Banjo season is back, and so am I. Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, flickr season seems to have passed: I changed the permissions on my account, and it also—to my surprise—changed all the URLs of my photos, turning this blog into a huge mess of "this photo is currently unavailable" messages.

I will slowly be bringing the photos back over the next couple weeks so the blog will actually useful again.

I'm currently working on two banjos at once—twins, as it were. Both will feature cherry necks with flush ebony frets and aged brass hardware. They should be done by the end of the month. Here they are getting ready to take shape. . .



More photos to come.

I have been getting a lot of banjo inquiries of late. Unfortunately at this time the demands of my day job, along with the grad program I'm in make it impossible for me to also dedicate the time and attention necessary for custom instrument work. In order to keep up with demand I have also sold off several pieces from my personal collection and no longer have any banjos in stock or for sale. This is why I will not be able to take on any new projects until after the semester comes to a close in May. If you are interested in arranging something with that time period in mind, please feel free to get in touch with me.

FREIHEIT

Marks' banjo has been added to the gallery. See photos here.

Testing out Mark's new Banjo

Finished, save for the final coats of oil

Another reason to love Ralph Stanley!

Inlay

More Progress:

Sanded the neck down to a glassy-smooth surface, applied some test stain, drilled and reamed peg holes, glued dowel to neck, mapped out f-holes. I took these photos with my phone, so they're not exactly super crisp.

Progress

This is what happens when you don't properly level off the base of a new bridge after cutting it. (takes a minute to load if you've got a slow connection)

Just spent several hours fitting the heel of the neck to the gourd. To be perfectly honest, this is by far my least favorite part of the process. You have to match the exact shape of the gourd vertically, horizontally and with respect to the proper neck pitch. In order to accomplish this, a contour gauge (pictured below) is extremely helpful. Right now the fit is about 95% complete. I'll clean it up tomorrow, and then fit the neck/dowel through the gourd. As always, click the thumbnails for full sized images.


Contour gauge


Measuring the outer shell of the gourd


Heel carved out to match the gourd.


Neck fit about 95% perfectly to gourd. A little more work and this will be done.

The most unpleasant part of the process is cleaning out the gourd. It's full of toxic molds and fine particles that irritate the lungs, both of which take a long time to clean out.

Gourd just after being cut open, note the seed balls and detritus:





After being arduously scraped clean:

Neck shaping is done; dowel stick is cut.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the figure has come out spectacularly well. I can't wait to see it with stain and oil. Finish sanding won't take place until after assembly is done, but before stain is applied.

I was got to use the laser cutter for the first time. It took a while to get the hang of, but the results are tremendous! This opens up a lot of possibilities.

Here's a quick little video of the marquetry stars i made for Mark's banjo.

nearly finished shaping the neck for marks banjo. fate keeps stepping in every time i settle down to work on this. notwithstanding, should be done with shaping tomorrow, and done with the banjo early next week.

this piece of maple is actually highly figured, though its hard to see in these photos. it will look absolutely incredible once its stained.

to those waiting for banjos -

i was in a bit of a traffic accident recently. nothing serious, but it resulted in a somewhat mangled right arm and, in particular, a nicely sprained right wrist. aside from not being able to play the banjo (farewell clifftop trip!), it is very hard for me to carry out the finery necessary to make my banjos. the accident was a week ago, and i anticipate at least one more week until i can get back into the shop again.

sorry for the delay!

Alabama Joe played on one of my tackheads.

Of the many questions people ask about my banjos, one of the most common is regarding their ability to hold up in high humidity. People have either read a lot about sagging tackhead skins or played inferior instruments - either way, the concern is understandable. While humidity does affect the feel and sound of any banjo with a skin head, mine included, a properly mounted tackhead will hold up and be playable in extreme weather, especially with a set of different sized bridges. Here is a quick little clip of one of my 12" tackheads at 78 degrees and 93% humidity (during the eveniing and between two thunderstorms). The head is a little softer, to be sure, but I'm still using the original short bridge.

