The woods I use for my banjos
are traditionally inspired. I use european hard rock maple, honduras
mahogany, heydua , sometimes called african wallnut) and american
walnut. For fingerboards and peghead-overlays I prefer ebony which is a
wonderfull wood to be inlayed. Sometimes I use snakewood for fingerboards
and overlays too.
All
rims are made from two layers of wooden blocks, glued in a hexagon shape
and later turned round by hand on the lathe. All rims are turned to a
close fit with the tonering which is choosen to go with its specific
rim.
The wooden heelcap is nicely oval shaped to give
the rim its finishing touch. Wood for the rim heelcap is choosen to
harmonize with the other woods of the instrument;
All metal parts are of a high-grade quality and
come from many distrubutors all over the world. Some parts are made under
my specification, like the tubaphone tonerings and the shoe-bearing
bands.
Tone rings are choosen in
accordance with the type of banjo and are standard 11 " size
For
open-back banjo's I suggest the whyte laydie design, the tubaphone
tonering, the bacon style FF tonering or the little wonder style, to
suit the sound my customer is looking for.
Old style minstrel banjos
with gut or nylon strings mostly use a wooden tonering ( solid or hollow
construction).
For bluegrass banjos the standard flathead
tonering is the number one choice.
All bluegrass banjos use a one piece
flange., open back banjos are provided with bracketshoes fit on the
rim or fit on a separate shoe-bearing band. For old-time style banjos with
resonator, vega style individual flanges can be used to fit both rim and
resonator .
For neck attachment, banjo's with resonator use the dual
tension rod sytem, open back banjo's use a wooden
dowel-stick.
Resonators
are made in laminated construction in modern style. For old-time
banjo's a copy of the pie-section style resonator (vega style) ,
fixed to the dowel-stick, can be made.
Old -style banjos can be made
with the internal resonator construction., mostly in combination with the
FF bacon style tonering, just like the original traditional
design.
Different styles of banjos
are available:
- 5string old-time openback banjo with or without internal resonator or vega style resonator
- 5string bluegrass banjos, both normal or toptension style
- tenor and plectrum for jazz, in different scale-lenghts
- tenor for traditional and irish style music, with or without resonator, in different scale-lenghts
- six sting banjo's with or without resonator
- fretless old style nylon strung banjos
- string old-time banjos with normal scale, piccolo, tenor, or baritone (longneck) or custom scale-length
Tenors are made in normal or short scale version,
according to the customers preference
Sometimes a customer asks for a
custom neck to be made on an existing rim.
Inlays, engraving and
heelcarving are custom-ordered.