Buzzard Mountain Blog

I just came across this video on Boing Boing of Chinese bluegrass, using some traditional Chinese instruments! This is outstanding to see and hear!

Well I have finished up the conversion of the 20's era Little Wonder into a 5 string for my friend. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have but I will try to describe the process the best I can.

In the Part 1 post I showed pictures of the original Little wonder and the new Gold Tone neck he wanted attached.



The next step was to measure the existing dowel stick and create a new one. It measured 13/16" sq at the thick side and 7/16" sq at the thin side and approx 10 1/2" long. The rounded portion was 3/4" diameter and approx 1" long. I started by cutting a piece of hard maple to 13/16" sq by 12" long. I then put it on my lathe and turned down an end portion to the 3/4" diameter. Once that was complete I ran it through the table saw with a jig I set up to cut the proper taper. The fun part was drilling the 3/4" diameter hole in the neck to receive the new dowel, I built a little jig here as well to insure that my angles where correct. Once I had done a dry test fit, I then glued the dowel into place.



The rest was easy, just a bit of sanding and finishing on the new dowel. Then re-attaching all the existing hardware. A new set of 5 star tuners and stings and a little adjusting for the proper action and she is ready to play.









The owner didn't want any stain on this to match the pot, which is fine as the pot and neck are different colors anyway. So the dowel is just plain hard maple with a 3 coat hard oil finish and topped off with a bit of all natural bees wax.

This project required me to build several jigs, some of which I will certainly use again, others maybe not. One thing I have learned over the years is that it is always a good idea to set up jigs that help to keep accuracy in your work, even if its for a one time thing.

This banjo plays really nicely it has a nice subtle tone due mostly to the skin head. The new neck is finished with a thick "plastic" finish which I don't particularly care for but the end results are nice and should provide my friend with a great clawhammer banjo for years and years.

A friend I jam with at my weekly jam session at the Australian Bakery in Marietta, is having me convert a 20's era Vega Little Wonder into a 5 string. The original neck is nicely carved, however it has been somewhat abused by a previous owner who tried to convert it into a 5 string by putting in a 5th string peg and putting on an over sized fingerboard. The owner of this banjo bought a Gold Tone 5 string neck and just wants me to install it.





The Headstock has been a little mangled too, it has had several holes drilled in it and the inlay is missing.












Here is the new neck he wants to put on.






I'll post more as I work on this.

I'm still toying around with making some videos, this one is a time lapse video of the hand carving process on the Somerset necks once they have been put through the Copy Carver. This step takes me about an hour to complete, but the video is compressed to about 5 mins. Using a series of wood rasps and files I can grind down the ridges left by the Copy carver and finalize the shape, this hand work allows me the ability to make adjustments where necessary for each individual piece of wood. It would be possible to get the neck to this point on the Copy Carver using a series of smaller router bits and burrs but I prefer to do this by hand.


Background music "Dreadful Wind and Rain" Jerry Garcia & David Grisman from their Shady Grove album.






On my custom banjos I generally skip the Copy Carver step and just carve the neck by hand. I do this mainly because I enjoy it and it does give me a bit more control over the finished product since I am generally only making one at a time, whereas on the Somersets I am typically doing several necks at once.

I had to make a trip to my lumber yard today to get some more supplies. I was going to take my camera with me and get some shots of the yard, but I forgot to grab it on my way out. Next time, I'll remember.

I picked up a 16/4 x 9" x 8' hard maple for the somerset necks. This thing is huge!


The big purple truck belongs to my dad, I call it the Magenta Beast.

The log on top of the hard maple is a really nice piece of curly maple I picked up for making some of my own custom banjos. I have a couple of orders in and those people are lucky I found such a nice piece!



I always try to find the best wood possible, and I do have minimum standards on which pieces I will use but this piece in particular is really flamed and figured!

It's always an adventure going to this place, if you get there at the wrong time and they are busy, you have to wait quite awhile to get what you need. Today was one of those days and I got there just at the wrong time and ended up having to wait for 45 mins or so. The guys that work there are really good about trying to help a fella out and are always apologetic when it takes so long, so I can't complain too much. While waiting this time I got into a really interesting conversation with a guy who builds boxes and humidors. Ed Sallee was his name and you can see some of his work at his site www.waxingmoonwood.com. It's always nice to talk to someone else who is passionate about the beauty of wood!

Several people have been asking me to post some sound files of my new banjo, the BM09001.


So I pulled out my Zoom H2 this evening and did a few recordings so y'all could here this banjo in action.

First up I did "Rosin the Beau":
Rosin_the_Beau_BM09001.mp3

Next is a version of "Blackberry Blossom", the first time I go through it slowly then I bring it up to speed:
Blackberry_Blossem_BM09001.mp3

The last one is just me fooling around a bit with "John Hardy":
John_Hardy_BM09001.mp3

I hope everyone enjoys these and it gives you a good sense of what this banjo sounds like, the files are straight off of my Zoom H2 and simply converted to mp3 with Audacity and have no other effects or adjustments added.