4 new black cherry neck blanks just in from indiana

After much experimenting, I finally figured out how to steal Tim's videos of my banjos from youtube and save them as .mov files. The result is that a bunch of them are now hosted directly at jaymoschella.com. Check them out in the listen section!

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to work on banjos since I finished the last two tackheads. The end of the semester has been very, very busy. I've had a couple of presentations and papers, as well as a final project that entailed researching and cataloging an unprocessed collection of about 60 original civil war photographs. But school finally ends next Tuesday, and then it's back to the workshop - this time to hash out some brass hardware and tension hoops for a new series of banjos with adjustable heads.

Amidst all the stress of full-time work, plus two nights a week in the master's program I'm doing, I've taken to the bracing thrill of collecting 19th century photographic processes. I've mostly been going in for daguerreotypes and ambrotypes - nothing fancy, but I've been looking for portraits with interesting or appealing sitters. Here are a few samples of what I've been picking up:

Tonight I made a recording of Lor Bres de Ladies, from Buckley's Guide for the Banjo (1868). It's played on this gourd. Click the image to hear.

Here is a video - one of many - that Tim Twiss just made using his newest tackhead, which I just sent out to him last week.



I'm going to be posting a lot of his other incredible video clips on the site in the near future.

And while we're on the topic of videos, here's a cool one from Paul Sedgwick's website, which is slowly populating itself with more and more interesting material

I now have a new myspace page for my banjo making. Click the photo to see it. "Add" me!

New item for sale. See the gallery...

John Barr, reenactor with the 2nd Delaware Volunteer Infantry, playing his Jay Moschella banjo.

Important, long-overdue addition to the shop!

new photos in the gallery.

focus-group testing the new product (they seemed to approve)...

1. I like tackhead banjos.

2. This banjo is fantastic.

Here is a mini photo essay I posted on the banjohangout, on the tacking of skin heads


(Click photo below for full size)



In the first photo (top left), you can see that I have taped over the exposed parts of the rim with painters tape. Also note that I have pre-drilled all the tack holes. This allows me to make sure the are all evenly spaced. The holes are barely smaller than the shanks on the tack, so the hold when pushed in, but are not to hard to apply. I use a small mallot to band them in completely. In addition, I have laminated the top of the inner rim with a single, 1/8" thick, .75" wide strip of maple. When the skin tightens up, it can really pull on the rim, sometimes forcing it slightly out of round, especially with a 1/4 inch rim. Nothing is worse than shaping your heel precisely for a snug fit, and then having to redo it completely once the rim shifts!

In the second photo (top right), you can see the glue having been applied. I soak skins for 25 to 30 minutes, and apply the glue 15 minutes before I take the skin out of the water, to allow time to get tacky.

In the third photo (bottom left), you can see that I have rough cut the excess skin. Note that I use two large rubber bands to hold the skin down and to help mitigate wrinkling. Once the rubber bands are on, I hold the side of the rim up to a space heater, and slowly rotate it, allowing even exposure of the sides to heat. Once the sides are dry, I begin to dry the top.

In the final photo (bottom right) I am slicing off the excess skin while it is still slightly moist, and therefore much more pliable. Always use a new blade for this so you dont have to press too hard and slice into the wood of the rim.

A lot of people swear by the practice of leaving the skin out to dry. This works fine, but I am impatient. I have never had a problem drying the skin this way, and it's then ready to use in about an hour. The only important precaution is to make sure you have dried the sides before focusing on the top. That way, when the head starts to contract, It will already be nicely anchored, otherwise it will pull the wet skin up from under the tacks, and tear, ruining your head. Wait to do your final skin trimming until everything is nice and dry, as the slice-line can move noticeably once the skin shrinks.

I hope people find this helpful. I don't want to clutter up the hangout - most everything I post here is posted in the banjo building blog on my website. I may just keep posting there instead, so definitely bookmark it if you're interested in making tackheads.

tackhead minstrel banjos made to order
www.jaymoschella.com

I sanded off all the stain that I put on yesterday because I didn't like the way it came out and I didn't like the color. I mixed some new dye, and now it looks a lot better.



