’s life as an early Gibson MB-1 Mandolin Banjo. This banjo features a 10-1/2″ rim so I paired it with a slightly shorter scale length giving it a more focused attack.
This conversion was done for Andrew Marlin, of Watchhouse, who is an incredibly skilled and intentional musician so I know it’s in good hands.
- MB-1 10-1/2″ Gibson Rim
- 24.5″ Scale length
- Figured Hard Maple Neck
- Ebony Details
- Ivoroid Binding
- Mother of Pearl Inlays
- EVO Frets
- Gibson Snakehead Peghead Shape
- Fiberskyn Head
- Vintage Thin Satin Nitrocellulose
- Waverly Tuners
- Published in Banjos
172 – Podolak 12″ Dobson Special Banjo
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
This banjo was made for the talented Leonard Podolak, of the Canadian band The Duhks. Leonard is an excellent banjo player who’s particularly fond of playing jigs and reels on the banjo, a skill not for the faint of heart! It’s always exciting to hear what players like Leonard will do with the banjos I create.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Curly Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Mother of Pearl Dot Inlays
- Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Curly Maple Armrest
- Seeders Tailpiece
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Dark Reddish Brown Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Flush Mount Truss Rod Cover
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
171 – 12″ Dobson Special Banjo
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Curly Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Curly Maple Armrest
- Seeders Tailpiece
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Golden Amber Brown Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Flush Mount Truss Rod Cover
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
170 – 12″ Curly Maple Dobson Special
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Curly Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Curly Maple Armrest
- Seeders Tailpiece
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Golden Amber Brown Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Flush Mount Truss Rod Cover
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
169 – 12″ Curly Maple Dobson Special
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Curly Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Custom Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Raw Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Curly Maple Armrest
- Seeders Tailpiece
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Golden Amber Brown Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Flush Mount Truss Rod Cover
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
168 – 11″ Slotted Headstock and 5th String Dobson Special Owl Banjo
This custom banjo was created for a wonderful fellow artist and creator. They were fully involved in every little detail and aspect of the design and execution and together we came up with quite a special banjo that showcased my abilities as a builder while incorporating some very personal and special details for her. The owl inlay was influenced and designed by a photograph she had taken of a group of owls on power lines, a stunning and beautiful photograph. After considering multiple owls all over the fingerboard and a few other design ideas we ended up simplifying it into what you see here. The 5th fret inlay is a special treat for anyone who knows what it is, The Deathly Hallows. You could call it fairly simple in some regards but every little detail was placed with intention and thought for a cohesive design and specific tone and playability for her smaller stature.
- 11″ Claro Walnut and Hard Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Figured Maple Peghead, Backstrap, Rimcap, and Heelcap
- Hand Engraved Black and White Mother of Pearl and Copper Inlays
- 22.72″ Scale Length
- Slotted Peghead and 5th String Placed at 7th Fret
- Seeders and Brooks Masten Antiqued Hardware
- EVO Fretwire
- Flush Mount Magnetic Truss Rod Cover
- Seeders 11/16″ Three Foot Bridge
- No-Knot Tailpiece
- Jamaican Goat Skin Head
- Seeders Wide Relief Tension Hoop
- Schertler Tuners with Ebony Knobs
- Black Tusq Nuts
- Golden Brown Stain
- Hard Oil Finish
- Published in Banjos
167 – 12″ Walnut Dobson Special Banjo
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Walnut Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Seeders Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Walnut Armrest
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Ebony Peghead and Fingerboard
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Golden Walnut Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos
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
- Published in Banjos
165 – 12″ Curly Maple Dobson Special
This banjo has a powerful well rounded tone unique to the Dobson Special with a comfortable neck profile ideal for all hand sizes and comfort while playing all over the neck. The Dobson Special utilizes a Dobson tone ring mounted on a rolled brass ring to isolate the tone ring from the wooden rim giving it a unique and powerful Dobson sound with more balanced and a crisp overall tone. It’s simple but elegant inlays and overall design has a vintage inspired look while having modern playability and durability.
- 25.5″ Scale Length
- 12″ Curly Maple Rim
- Dobson Special Tone Ring
- Hand Engraved Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Antiqued Brass Hardware
- Seeders Wide Notch Comfort Tension Hoop
- Seeders Curly Maple Armrest
- Seeders Tailpiece
- Sustainer Neck Attachment
- Seeders 3 Foot Bridge
- Ebony Fingerboard and Peghead
- EVO Fretwire
- 1-5/16″ Black Tusq Nut
- Black Rim Binding
- Dark Reddish Brown Stain
- Rickard Cyclone Tuners
- Renaissance Head
- Cole Boat Heel
- Flush Mount Truss Rod Cover
- Vintage Thin Nitrocellulose Satin Finish
- Published in Banjos