The first is a steel string version of my Green PVC rim kit banjos. The rim is 12.5 OD, 3/8" thick wall PVC pipe section. The head is PET plastic, heat shrunk tight (less tight than I would have liked). The neck is an easy build using two router templates to do almost all of the wood working. This one I made the neck from 5/8" mystery wood from a tree that fell into my daughter's back yard. It is possibly Catalpa. It has a 1/8" maple fret board and is reinforced with a 5/16 x 1/8" carbon fiber bar. I would have liked a bit more reinforcement but I had this scrap lying around so....
The tailpiece is minimal - five small nails driven into the rim.
The second is a wood top banjo with a 1/32" baltic birch plywood head. I had some of this left over from a school art project for one of my many daughters, and always wondered how it would sound as a banjo head. I have to say, it's not bad - not as loud as a hide or plastic top but it has more of that characteristic banjo twang than most wood tops. The plywood is glued with epoxy to the PVC rim, which is 11.25" OD and 3/4" wall thickness.
The neck is made from oak with a 1/2 x 1/8 Carbon fiber rod let in from the back, creating a skunk stripe of sorts. It's strung with steel strings. This one has a scale length of 25" but I was able to use the same router templates for creating the neck. By matching the 5th fret postion to where it needs to be for the 5th string peg, the nut moves towards the bridge about 1/4". I chose this scale length to give me the correct bridge placement, giving the pot diameter and the neck length. The peg head shape on this banjo and the one above is designed to have straight string paths from the nut to the tuning pegs.
Impressive for the ingenuity. Please post videos sometime so we can hear what the sound!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for building. Skinamarinkadoodle dude.
The modern equivalent of the old mountain banjo. Appropriately made with plastic. It reflects our current culture and is made of things that are abundant in our lives, as were the old banjos. This is more than an instrument, but also significant as anthropological artifact.
BTW, it should be easily tweaked into sounding at least as good as a Bakelite harmony.
quote:
Originally posted by Bob BuckinghamThe modern equivalent of the old mountain banjo. Appropriately made with plastic. It reflects our current culture and is made of things that are abundant in our lives, as were the old banjos. This is more than an instrument, but also significant as anthropological artifact.
BTW, it should be easily tweaked into sounding at least as good as a Bakelite harmony.
Thanks Bob, that's what I was going for.
I made a couple banjos with "sewer pipe" about 5 years ago now. I used krylon to spray paint the rims. This one was a baritone uke with 10.5" outer diameter. I made a short scale plectrum, steel string but no pictures of that one, I reduced the rim to 10" diameter on that one.
Someone brought me some 8" acrylic tube from a dog biscuit display, I built a tenor uke banjo with some of it.
I have some 12" pipe too, thinking on a project for that.
OK, here is a file with samples of each of the PVC banjos in this discussion - along with my "normal" daily player banjo for comparison. These recordings were made in as close to identical positions as possible. You'll notice that the wood-topped banjo (2nd cut) is quite a bit quieter. The first banjo (green PVC) has a loud deep voice.
quote:
Originally posted by FathandI made a couple banjos with "sewer pipe" about 5 years ago now. I used krylon to spray paint the rims. This one was a baritone uke with 10.5" outer diameter. I made a short scale plectrum, steel string but no pictures of that one, I reduced the rim to 10" diameter on that one.
Someone brought me some 8" acrylic tube from a dog biscuit display, I built a tenor uke banjo with some of it.
I have some 12" pipe too, thinking on a project for that.
Nice looking banjos. When you reduced the diameter of the 10" rim plectrum, did you use a lathe or what?
quote:
Originally posted by Jonnycake Whitequote:
Originally posted by FathandI made a couple banjos with "sewer pipe" about 5 years ago now. I used krylon to spray paint the rims. This one was a baritone uke with 10.5" outer diameter. I made a short scale plectrum, steel string but no pictures of that one, I reduced the rim to 10" diameter on that one.
Someone brought me some 8" acrylic tube from a dog biscuit display, I built a tenor uke banjo with some of it.
I have some 12" pipe too, thinking on a project for that.
Nice looking banjos. When you reduced the diameter of the 10" rim plectrum, did you use a lathe or what?
I cut out a piece of the pipe, and glued it back together with a lap joint and pipe cement. I made sure the neck bolts went through the joint so they couldn't come apart. Use pi to calculate the amount to remove.
I use a lathe to dress the top of the rim.
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