I've been feeling pretty sick for the past couple days. I think I just need to rest, so I'm going to set this project aside for a bit (I hope). In any event, it's amazing how much faster a banjo comes along when you don't have to design it from scratch, but can just copy it.

Here's a copy of Tim's banjo that I'm making for myself. It's got a few little differences here and there, but will basically be the same banjo.

Here is my meager attempt at playing Ethiopian Cracovienne on the new banjo. I recorded it through the tiny built-in macbook mic, so it's definitely not capturing the full spectrum of sound, but I thought people might be interested.

new banjo is now officially up in the gallery.

It's done. This banjo has a distinct, extremely loud, extremely clear tone. The maple neck is solid, smooth as glass, and very easy to play. My only regret is that I made the fifth-string peg slightly too close to the fourth. It doesn't buzz or hit the string at all, but you can just barely notice it with your right thumb when playing. I will either wind it the other way, or make a couple bridges with the space between the fifth and fourth string slightly compensated. It's actually not really bad at all, and in fact the appearance may be the thing that bugs me the most, but as a builder, it inevitably rubs my OCD tendencies the wrong way. Anyhow, click for full size.

Here I have cut the holes in the rim for the dowel, achieved a snug fit between the heel and rim and, in the bottom two shots, I have glued the neck onto the dowel stick. I use a straight edge clamped to the fingerboard area to assure that everything stays aligned while the glue is drying.

The rim has been stained. Here it is cozied up to the neck. I now have to mate the heel to the pot, cut and attach the dowel stick, and fit it through the rim.

Bending the reinforcing band that will fit inside the rim. Disregard the Kermit the Frog oven mitt (if you are planning to continue respecting me).

The new neck is now basically finished. It looks less dark and shows more figure in better lighting.

Had a great banjo weekend. On Saturday I went with a couple friends to Paul's studio. His brother, who is also gourd instrument maker, was there. It was quite a scene - the wood stove burning in the corner while we crowded into the shop, snow piled up just outside the glass doors, and instruments of every kind coming down off the shelves - akontings, didgeridoos made of everything from snake gourds to PVC pipe, banjos, hand drums, kora, xalam. I was happy to see Paul's Hartel, which I hadn't known about, and good times were had all around.

Otherwise, I have been busy with school and work for the past week or so, so Tim's banjo has been coming a little slowly. I did get a chance to make two new sets of bones today. I will now be selling bones to those who want them. They will be $15 per pair, or $30 for a set of four.

I have decided that, once Tim's banjo is done, I am going to focus all my efforts on machining hardware and rolling rims in order to start making minstrel banjos with adjustable heads. My first one is going to be a Boucher copy.

The new banjo has begun.

Well, today I went out to my friend Sage's workshop to surface a half dozen neck blanks. He's got a really cool shop where he does carpentry and builds extremely unusual (and great sounding) travel guitars. It snowed here in Boston last night, but there was a little wood stove inside the shop, so that helped.

Here's one of the amazing guitars



And here's a 3-D repeating router he built (note the hand carving he made using it)

Just finished another one - this time based on the banjo I just shipped to Rick. It was simply too nice a banjo to resist, so now I have my own. It's a little fancier, so it took a little longer to build. Heres a shot of the tailpiece before and after the inlay was set.



And here are the photos of the banjo itself.

It seems that people are always contacting me and asking if I can build banjos with adjustable heads and hardware. Well, the answer is yes, I can. However, I am not building them right now. I haven't gotten tackheads out of my system yet, but will be turning to banjos with hardware very soon, and plan to be building and selling such instruments by this summer. I am in the process of retooling my shop a bit, and also thinking about different hardware designs. I won't be doing any casting, but will instead by machining parts out of brass and steel. I'll be building a few for myself, first, and then they'll hit the market.

Also, I updated the "listen" section with a couple new tunes from Tim Twiss - Sugar in De' Gourd, and Ethiopian Cracovienne. They are fantastic recordings, so check them out when you can.

Click image for full size.

I have finally succeeded in making a neck that looks exactly like my oak floor.

