Banjo-ette elkhart, u.s.a.

A couple of years ago I played a gig in Picton, Ontario. I arrived in Picton early, so I visited the local music store. They had a banjolele with a twisted neck, but a good pot with a bunch of signatures of people I've never heard of on the head. Most of the autographs were dated from 1931 to the early forties. I offered him $12, all the cash I had on me, and took it with me.


Finally I decided to get it repaired. I took it to local luthier Dave Fox and asked him to build me a new neck. I told him that I really liked the Gumby shaped headstock and I'd like him to keep it.

I picked up my new neck today and played my banjolele at tonight's open mic for the local ukulele club. I'm really happy with the results.

I tried to remove some photos, but they were put in an "attached file".

Hey Jim,

That is a cool looking banjo uke. Nice new neck as well makes it even better.

I recently purchased a 1920's circa Banjolin on Ebay. It was in dreadful condition but with a lot of TLC I brought it back to life as a Banjolele. It has an 11" pot and a mandolin neck with 8 tuners although it is now strung with D'Addario strings and tuned to a ukulele GCEA. It is so much fun to play and has a much more sophisticated sound than the newer offerings of today.



We have a 70 member group of uke players here in Niagara-on-the-Lake. If you are ever down this way let me know and come to one of our Sunday workshops.

Regards,
Bill

Had to look a couple times at the photo. At first it looked like there was a fifth string, but it's just the shadow of the first string. The banjolele looks good, and it's always fun to take a "sow's ear" instrument and turn it into a "silk purse" special. Congrats!

Yeah, maybe we need a "Silk Purse From a Sow's Ear" discussion group.