Hand Crafted Banjo Uke.

Here's some shots of my latest banjo uke off the bench.

It's a tenor scale in Silky Oak (Lacewood for the North Americans) and Indian Rosewood. The head is goat skin, tacked on in the style of mid-nineteenth century banjos. The tone is more mild and subdued than a super-torqued up bluegrass style banjo uke with a plastic head.

I reckon your goat was related to the one my Djembe was made of

Nice looking instrument, any chance of a video or a sound cloud recording to hear it?

However, I do have two, rather obvious, questions:

¿How do you control the tension?

¿Don't the fringes of the skin below the tacks get caught up with clothes, etc?

Barbablanca said:

I reckon your goat was related to the one my Djembe was made of

Nice looking instrument, any chance of a video or a sound cloud recording to hear it?

However, I do have two, rather obvious, questions:

¿How do you control the tension?

¿Don't the fringes of the skin below the tacks get caught up with clothes, etc?

Click to expand...

The tension yields and tightens a little with humidity changes. This is easily solved by popping in a slightly taller or shorter bridge. Also, when you're not playing a tackhead the bridge should be popped on its side so that the head doesn't stretch.

The instrument doesn't catch anywhere as I play it. There's a hell of alot of hardware to get caught on on a regular banjo (uke).