Currently waiting for a couple new projects to begin, so I decided to start a new banjo, for myself. It will be a copy, more or less, of the banjo order I just completed, with maybe a few differences in the details.



Click on the above photo for a giant view of what my neck blanks look like just before shaping starts.

project for today: new storage rack for neck blanks

rick's banjo done, save for final finishing, set up, etc. now its on to making bridges for the next couple days...

I am happy to report that I may have (finally) secured a pretty good source for quarter-sawn curly sugar maple 3 x 3 neck blanks. Though I don't want to give anything away, I'll just say that the lumber comes from a business that requires high quality maple blanks, but cannot use any curly maple. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what this company makes (hint: it's more obvious than you might think). Anyhow, the first shipment of blanks will arrive on Friday. I'll need to let them acclimate for a while, and then will work on a neck or two from the batch to test out the quality. Banjos made from these blanks will be about $30 more expensive than my normal banjos, as straight-grained, highly figured 12/4 maple boards cut dead on the quarter aren't exactly going for bargain basement prices.

I've fancied up the graphics on the website. There's still a lot of work to be done, but o far I've finished the new main graphic on the front page, and most of the "Listen" section. Let me know what you think. Web page stuff takes forever.

more progress on rick's neck. final finishing done, along with a coat of stain that i may or may not keep. click for full size...

(image by Ulf Jagfors)

Here is a recording of Paul playing a song on one of his akontings yesterday. Absolutely incredible.

Here are some recordings that Paul made on the new 14" tackhead today.

Old Dan Tucker

Lucy Long Polka

Walk Into de Parlor Jig Medley

rick's oak neck, after rough shaping.



the finery of final shaping can be pretty time consuming, and that's where this neck is at right now. as may or may not be visible in this photo, the rays in this piece of wood are exceptional. i am suddenly making all of my necks out of oak - and i just got a shipment of new oak blanks. i may have secured a large order of cherry neck blanks to be delivered late in the spring, so things might change then. somehow i feel a lot better about working with domestic hardwoods, and most of the blanks i am using now have been harvested by very sustainable means.

here are the six pieces of oak in my front hall

new banjo in the gallery

the skin is drying on this banjo. i had a disaster last night, where i dried the surface faster than the sides, which caused the head to tear along the tacks, forcing me to do it again today. above you can see the head as it looks just after it is tacked on, then again after the skin has been rough trimmed and dried slightly. the rubber bands help keep the edges of the skin from getting wrinkled during drying. on the right, you can see the tailpiece, copied from an instrument on the banjo sightings database.

i should get to shaping rick's banjo neck tonight. you'll notice that many of the recent photos of my banjos in progress are not taken in the workshop. its wintertime, which means the workspace is a little colder than normal, so i've been doing most of the non-dusty work inside my apartment.

new banjo almost done.

winter wonderland: not so beautiful, really

one more update for the night

A new banjo is born

this clip is from a while back. it shows tim twiss - faithful customer, correspondent and minstrel virtuoso at the antietem early banjo gathering contest, wielding the gourd banjo we came up with last spring. if you scroll down to my blog entries from march, you can see this gourd banjo when it was still a little bay banjo - little more tha a block of wood with the outline of a neck drawn on it.

Well, John Barr's banjo is just about wrapped up. You can see the final photos in the gallery, 5th from the left. It's a real nice one - real nice, indeed.

Anyhow, the first heavy snows are falling something awful outside the banjo factory here in Jamaica Plain. Happy holidays. This is the time of year when your faithful banjo maker finds himself in an annual winter melancholy. Inevitably due, if nothing else, to the short, cold, and dark New England days of December, the only cure seems to be a strict course of laying on the floor and listening to the carters until the sun starts shining again in April.

