Skipper Custom Instruments

Custom Five-String Banjo Photos

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This bluegrass banjo is built around a Huber tone ring and a custom Skipper maple rim. Want to try your "banjo killer" against this one?

Construction Photos

This five-string bluegrass banjo is built around a Huber tone ring and a segmented rim and solid resonator of my own construction. I prefer the segmented rim to the traditional 3-ply bent rim for two very significant reasons: my dead quarter-sawn construction produces a very stable and vibrant rim, and the hot hide glue construction adds that extra tonal edge. The first step in the rim construction is to cut a perfectly round MDF disk to which paper is glued, then the rim is assembled and clamped under heat lamps to keep the hide glue from gelling until clamping is complete. When all is cured, the excess on the outside is bandsawed away and again sanded perfectly round.

When the rim is perfectly round, the paper is split in two and the rim moves to the router table for final inside and outside shaping. This pot rings already!

Again, I prefer a two-piece, bookmatched neck for added stability; the black center line adds a nice accent. The resonator begins with a built-up outer ring and solid curly maple blank. After it's laid up to full thickness, it's removed from the form and turned on a lathe to fit the flange. The solid maple back is then turned to the correct arch and thicknessed to a uniform 1/4".

The two parts of the resonator are then mated and clamped. While the glue is drying, I set up the pot: rim, flange, tone ring, tension hoop, head, and hooks and nuts. The next job is to rout and install the resonator celluloid bindings.

I fit the neck heel on a pivoting jig on my router table. The neck is fitted to the pot before any shaping begins. When the fit is perfect, I rough-shape the maple neck blank, glue on the peghead "ears" and heel cap, and install the truss rod.

The fret slots are cut and the fretboard is cut to shape. Next step is the inlay on the peghead and fretboard. The shapes are chosen to be complementary, and are cut by hand from white and gold mother of pearl and red and paua abalone.

Once all the shapes are cut, recesses are cut into the ebony peghead and fretboard, and the shapes are set in place in epoxy. The larger pieces are engraved to create more interesting details. Celluloid binding is attached to the fretboard. Frets are both pressed into the slot and glued with hot hide glue. This assures tight, non-rattling frets, but makes replacement quite easy.

The inlaid peghead overlay is glued to the unshaped peghead, and then it's cut out and trued up on the bandsaw and spindle sander. A special jig assures that the neck stays straight while the fretboard is glued on.

The neck is shaped by hand, using a variety of scraping and cutting tools. The pot is reassembled and the resonator is fitted to the pot and the attachment hardware is installed. Time for final sanding and finishing.

When the maple is sanded, a proprietary mixture is brushed onto the wood that penetrates and accentuates the grain. After the stain is applied, the bindings are scraped clean.

For this banjo I've chosen a sunburst color scheme that graduates from amber to dark brown, but one that isn't opaque and shows off the gorgeous grain of the maple.

When adequate coats have been applied, the surface is sanded perfectly level, and two thinned coats of lacquer are applied. After a ten-day to two-week curing period, the instrument is buffed and polished and set up to play.

I hope you enjoyed watching this one come together.