Frankenbanjgitar

[Bill Pillmore]

"Fine quality handbuilt and unique custom acoustic guitars from individual luthiers and small builders"

This is what J.R. said but I am going to post this build here anyway.

After Paul Woolson replaced the neck on my LG with a shorter scale neck I was left with a really nice neck (25.5"). When I found out a friend of mine in FL was making banjo's I had him make me a shell to create something new.
I would like to share this build with you. If it turns out badly I can always put an electric guitar pickup in it.
I am sharing some shop space with guitar builder Brad Nickerson and he is giving me advice and suggestions.


This is a cherry shell.

I have to make a neck extension to get the scale right.



Shaped and scraped. I will probably add a heal cover when I see how tall the heal is going to be.


I got 4 sets of Lutz tops - cheap ones - to experiment with. I went with Lutz just cause that is what the LG has on it and I like it.

I made a couple of bridges, one of IRW and one of the cherry to experiment.
I am going to try a pin less and a tail piece version with the strings going through the bridge to a tail piece.

[Bill Pillmore]

This is my bracing pattern for the first two bridges. I call it the easel.


Here is the cherry back. Rick Davis of Running Dog Guitars was nice enough to find this for me.

The braces aren't glued yet, just seeing what they will look like.

[lukeprice]

Nice to see something a bit different in this section.

I am really looking forward to seeing the end result, please keep the pics and updates coming

[J.R. Rogers]

Very cool! I'm pulling up a chair for this build. Can't wait to see what happens... GitBanjos are a lot of fun!



JR

[RonS]

This looks fun. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

I did something similar with a ukulele except the sides and back was made from a single piece of wood. (think bowl)

[nehemiah]

Really Cool Bill, I'll be watching this one.

[mdunn]

Doesn't Bella Fleck play a banjo/guitar hybrid?

Seems to me I saw him on TV with one.

[Bill Pillmore]

I have the back and first top braced and carved.

Now that the shell is bolted to the neck the heal not only looks massive but dosn't give me anymore access to the high frets than if I had a regular cutaway. I will have to think about this.


Next step is to make a small tail piece.

[Bill Pillmore]

Well I found a solution. I had cut a lot off and laid up some veneers with epoxy. The joint is smooth to the hand but will always show unless I stain the neck dark which I hadn't plan to do. May just live with it. I hope that joint will be strong enough to take the string tension. I can fret all the way to the 22nd fret with no sweat though

[Bill Pillmore]

Well I made 3 tops and 3 bridges. The first one failed. I had a temp. tail piece and the floating bridge didn't sound too hot with just a G string. Sort of like a bad banjo. Before I even got it to tension the temporary tail piece failed. No worries. I always wanted to try a bridge with out pins that anchored the strings to the bridge plate. This was a really thin top - about .07. Because the smallest router bit I had was 1/8" it left too big a slot in the bridge and bridge plate and the top failed before I even got it up to pitch. Also I rotated the grain of the top like Mervyn Davis's Smooth talker.

So now on to the next top which is braced different and thicker.

[hnuuhiwa]

Hey Bill,

Wouldn't it be structurally stronger to have the grain running parallel with the strings and perpendicular to the bridge? Seems like the bridge running parallel to the grain makes the top susceptible to failing along the grain lines with the string tension on the bridge.

Hen

[Bill Pillmore]

exactly! I really wanted to compare the results with the floating bridge but the top was just too thin. I still have two more braced and ready to go (grain running conventionally).

[Bill Pillmore]

It's been a while and things have been busy with Christmas, family and a new grandbaby coming. Anyway - back is done and the top is now glued up. I went ahead and glued the bridge on just so I could set up the neck and scale. Hardest thing so far is to get a clean fit with the neck and the round body.

[Michael Watts]

forgive my ignorance but isn't the banjo a membranophone which relies on a "skin" on the top? I don't quite understand the spruce top. BTW Jeremy Jenkins makes a wonderful "Gitjo" http://www.cjenkinsluthier.com/Lame_...rse_Gitjo.html

[Bill Pillmore]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

forgive my ignorance but isn't the banjo a membranophone which relies on a "skin" on the top? I don't quite understand the spruce top.

My goal here was not to be tradtional, or maybe you can think of it as a spruce "skin" hehehe.