Meanwhile, the workshop is a little bit colder, and I can't sit outside on the front step carving away at my banjo necks, as I am wont to do under friendlier climates. But the work is still peaceful, and the banjos still roll off the line as true to form as ever. Rick's is next up on the bench along with a little number I've been working on for myself.

well, johns banjo is pretty much wrapped up. im going to have to take it apart in order to get the final coats of finish on. i think i'll also make a more interesting tailpiece.
this banjo sounds absolutely fantastic. the tone is perfectly balanced between thumpiness and kick. or, to use non-vague terms: the lows and the highs are good. the neck is made out of a piece of ash from indiana with a scale length of 26.5" and the pot is made from a modern, 12" maple rim. as always, click for full (huge) size.

getting very close to the end with this banjo. looking great so far...

johns banjo is coming along. will likely assemble tomorrow, save for skin. its a real beauty. click on the thumbnail to see.

Inlay work (click for full size):

johns banjo is underway, as is darius's second banjo order, which he may or may not opt to keep. anyhow, john is a civil war reenactor, and he also wanted an instrument he could learn on. i settled on using incised frets, as that solution is both historically appropriate, aesthetically pleasing, and still very functional. the neck is made from a piece of ash. click to see full size.




darius wanted a gourd banjo with an oak neck much like the last gourd i made. this one is stained just slightly darker, but you can still see the grain very nicely (the photo makes it look darker than it actually is, so some detail is lost here). click to see full size.

still alive!

working on a gourd order right now, and have two tackheads waiting to be started. busy, busy, busy. getting a masters degree actually takes time and effort. who could have predicted?

the shop has been quiet in august. i am slowly working on a banjo for darius, but also trying to figure out the future of my workspace and whether/where i will be moving. however, if anyone is interested in purchasing an instrument without waiting, the wenge gourd banjo is up on ebay right now (item no. 330157336001).

who would guess that TWO gourd banjo makers would end up living within a mile of one another? i guess anything is possible... in jamaica plain. anyways, i paid my first visit to paul sedgewicks house and studio today. its a mind-blowingly inspirational place. a) its a workspace that is actually nice. b) the banjos and other gourd instruments there are wonderful. c) AKONTINGS!!!

paul seems like a great guy, and it was fun to talk to him and hear him play the banjos and akontings. i was really inspired by some of the different, and more 'primitive' designs for banjos i saw there, and i think i am really going to have to start experimenting with some new forms now. and of course, the akontings were positively mesmerizing. this voyage had a two-fold effect. one, it reminded me of why i love the banjo, and why i love gourd banjos in particular. two, it reminded me og how awesome jamaica plain is.

i have been in the midst of looking for a new apartment and workspace, and therefore havent really had much time to work on banjos of late. but work should start back up as soon as all this uncertainty is resolved.

new gourd banjo is up. its god a dark oak neck with some nice medullary rays, and a large, thumping gourd. it looks really nice, and plays well.

newest gourd banjo is all but done. tomorrow im going to turn my own custom pegs, file the nut blank, make the tailpiece, then string it up and play it. its looking great right now assembled and waiting for the final touches.

new oak neck. should be done by saturday. i love working with oak. its really got such a rustic character, and is very easy to shape. click the thumbnail for full size...

new gourd banjo is up in the gallery, front and center. check it out.

new gourd banjo almost done, and should be finished this afternoon. this one has a walnut neck, and an exquisite wenge fingerboard with a very distinct, beautiful grain swirling patter that i integrated into the shape of the neck itself. the gourd is on the larger side, and quite eccentric, such that the cut i made for the head results, because of the gourds shape, in a non-round surface. this sort of makes it look as though the dowel is not centered, but it actually is running through the middle of the gourd. something different, i suppose. i would love to keep this one, but it is going to be up for sale. the bills dont pay themselves.

as always, click the thumbnail for larger images...

well, a new order is in. will i never have time to build a few banjos for myself?

this is going to be a beautiful musical instrument. im going to be making a gourd banjo. it will be based on a single-piece oak neck that im going to ebonize with rust and vinegar. therell be a small sound hole, rimmed with tacked-on skin. the peghead design hasnt been finalized yet, but there are myriad, interesting possibilities.

this is a second order for darius, who will soon be featured on the web page playing a few tunes on his last tack head. i am happy to see a smattering of returning customers of late. its fun to work on a second banjo with people, because i come to it knowing a lot more about them, and what types of things they are interested in. additionally. of course, it means that they were happy with the instrument i sent them, and thats really the most important thing.

