The banjo is an incredibly flexible and resilient instrument. It takes on a wide variety of physical forms and can be found to produce a wide variety of sounds and music. A banjo may be constructed from a wooden spoon, a soda can, and a piece of thread. Yet again,Continue Reading
The banjo’s tailpiece, as the name suggests, attaches at the tail of the instrument. It provides a way to attach the strings at the tail of the instrument. The tailpiece can take a variety of forms. Different types of banjos have different types of tailpieces. Some of the banjos IContinue Reading
A banjo’s tone ring filters out some tones from the string and head, allowing others to come through. It’s kind of like an equalizer. The banjo’s strings are the main energetic drivers of the instrument. Their sound is amplified by the head. The head’s ability to amplify the string’s energyContinue Reading
The banjo’s head is its primary tone generator. While guitars and many other stringed instruments have a wooden soundboard, the banjo has the head, a stretched membrane that amplifies the string’s vibrations. The head makes or breaks the sound of a banjo. If the head is too loose it willContinue Reading
Banjo hardware and parts can be specialized or rather commonplace depending on the build style of the instrument. When it comes to vintage and hand crafted banjos there is a good deal of variety. Most modern bracket-style banjo hardware cannot be found in a typical hardware store and must beContinue Reading
The dowel stick brings the rim and the neck together. The dowel can take different forms. I use a wooden dowel stick. Many banjos feature a steel rod that serves as a dowel. Some banjos even have two steel rods that may be adjusted to change the neck angle. InContinue Reading
Scale length is the length of the string from the nut to the bridge. This is the active part of the string that vibrates when struck. Scale length measurements do not include string ends above the nut and below the bridge. Generally, a longer scale length means a greater distanceContinue Reading