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Originally posted by wayne e king

I have a Nichols 5 String Banjo ( pictured below ) can anyone tell me about the maker? I was given to believe it was given as a prise in a  banjo contest. I bought it in 2005.

 

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No photo attached.

David Nichols of Malone NY has passed away now, but for decades he was a premier inlay man, and sometimes instrument builder. He was best known for his long association with CF Martin to do their "custom" inlay work -- stuff beyond catalog. I've seen mandolins he built and heard of banjos he built. I think he built some guitars too. Dave was "the man" to go to for banjo necks in NY and northwestern New England.

Dave built two very fine 5 string conversion necks for me for a 1926 Granada and a 1929 Style 5 Deluxe.

His other hobby was driving down the road a mile or so once a week to the NY State Police barracks and competing with them in pistol target shooting, and taking their money.

He was a man of strong opinions, but good to work with as long as you didn't push "too" hard. Also a 32nd degree Mason.

I'll check in with Dave's old buddy from Ottawa ON who learned neck building from him and went on some interesting travels with him back in the day.  He may know some facts about Nichols banjos.

I bought some pearl inlays from him. Quality stuff!

Dave made me a couple of Gibson repro banjos. His craftsmanship was outstanding.

My friend gave me a little more background on his days with Dave Nichols. He got to know Dave in the late 1970s and at that time he was making Gibson conversion necks AND quite a few super-deluxe-inlaid Gibson-type banjos under his own name. This was in early days of Nichols career. At this time his shop was in Waddington NY (near Ogdensburg). Banjos under his own name were mostly, if not all, covered with inlay like tree of life, etc., rather than any Gibson patterns. Conversion necks of course used the Gibson pattern book for inlay, binding, stain, etc.

Dave sold a number of banjos in the US and Canada I'm told. He made his own necks, but tended to use the typical US suppliers for parts for his banjo pots, which were all built in the Gibson style. My friend tells me Dave adjusted the peghead angle in the early 1980s to match the slightly steeper angle of Gibsons -- Nichols had been making them a bit shallower in angle at first.

In later years Nichols moved his shop to Malone NY which he set up less to build entire banjos, than to build and teach building for guitars and mandolins and to move his inlay production up a few notches what with the business he subcontracted for Martin. Entire banjos faded from the picture more or less, yielding to entire guitars and occasional mandolins.

Dave did beautiful work for me. Neck repairs, taking out original inlays from special instruments that the fingerboard was too far gone. Also inlaid gorgeous reproduction necks for new instruments.
He was not a phone person. I felt lucky if I got more than one word answers on the phone. Of course, I was interrupting his work.
The one time we had a longer conversation was when those guys broke out of Dannemora Prison which was very close to him.
He was great to deal with and always gave me beautiful work for a great price.