updates will be posted as they come.

well, there a new banjo up in the gallery. its the eighth from the left, and another copy of the korda-style banjo.

in the next month i will be building two banjos - one will a gourd be based around the walnut neck and exquisitely grained wenge fingerboard that i've already made. the other will be a flush-fret tackhead with an oak neck that is yet to be started. i have to get as much work in as i can before grad school starts, so it will be busy.

these banjos will both be offered for sale.

now almoster done than before

the banjo: today i sanded down to 600 grit and burned the makers mark onto the back of the peghead, stained the neck, and tacked the ribbon (which i spent the after looking for in various boston-area fabric stores). it is looking very, very nice.

this summer, michaela and i were surprised to be allowed into the nicest community garden in j.p. i know its not banjo related, but here are some photos of the progress. oldest photos are on top, most recent on bottom. click to enlarge...

much progress today. the skin has been mounted, rim finished, tailpiece cut, nut slotted, etc. i put it together and it played well. this banjo is really, really responsive, and plays/sounds particularly nicely out over the scoop, though i left the tailpiece too far out and need to shorten the string that attaches it to the end pin, so that might move the sweet-playing spot back a bit.

i know need to disassemble and stain/finish the neck. i also need to make two bentwood laminations on the inside of the pot - one to go over the dowel where it enters, and one where it sits with the end pin. additionally, i need to cut a slot through the dowel for the wedge of ebony that will help tighten and secure the fit of the neck. all finish work should be done by mid week. once again, i sort of wish i could afford to keep this banjo. alas...

the flash on these photos really tends to darken the pot and, in general, exagerate contrasts. but it gives an idea of where the build is at.

(as always, click to see the full-sized image.)

its been a tumultuous month, but i have continued to work on banjos. as it happens, i will, sadly, not be attending clifftop in august. though it pains me to miss out, it is just not possible. that being said, the banjo i am making for dennis in honolulu is coming together nicely, and should be ready for final finishing later on this weekend. once again, dennis wanted a similar banjo to josh korda's first banjo - the black one - in the gallery. dennis is a luthier himself, so i have to make sure everything is perfect, or at least as perfect as i can get it. the fact that this banjo will also reside in the most completely humid conditions imaginable only adds to the challenge. here is what it looks like so far. the neck has been completely shaped, pegs fitted, dowel turned and attached, and the rim has been stained and sanded.

It's been a busy year here in the workshop, and it only stands to get a little more busy in the coming months. Having just shipped my last banjo out to Connecticut, I will begin work on a new tackhead that ships to Hawaii in July. Simultaneously, I hope to complete at least two new banjos to bring along to Clifftop (if anyone is looking for a new tackhead, meet me in West Virginia) at the beginning of August. Should be a bustling next eight weeks here in J.P..

there is a new banjo in the gallery. check it out.

the new banjo, before all the photos get prettied-up backdrops. click for full size

in case anyone actually cares, i made all new images for most of the sub-sections of the website. now they look better, causing some of the pages to actually look - dare i say - good.

take a gander!

just finished turning the dowel stick, and fitting it to the neck and pot. its looking pretty sweet. below, you can see the stages of the dowel stick as it was being turned on the lathe, as well as the test-fit banjo. click on the thumbnails to see full-seized images:

well, the pot is reinforced now, and its a lot stronger. there's still a tiny bit of give, but not enough to cause problems. next up, i have to start turning the dowel stick.

the grain measure. this was a very expensive antique grain measure. but the hoop is simply too thin to support a stretched skin, so it has to be reinforced with an oak lamination. once it is glued in place and dried, it will be more than sturdy enough. however, all this extra work and expense is why i now prefer to use modern wooden shells to build my banjos.

darius's banjo moving along into the final neck shaping stage.

joshes second banjo, finished. fancy pics to come...

New banjo ordered by Darius is under way. Still working on churning out extra bridges for past two banjo buyers (sorry guys... band saw died, work, etc. slowed me down. they are coming very soon, though, i promise).

