My Life With Banjos....

This banjo was done as a barter with Vermont builder Will Fielding.  Will is a good friend and we have collaborated on a bunch of banjos now.  He is meticulous and I really enjoy working with him. I've mostly done pearl engraving on his banjos but also a little metal engraving and a little wood carving.  This banjo came about after I worked on a little A scale for him and got thinking about one done up with curly maple, his ironwood fingerboard, and all raw brass parts and copper inlays.  All earth tones.  In the end it worked out really great and was a spectacular little banjo....

I did this tailpiece on a collaboration banjo project with North Carolina (former Ohio) banjo builder Robert (Bob) Anderson.  It was done for a Japanese banjo player on a very elaborate openback banjo Bob made around 2010 or so.  It was the second one I worked on with Bob for this client.  I've reshaped a lot of my own custom banjo metal parts since the mid 1970's and this was based on some of those.  The tailpiece engraving design was a mix of some of my ideas and also taken from Bob's fingerboard inlay patterns.