Banjo 200 – Week 1 or so…

Banjo 200 is well on its way.

Figured one-piece birdseye maple neck (I’ve been saving this board for a while) with the Chechen rosewood rim.The neck blank has been cut out of the billet, squared up, and the truss rod slot has been cut.

We had Chris at Melrose Music make these Chechen rosewood rims up for us. On a side note, we’re working on a new style of rim with him that we’re looking forward to testing out – essentially doing 3-ply rims with a rosewood core in them, hoping to be able to offer these if someone wanted a little more power from one of our softer woods that we love to use (black walnut, mahogany, and cherry in particular).

As far as this rim goes though, Chechen is a wood we use in the shop quite a bit for veneers/overlays (fingerboards, pegheads, rims, etc.) but have only recently started using it for rims. It’s extremely dense and musical.

Banjo 200 is on the far right. The Chechen fingerboard has been slotted and is ready for gluing. A wooden filet has been fit over the truss rod to keep any glue from going into the truss rod slot.

The fingerboard has been located and is ready to be glued onto the neck.

The fingerboard is glued and in place, but not clamped yet.

Fingerboard glued and clamps removed the next day.

Peghead overlays, which were glued on using the same system as the fingerboard, are on.

Side view of the glued-up neck.

Coming up: Ebony/maple decorative purfling, something I’ve only put on a few banjos before. It will be under chechen rosewood binding. I’ve just finished designing the peghead, a nearly exact copy of a turn-of-the-century Cole banjo peghead. We’re still debating on the inlay, but leaning towards columns. I’ll keep snapping photos whenever I remember…

Pharis on the receiving end of planing 180 feet of cedar for a hot tub we’re building (in all our spare time….). Wish us luck – no leaks!!!

The dog is loving all the cedar shavings…. she gets to sleep on them.