Finally found some time to finish off the banjo! Decided to finish the neck with Tung Oil (I used Behr Scandinavian Oil, which is at the Home Depot) which I had used on a couple furniture projects I had done, and it looks great! The nice thing with Tung Oil is you can put a coat on every hour and then dry overnight. I put about 5 coats on the neck.
I was going to get a piece of leather from a friend for the tail piece and then saw a few photos of a banjo with a simple wooden one with a hole cut it in to fit around the dowel. Since I am very impatient I figured this wood do, and I actually love the way it looks!
I am using Aquilla Nylgut strings, and first tuned it to normal G tuning, but the head was sagging a bit so I lowered the tuning to about F. I think any lower than this the strings get too flabby (its a short scale 24"). I found that the sound really cam alive after I lowered it, I think the gourds like the lower frequencies. It just became better all of a sudden!
The nut is made of walnut, because I had lots of scrap sitting around the shop after making a cutting board out of it.
Overall it was a great project, and even for a beginner like me only took a few days to make! I am praying the neck stays stable!
4 comments:
Looks good, man. And I like what you did for the tailpiece there.
How about a sound sample?
That came out great! You are an inspiration
Great work Jeff, really enjoyed it !
Nice work. I'd love to hear how it sounds.
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