Well, there's been some progress. Joshes second banjo is almost done. If I can, I would like to finish it this today. The huge pot actually fits rather nicely with the shorter neck, aesthetically speaking, which was something I was uncertain about when he requested it. This weekend I have to begin a new tackhead for Darius in Connecticut, so it's been busy here for sure. I'm still working on hardware fabrication plans for the adjustable headed banjos, but I've been so busy making tackheads that I haven't had much time to get going on those projects, which are now looking likely to be in full swing during the dog days.

I will hopefully have the time to slow down a bit and work on some new projects in the coming months. I have a neck building project for an old, birds-eye maple pot to take care of. I have also been getting ready to start fabricating hardware for some adjustable-headed minstrel banjos. I dont have the ability to make castings, so fabricating the parts is going to take som ingenuity. However, it should be a fun and worthwhile undertaking, when all is said and done.

In the meantime, I have two banjos to comlpete for people, and am still taking orders.

The paduak banjo is coming along. The neck is mostly done, save for finish work. Most of my time this weekend is gong to be spent working on our garden, but this banjo should be done in about ten days. The lighting was terrible, so the photos arent so great, but to give an idea of the banjo...

The gallery has been updated with high resolution photos of the oak banjo. I liked the way it turned out so much that I am ordering a large batch shipment of oak blanks to make more necks out of.

Anyhow, I should have at least one new instrument finished, photographed and shipped by the ned of the month. check back for progress!

Well, new banjos are underway. Here are some photos. You can see all the ingredients for the banjo - a giant, 14-inch pot, the walnut block for the neck, and the paduak fingerboard. Once I set up the break angle for the peghead (2nd photo), i found that there was some beautiful grain and figuring around a knot in the wood that will sadly be covered up. I then clamped the paduak peghead overlay on and let it sit for the night (3rd photo). You can see what itll look like on monday when all the glue dries (4th photo). The deep orange paduak is going to contrast wonderfully with the washed-out brown of the walnut.



I'm also working on a non-commissioned banjo. A very long time ago, when I was more interested in exotic woods, I found this fantastic piece of wenge with a phenomenal grain pattern. I'm trying a little bit of a different design for the neck, and I think this one will come out really nicely, if I ever have time to finish it.

Tim's banjo came out well. It sounds excellent - a nice, crisp tone that retains a good degree of thumpiness due to the small f-shaped sound holes. I cut the hell out of my thumb while cutting out the tailpiece, which wasn't great. I have to take the strings off and contour the fingerboard to simulate a little up-bow, due to the fact that the fourth string is buzzing when it's hit hard, but that's not a major operation, and always has to be done - I just thought I'd try to see if i could get away without having to do it. The answer is no. In any event, I'm really happy with the way the oak neck looks, and will definitely be making more oak-necked gourd banjos in the future. So, I'll wrap this one up in the next couple of days, ship it out, and start on the next banjo order. I've been asked to make a giant, fourteen inch tackhead with a short-scale neck and paduak fingerboard. It should be pretty sweet.

Here are a few photos of the banjo that I just finished. Official, high-resolution gallery shots will be up later in the week.

well, i got some work done since this morning. i made and attached the dowel, finished cleaning, leveling, and fashioning sound holes in the gourd, and i managed to put it all together. i mussed up the break angle on the neck somewhat, so had to surgically graft on a shim to one of the dowel holes in the gourd. the piece of gourd shell that i grafted on is very nicely matched, but even so, it will end up covered. one of the more challenging aspects of building a gourd banjo is getting all the geometry right with respect to setting the neck. its much harder than the same process on a banjo with a hoop-shaped pot, as the gourd is completely irregular. thus, you have to calculate everything based on three separate axes, which can be quite difficult, especially for someone as impatient as myself. in any event, here's the product of todays work:

friday is my day off from work, and therefore it's the day that i get most of my banjo making done. today i'm about to cut and attach the dowel stick the neck of tim's banjo and, when it dries - which should be done in a few hours - i'll fit the neck to the gourd. carving the heel of the neck out to match the countours of the gourd is the most time-consuming and frustrating part of the process. here are a couple of shots where you can see the heel countoured-out to match the gourd.

