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I define a banjitar as a banjo that has a guitar body (as opposed to a guitjo, which is a guitar with a banjo body). Others may differ in terminology, but I had to call it something!
I built this for myself with the help of others in my lutherie group, especially in bending the body sides and lending me a body mold. The sides and back are made from koa. The top is a Martin factory reject, which came shaped for a dreadnaught with the sound hole and rosette already cut and inlayed. I cut it down to fit the parlor sized body. It is X-braced. The neck is some flame maple. This is the third neck I've gotten from the same board. It has a two-way adjustable truss rod, accessed from the sound hole. The fretboard and bridge are wenge. I made it simple - no binding on either the body or the fretboard. It has a good sound. I'll include a couple of sound samples, but they don't really do it justice - partly due to my poor musicianship, and partly to inexperience in recording.
I should mention that the 5th string is doubled and I tune the two strings two octaves apart. The scale length is 25 3/8 inches approximately, and I have it tuned A2 a4 E3 A3 c#4 e4 (open A tuning).
Very interesting, and it sounds good too!
The doubled 5th string is unique to my knowledge. Years back I made a banjo lute (similar to your banjitar) and made one with paired 4 strngs, but a single 5th string, kind of the reverse of what you are doing. I like yours better because the paired strings on mine were a bear to tune—2 are enough.
You did a very nice job on the guitar body, too—kudos for that. I love the curly maple neck.
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