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BeeEnvironment - Posted - 01/11/2022: 07:49:32
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
Ken,
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it,
Russ A.
Russ— I found a nice piece of cherry, and I remember the tree it came from, so I'll be able to help you out. I'll include some other things that will be helpful to you.
My Brandywine Conservancy friend says she'll be happy to take it back to Chadd's Ford and you can pick it up there—She'll be coming here President's Day weekend, maybe to start making maple syrup.
Ken,
Thank you so much! Eric also let me know about his pot and his chat with you, and I am very excited now! I really appreciate this.
As a side note, is president's day a bit early for maple-syrup production? I tried tapping some maple trees down here I think in late march last year. We only got a tad bit of syrup, but I learned a lot from the process!
Have a great day!
Russ A.
Ken LeVan - Posted - 01/11/2022: 09:51:23
quote:
Originally posted by BeeEnvironment
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
Ken,
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it,
Russ A.
Russ— I found a nice piece of cherry, and I remember the tree it came from, so I'll be able to help you out. I'll include some other things that will be helpful to you.
My Brandywine Conservancy friend says she'll be happy to take it back to Chadd's Ford and you can pick it up there—She'll be coming here President's Day weekend, maybe to start making maple syrup.
Ken,
Thank you so much! Eric also let me know about his pot and his chat with you, and I am very excited now! I really appreciate this.
As a side note, is president's day a bit early for maple-syrup production? I tried tapping some maple trees down here I think in late march last year. We only got a tad bit of syrup, but I learned a lot from the process!
Have a great day!
Russ A.
When the sap runs depends on warmer daytime temps and cold nighttime temps—it's unpredictable, but can happen in February. It ends when the trees blossom, so an early spring can accelerate the process.
BeeEnvironment - Posted - 01/11/2022: 14:09:34
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
quote:
Originally posted by BeeEnvironment
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
Ken,
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it,
Russ A.
Russ— I found a nice piece of cherry, and I remember the tree it came from, so I'll be able to help you out. I'll include some other things that will be helpful to you.
My Brandywine Conservancy friend says she'll be happy to take it back to Chadd's Ford and you can pick it up there—She'll be coming here President's Day weekend, maybe to start making maple syrup.
Ken,
Thank you so much! Eric also let me know about his pot and his chat with you, and I am very excited now! I really appreciate this.
As a side note, is president's day a bit early for maple-syrup production? I tried tapping some maple trees down here I think in late march last year. We only got a tad bit of syrup, but I learned a lot from the process!
Have a great day!
Russ A.
When the sap runs depends on warmer daytime temps and cold nighttime temps—it's unpredictable, but can happen in February. It ends when the trees blossom, so an early spring can accelerate the process.
Ah, ok, I see. I think I am going to start this year when the temps reach ~40-45, and the nights are ~20. Last year the season was only 1 week or so, but I am hoping it will be a bit longer this year. We only have 3 maple trees here to tap, hahah. I always loved that maple syrup! Here is a photo of me boiling it down last year:
Russ A.
Ken LeVan - Posted - 01/14/2022: 15:33:45
Russ,
Regarding tools you will need:
Between Eric and I you should have a very good start. The pot you are getting from him looks really great—can't wait to see it in person, and I will check out the head and the rods.
I am going to provide you with a cherry neck "kit" with a fingerboard, so you will need to get:
(1) an electric bass truss rod, which you can get from eBay or anywhere else:
ebay.com/itm/393696761700?chn=...KAWPD_BwE
(2) some good rasps and files to finish profile the neck.
(3) sandpaper
(4) finish, and whatever you use, I'd recommend Zinsser "Seal Coat" universal sanding sealer as the initial sealer.
(5) tuning pegs—You have to decide whether you want the Grover Rotomatics almost universally used in the "Pete Seeger era" on longnecks, or the planetary straight down kind— I will drill the holes because you need a drill press for that. I can give you links if you need them.
(6) eventually strings.
You will have to decide on the peg head shape early on.
There will be many other things you're going to have to do, but I'm sure you'll get a tremendous amount of help and advice from the members of this forum.
Ken
BeeEnvironment - Posted - 01/15/2022: 08:28:43
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
Russ,
Regarding tools you will need:
Between Eric and I you should have a very good start. The pot you are getting from him looks really great—can't wait to see it in person, and I will check out the head and the rods.
I am going to provide you with a cherry neck "kit" with a fingerboard, so you will need to get:
(1) an electric bass truss rod, which you can get from eBay or anywhere else:
ebay.com/itm/393696761700?chn=...KAWPD_BwE
(2) some good rasps and files to finish profile the neck.
(3) sandpaper
(4) finish, and whatever you use, I'd recommend Zinsser "Seal Coat" universal sanding sealer as the initial sealer.
(5) tuning pegs—You have to decide whether you want the Grover Rotomatics almost universally used in the "Pete Seeger era" on longnecks, or the planetary straight down kind— I will drill the holes because you need a drill press for that. I can give you links if you need them.
(6) eventually strings.
You will have to decide on the peg head shape early on.
There will be many other things you're going to have to do, but I'm sure you'll get a tremendous amount of help and advice from the members of this forum.
Ken
Ken,
Thank you for the list. Your's and Eric's help really is going to give me a good headstart, as you said; I can't wait to start working on this!