I was extraordinarily ill for the past week, and therefore was not able to get much work done. But things are looking up now. I finished shaping Tim's oak neck. It's been a long time since I have worked in oak, and it's been really fun. I definitely have to do some more projects with this wood. The neck already has a solid, but very primitive, plain look that I love.

I also added a number of new recordings to the, "listen" page, sampling two more banjos.

Tim's new banjo is finally underway. Here are some photos. Taken on my low-res camera phone, they reveal not only a new, oak neck in the early states of construction, but also a) my messy workshop for the first time on the internet, and b) my other main project at the moment, waiting quietly in the corner while i wait for a new head gasket.

Well, I finished a major overhaul of the gallery. It might appear to be a minor redesign, but it now allows me to post three images of every banjo, which means I can also include shots of miscellaneous details for each instrument. Almost all of the banjos in the current gallery were sold long ago, and thus I don't have additional photos on hand for all of them, but many have been updated. Here's one example of a newly included detail.

There are going to be some changes made to the gallery over the coming days, so please excuse any weird things that might start popping up.

Well, Last night I put the finishing touches on Josh's banjo. I decided to laminate the inside of the hoop with two strips of steam-bent oak in order to sure up the 100+ year-old grain measure, and the results are great. Here are some photos showing the banjo throughout the construction process...

First, this instrument was originally inspired by a banjo for sale at Bernunzio.com. It was an odd instrument, and I borrowed the general aesthetic to create a banjo two years ago that it currently viewable in the gallery section of this web site. The current banjo picks up where that one left off, and is somewhat fancier than the previous one. But, just to give you an idea of where it all came from, the original 19th-century banjo looks like this...



Here are some shots of my version:

The neck, just after rough shaping


The dowel stick turning on the lathe


Neck with dowel stick attached


The lathe-turned dowel stick


The fancy ebony tailpiece


And, finally, the whole banjo (click to see full size)


Next project coming soon...

Ah, it's been a busy past several weeks down in the shop. I'm just putting the finishing touches on a really nice tackhead minstrel banjo for Josh in New York. It's got a fanciful, turned dowel stick and is built around an exquisite 19th century grain measure from New Hampshire. He wanted me to reproduce a banjo that he saw on the website, but gave my free reign to improve on it as I saw fit, and the results are really gratifying so far. Tonight after dinner I fired up a few episodes of This American Life and headed down into the shop, where I managed to tack the head on and dry it out. I also recently finished a nice gourd with a bocote fingerboard for Carolyn in Texas, shipped out a canarywood model to Jan in Ohio, and am about to start working on an interesting project with Tim Twiss, banjo player and historian from Michigan. We're going to explore an older, more primitive aesthetic, and I'm going to incorporate that into a gourd banjo that I'll be building during the coming weeks.

In terms of supplies, I've got a large shipment of lumber coming in from a sawyer in Indiana that will include some beautiful figured and plain black walnut, red oak, and ash, and I'm still trying to work out a deal with a woodworker in Kentucky for a large shipment of nicely aged cherry and walnut. In addition, I've got several grain measures coming, as well as a new shipment of pear gourds en-route from welburn.

All this work was complicated a bit by a looming application for graduate school that I finally finished (time to open up the windows, dust off the bookshelf, and let some sunlight into the brain again), and all seems to be back on track again. I would like to start putting together some minstrel banjos with proper, adjustable heads, but first I have to either find a reliable source for hardware, or start learning to do the metalwork myself, though I'm not sure I really have the capacity for that right now.

Michaela is asleep, and I'm hiding in the corner typing this. If I wake her up I'll be in trouble, so I'll end this entry with a shot of the banjo I did for Carolyn, and Josh's banjo just before I tacked the head on (ignore any dirty laundry that might be peripherally visible, please).

this journal is currently under construction, and will soon be a part of jaymoschella.com, where i will post about the progress of the various instruments i'm building. check back soon!

beginning

first post. done.