Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, I'm Ball Banjos here mainly because I'm mostly a banjo maker. But over the years I've built about every kind of stringed instrument there is with one degree or another of success. Here's my latest project--a steel strung archtop tenor uke. Maybe it's more of a terz tenor guitar. Whatever--it has a 17 inch scale length and four strings tuned like a tenor ukulele.

This started out as a project to try out some arched plate models I had done in Rhino, to see if I could use my CNC machine to rough out plates that I used to do with router templates. I didn't want to risk full sized guitar wood on a first experiment, so I shrunk my 17" guitar model to a 10" tenor uke model for testing. I roughed out the plates with the CNC and then went to them with my planes and scrapers as usual. There's some information on this over on the CNC pages.

Anyway, the back and sides are really hard, dense salvaged mahogany. The neck is also mahogany, cut out of a guitar neck scrap I got from Martin years ago. No CNC used on the neck except for cutting, radiusing and slotting the fingerboard. Top is X Braced Engelmann and all the fittings are Maccasar Ebony. The fingerboard has a conical radius (12" to around 18" radius) and "built in binding." Finish is french polish. I felt compelled to put a hula girl on the peghead--it's a combination of gold lip and black mother of pearl all hand engraved. It turned out to sound and play quite nice, and if nothing else it's a cute little booger! And it's not a banjo....

Dave

Beautiful Dave! Tell me a little more about your inlay. Do you use a graver to etch the detail and fill with an engraving filler (alla William Laskin's Special Blend)? What materials do you work with?

It all looks wonderful.

Cheers!
Rick

Thanks Rick! I do use a graver to engrave the pearl--I use a 120 degree "square" graver for just about everything--my avatar was engraved with the same tool. I fill with either Laskin's Special Blend (I use it mostly on fingerboards because it doesn't rub out of the engraved lines as easily as other materials) or a black lacquer stick (the kind that gun engravers use--I use this on pegheads because it isn't waxy and I don't have problems with finish not sticking to it...). My banjos are generally pretty fancy with lots of engraving and inlay--I really enjoy doing the detail work. I work with all kinds of shell as well as bone, metals, wood, corian, reconstituted stone etc. It all works well.

Dave

I love it - very nice.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Very nice, Banjo's and archtop's quite the variety.

Really banjos and archtops are actually a whole lot alike. Tailpiece/floating bridge instruments all have a lot in common, at least in terms of physics...

To Clinchriver--I lived off of Highway 61, just inside Union County for years up by Big Ridge Park, just up the road from you. I'm in Knoxville now.

Dave

Small world, I'd love to check out your banjo's and shop.

I like that! Looks like a real groove machine.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Outstanding Dave! That is one "cute little booger".

Cheers,
Danny

Yes, indeed, this is a beautiful little instrument. I love the arched plates and the execution throughout. But that fetching island girl, so beautifully engraved, just kills me. This entire instrument has a tremendous "wow" factor.
Patrick

Beautiful work, Dave.
Now you can take it along up to the cabin to see how it does at altitude.

That is just SOO Cute!
Nice one Dave.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Very elegant, I love the lines of the re-curve.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Gorgeous! How about a sound clip?

Why do you scallop the nut between the strings? Just for looks?

Great work..!

Trev

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Thanks for the nice words everybody!

The scalloped nut is just something I've always done--it was done by several of the classic Boston banjo makers of the 19th century and I always liked the looks. Oh wait--what I really meant to say was that after years of intensive research and experimentation, I discovered that a properly graduated nut is essential for great tone

Here's a link to a sound clip: https://files.me.com/ballbanjos/jiz6h9.mov

Dave