Gourd banjo, part 4, the playing thereof...

Put the strings on the banjo today.



It's basically done. Still experimenting with where best to locate the bridge, and may want to scoop out a section of the fingerboard near the gourd -- because it's a bit tight in there when playing.

My high-school student/co-maker was on her way over to take possession of it, so I quickly plucked out a few tunes. Not great quality video, but it does give some idea of the instrument's sound.

Shenandoah




Worried Man Blues -- I could see the student and her mother arriving while playing this, and they rang the doorbell just at the end.

Varnish on Titian #4, Gourd banjo part 3

I've managed to get a couple of coats of varnish on Titian #4 and grabbed a quick snapshot of it, similar setting to the ground photo in my previous post.




We've also made some progress on the gourd banjo. Fit the neck to the gourd.



And then got the skin on the gourd itself, held in place with hide glue and tacks.

Gourd banjo, part 2, and Closing the Box

With the neck glued-up and dried, we started doing a bit of preliminary shaping to the heel. Here she is cutting in at an angle to free up the material.



After making the cuts, we knock out the wood with a chisel and mallet. Then we clean up the sides with the chisel by hand and using a plane.



We used the lid of a small jar to mark out about a quarter-circle for the heel, sawed out similar to the method used on the sides of the heel, and here she is cleaning up the profile with a #7-sweep gouge.



Meanwhile, on the fiddle-making bench, after trimming and fitting the heel, I glued the back on this fiddle, closing it up as a box. Tomorrow, on to finishing the button on the back and heel of the neck. In this photo, the bridge (actually a blank) is simply standing in place. I had used it to double-check my neck elevation.



A story on these type of closing clamps was recently put out by the National Music Museum .

Gourd banjo, part 1

One of the projects I have going on now is the building of a gourd banjo -- or at least standing back and directing someone else who is actually doing the work! :-) A local high-school student, who is taking clawhammer banjo lessons from me, decided she'd like to build a gourd banjo as her class project. Here she is cutting a neck to length.



Learning how to use hand-tools takes lots of practice and time. Even learning where to stand takes some experimentation. We need to build a composite neck, and here she is using an old Stanley jack plane to smooth some stock.



Here's the neck blank, glued together.



We've trimmed the top of the gourd, one of many I grew in the garden a couple years ago, and one of the last steps is to scrape the inside clean.



Lumpy and papery, the inside is a chore to clean up.