Bango's Surgery Update

Tudorp

Big guy with a lil' uke..
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Bango is pretty done with his major surgery. I still need to clean up a little glue, a little touch up, and the inlay for the headstock is on the way, so it's not in yet. But, here he is, fully up and singing again. He sounds great, plays great, and I would bet as well as any new Banjole could.

Here is what he undergone.

Complete new Rosewood fretboard, frets, new scale length.
New hand made bone nut.
Hand made maple, ebony bridge, with bone saddles.
Hand made mahogany arm rest.
Finished the mahogany resonator which was started about a year ago.
Ebony stained maple headstock overlay, (soon to have a cool Gecko design on it)
Faux Burl buttons (my technique from another thread)
Wood repair that was needed in the bucket.
Refinished wood bucket to a Mahogany finish.
Refinished neck to mahogany finish.
Setup: Leveled frets, set action, intonation, saddle work.

Here is Bango, and he's feeling fine. Prognosis outlook is 110% recovery.

newbango5.jpg


newbango4.jpg


newbango3.jpg


newbango2.jpg
 
And....

newbango1.jpg


All that is left is some clean up and touch up..
 
That's a pretty good lookin' axe.

Looks like a very happy medium between the really minimalistic banjoleles and the really heavy resonator ones.

I'd love to have one like that someday.
 
Bango is lookin' good! How does that arm rest feel?

ALLOT better than thos J hooks diggin into my wrist, lol..

Actually, the armrest turned out better than I had hoped.
 
Aloha Bruddah Tudorp,
Wow what an awesome transformation...great job and the 83 year old is lookin' great...I must say the custom arm guard came out really nice...Btw, how big is the pot on the banjo?? cause your hands look
big in the photo..maybe it's just the picture...hee hee!! because you can play Ku'u Poki'i.....Happy Strummings Bruddah and Mahalo for Sharing as always....MM Stan
 
Yeah it's just the picture, because my hands are actually kinda small (for my size anyway). I do have long fingers, but as far as my overall hand size, pretty average. Bango has a 7" pot. Thanks on the arm guard. I been looking for one to fit since I 1st got Bango a few years ago, but they just don't make them for banjoles I reckon. So, I just decided enough is enough, and made that one out of some scrap mahogany I had laying around. The brackets are made from a scrap bracket I cut apart and bent to fit Bango's form that came with something ( I always save extra brackets, hardware etc. from furniture, etc we buy over the years. I make custom stuff all the time with that sort of recycled junk).

Anywho. I'm really happy with how Bango turned out. Plug & Thanks again Steve (twodogsplucking) for the fretboard.
 
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Very nice! I also like the armguard. Its the first I've seen on a banjolele.
 
Hello Tudorp, very nice job indeed!
I saw you changed the scale length of Bango. I suppose one purpose was to get the saddle in another position, right, thereby altering the tone somewhat, is it so?
Did you achieve what you wanted (by changing the scale length concerning the tone) and what was that?

Kind regards
 
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