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| Moderated by: Richard Hefner |
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| Would anyone be interested in a fretless gourd banjo. - Clawhammer Banjo - Banjo - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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craigm Approved
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I just currently finished making gourd ukulele and am going to start on the construction of a short scale gourd banjo for myself. But i've been thinking of making them for people to purchase. I love the plunky sound of them, especially for frailling it suites the bum ditty like none other. I also noticed at the last old time festival i was at that i've never seen them at any of the vendors tents. So it just occured to me that someone should be making these instruments for the public at a price not unreasonable. if anyone is interested let me know, i can post my pictures of my ukulele on here for you to see. i make everything down to tuning pegs, and am currently growing my own stock of gourds. thanks let me know. craig
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banjo brad Super Moderator 
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'A' scale fretless gourd? What price range are you talking about as "reasonable?" I'm guessing nylon or nylgut strings. Tackhead - fyberskin?  
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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craigm Approved
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Yes, you'd be able to tune it to 'A' though i'm building it for to play in 'C'. I plan on building short scale and full length. just right now i've been really achen for a short scale, ever since someone out bid me on ebay for a turn of the century S.S. Stewart short scale, so i figure i'll just build it. Back to the gourds, i'm not familiar with what you mean by 'tackhead or fyberskin' but i would be using goat skins and tacking them on in the traditional manner. with the price i'm thinking around 200 hundred dollar for just a plain model, probably get alittle bit more expensive when i learn how to inlay which i'm working on. But compared to these 900 hundred dollar gourd banjos that i've played at elderly instruments, i see 200 as a reasonable price range. Take a look at elderly at these banjos, nothing to special about them, just a bare bones gourd banjo. they sound and play just like a gourd banjo that i played that someone built in there garage. thats the main reason i feel they should be at a reasonable price. i'll post the pics of my ukulele in a couple days, so yah can take a look at that. happy days craig
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banjo brad Super Moderator
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You're making a 'tackhead,' tacked on. I was thinking that real skin might not be a good idea for most people in a tackhead because of the humidity flucuations, but if it works. I think a 'C' scale is not what I would be looking for. I'm not really sure I would even be too interested in an 'A' scale, except as a fretless, capo's wouldn't be much of an option, I guess. $200 range is reasonable for a new instrument maker on the market, I think. Beyond my range, however. Think I'm gonna have to cludge together my own fretless. Looking forward to pictures. Who knows, maybe someday I'll buy a lottery ticket - it might even be a winner! Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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vrteach Approved 
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I was at the Fox River Valley festival this weekend, and I did not see a single gourd banjo, nor any minstrel-style ones either. Of course, I didn't bring my tackhead myself. I bet that for $200 you could make some sales at such events, and also interest some of the reinactment people. I think that there would be a market for reasonably priced "Early Banjos". When I was reading up on banjo-making I came across a site that described putting the skin on using twine. The twine also had large wooden beads on, with which one could change the tension of the skin head to compensate for humidity changes. Usually folks just have extra bridges. Sometimes I use a hair dryer to tighten up the head on my tackhead. I have a few pictures of my tackhead under construction and finished at: http://vrteach.freepgs.com/banjo/tackhead.php Last edited on Thu Sep 7th, 2006 06:40 pm by vrteach ____________________ Erich -- http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/956/ http://vrteach.freepgs.com/banjo/ |
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craigm Approved
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I was also at the Fox Valley Folk Festival, thats where i got the idea to make and offer the gourd banjos at festivals. Yah i've seen and read about using twine to tie down the skin, thats something i'm also going to be looking into as i think that will offer a little bit more flexibility to the player, i would also include a couple different bridges at different heights for when the skin begins to sag. Something i'm enterested in doing is making my own gut strings (as gruesome as it sounds), just might be a nice touch to the instrument. That minstrel banjo you made is really nice looking and sounds beautiful to. great job. I've thought of making a minstrel style banjo but i'm not fond of the size of pot, i like a small pot sitten on my knee. i want to try making a pot out of tree trunk thats been cut to size and hollowed out, thats something i've contemplated doing instead of using a gourd for my short scale banjo. i'm having trouble with my camera so the pics of my ukulele will be further delayed. happy days craig
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markymarc123 Approved
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I'm interested. Shoot me an email. markymarc123@gmail.com Last edited on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 03:37 pm by markymarc123 |
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| ezFolk Forums > Banjo > Clawhammer Banjo > Would anyone be interested in a fretless gourd banjo. | |