That link for the 24 inch truss rod should be good for the long-neck, right? Just want to make sure.
Also, since you recommend getting some good rasps and file tools, I will start a forum topic here on the BHO to see what folks recommend as for good quality and use. Asides from helping construct this, it probably would come helpful with our housework here.
For the pegs and peghead shape, I was thinking of keeping it quite simple. Since the vega Pete Seeger pegheads seem quite appealing to me and do not seem too hard to achieve, I was thinking of going along with that or something close to it (though, in-lays won't be necessary), like this image I found from a old BHO thread:
As for the pegs, either ones would be fine. Which do you recommend for more of a practical often re-tuning use on a peghead like that?
Thanks again for all of this, I really appreciate it,
Have a great rest of the day!
Russ A.
bonnetteanthony - Posted - 01/15/2022: 09:26:45
I wonder if I can go back and change the name of the thread? Maybe to Russ and Ken build a banjo?
Just kidding fellas, no hard feelings at all.
I got my Gold Tone OT800LN long neck bracket band tubaphone in, thanks to the great deal Mr. Larry helped me get.
It came all set up, and almost in tune. Thanks to Helix and to Gold Tone!
And Russ I look forward to pics of your build!
BeeEnvironment - Posted - 01/15/2022: 09:43:07
@bonnetteanthony,
Sorry for using your thread like this, hahah!
I hope you are happy with your OT 800 Long-neck! I am very glad Pete Seeger shared the longneck with the rest of the world when he created it back in the 1940s.
I'll be sure to keep you updated on the build! Happy picking,
Russ A.
Ken LeVan - Posted - 01/15/2022: 13:59:06
quote:
Originally posted by bonnetteanthony
I wonder if I can go back and change the name of the thread? Maybe to Russ and Ken build a banjo?
Just kidding fellas, no hard feelings at all.
I got my Gold Tone OT800LN long neck bracket band tubaphone in, thanks to the great deal Mr. Larry helped me get.
It came all set up, and almost in tune. Thanks to Helix and to Gold Tone!
And Russ I look forward to pics of your build!
Glad there are no hard feelings, I said I would help you at less than your expected budget, just that my time line was too long for the Texas themed banjo you wanted, which would take some time and thought —I'll still help you in any way I can— I doubt the Gold Tone one has a Texas theme.
Ken
Edited by - Ken LeVan on 01/15/2022 14:01:40
Helix - Posted - 01/16/2022: 02:23:31
Glad to help, it's the sound.
phdm - Posted - 01/19/2022: 21:35:13
quote:
Originally posted by Ken LeVan
It's worth noting, that there are different kinds of longnecks— a picture below shows the various types compared to a normal banjo on the left.
The "original" one with a neck lengthened for Pete Seeger by John D'Angelico, had two extra frets, so was an "F" —that is the kind I built for Garrett and he showed in the pictures—Thanks Garrett!
Garrett's is 4th from the left in the picture below, and the F (2+) is my favorite longneck type, In fact Garrett's is my favorite longneck, and I've made quite a few going back to 1963.
.......
Ken,
Thank you so much for your full post and photos on the variations in long neck banjos. I printed out your entire post to add to my archive of long neck history and information. I have been playing a Vega long neck for the last 50 years, and have never understood why it is the much-neglected child of the banjo world. When Seeger died, I published an article on his creation - the long neck banjo, in Banjo Newsletter. Here is a link to that article:
Seeger long neck - America's Third Banjo
(Very sad that with the death of the co-editor of Banjo Newsletter, we also lost an important banjo resource)
When my wife and I were in Halifax, Nova Scotia several years ago, we came across the Halifax Folklore Centre - a great folk instrument store, run by the owner/instrument maker and his wife for at least the last 40 years. Many great banjos. But I noticed one, hanging above an inner doorway. From a distance I could tell it was not a standard length 5-string banjo, but it also wasn't a large as my Vega Seeger model long neck. I talked to the owner make who said that his wife and co-owner wanted to play a long neck banjo, but because she was very small, her arms wouldn't comfortably reach all the way up a full-sized long neck banjo. So he built for her what I would call a shorter scale long neck banjo, with the standard three extra frets. He took the banjo down and I played it briefly. It was lighter and a but more...delicate than a full-sized long neck, and I could see it would be a lot less of a burden to carry. I don't fully remember how it sounded, but it was a lighter sound, I believe. It was tuned open to E and capoed up three to be a standard tuned banjo.
My question to you is whether you have ever come across this shorter scale long neck banjo idea before. I asked the owner if he would sell it (not that my wife thought I needed a 6th banjo ;-) ) and he said I would have to ask his wife. He did say, however, that if I ever wanted one like it, I could send him a pot and he would make a similar neck for it. That short scale long neck idea has intrigued me ever since.
And in case any long neck players who have come across this discussion are not aware of it, there is a Group here on Banjo Hangout devoted to long neck banjos. Here is that link:
Long Neck Banjo Group
Thank you again, Ken.
Peter McKee, Seattle
Helix - Posted - 01/20/2022: 02:50:12
Yes, I have heard of someone making a "pocket" longneck.
I think it's a fantastic idea and shows adaptability.
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