I love how imperfect it sounds, it's a beautiful reminder that things can be messy, but still wonderful. It's such a raw earthy sound, like the ground itself decided to play a song. Just lovely. :)
thank you! amazing description of why like gourd instruments so much, in a world where everything is mass produced it's really nice to have some imperfections
Very beautiful banjo. Your fingerboard wood looks like Wenge. And the bottom white wood cedar or pine? Will you let me know. I built a gourd dotara with American Cedar and it sound plenty good.
I'm glad you addressed what the heck is going on with the river for it to look like June runoff in September. Sick banjo though. Maybe the tuning pegs are fine but it looks like they're maple, or whatever the neck is made out of. My dulcimer's tuning pegs might just be ass but they're made out of the same wood as head and don't hold like my other wood pegs, makes me wonder if that's the reason most are made out of ebon or ironwood.
yeah it was a wild year, earlier, around feb/mar I was driving up to the santa clara valley a bunch and the river was absolutely raging then, most roads and even the 126 were closed, with mud everywhere. They had snowplows clearing the mud off the roads leaving mud banks, it was crazy. Yeah hard dense wood works best for tuning pegs, ebony being the standard. These ones are hard maple which I've found works great. It's probably an issue with the pegs rather than the wood type, try using hill peg compound if you haven't already. That helps them hold a lot better and turn smoother. If that doesn't work, they might need to be reshaped with a peg shaper tool, or just replaced
Hey! look up "fret position calculator" on google. There are some online ones that'll have you put in the scale length and the instrument type, and will give you a list of all the fret positions, then you just have to measure them out
I love how imperfect it sounds, it's a beautiful reminder that things can be messy, but still wonderful. It's such a raw earthy sound, like the ground itself decided to play a song. Just lovely. :)
thank you! amazing description of why like gourd instruments so much, in a world where everything is mass produced it's really nice to have some imperfections
I like how this one sounds!
I love the way the fretboard is transitioned towards the gourd / dowel end
Mad cool🪕🪕🪕
thanks! love your videos
Nice one Ben this a very distinctive instrument looks great mate! Loving the sound of slides up at the top there nice one
Nice work man👏
Very beautiful banjo. Your fingerboard wood looks like Wenge. And the bottom white wood cedar or pine? Will you let me know. I built a gourd dotara with American Cedar and it sound plenty good.
Beautiful video :]
Pretty cool Ben!
I'm glad you addressed what the heck is going on with the river for it to look like June runoff in September. Sick banjo though. Maybe the tuning pegs are fine but it looks like they're maple, or whatever the neck is made out of. My dulcimer's tuning pegs might just be ass but they're made out of the same wood as head and don't hold like my other wood pegs, makes me wonder if that's the reason most are made out of ebon or ironwood.
yeah it was a wild year, earlier, around feb/mar I was driving up to the santa clara valley a bunch and the river was absolutely raging then, most roads and even the 126 were closed, with mud everywhere. They had snowplows clearing the mud off the roads leaving mud banks, it was crazy.
Yeah hard dense wood works best for tuning pegs, ebony being the standard. These ones are hard maple which I've found works great. It's probably an issue with the pegs rather than the wood type, try using hill peg compound if you haven't already. That helps them hold a lot better and turn smoother. If that doesn't work, they might need to be reshaped with a peg shaper tool, or just replaced
Hey Ben, I'm interested in making gourd banjos but i don't know how I would find where to place the fret markers? Thanks for reading if you do
Hey! look up "fret position calculator" on google. There are some online ones that'll have you put in the scale length and the instrument type, and will give you a list of all the fret positions, then you just have to measure them out
thanks!@@bengreco