Gourd Banjo

Comment by Tom Taggart on November 8, 2015 at 6:11pm

Looks very good. Maybe some day I will get up the nerve (and cash) to build a gourd of my own. Thanks for the inspiring photos.

Comment by Chris Prieto on November 8, 2015 at 6:47pm

Thanks Tom! I did it on the cheap haha used only small hand tools I already owned. Prolly cost more with nicer wood and such.

Comment by Brian Kimerer on November 8, 2015 at 7:36pm

Looks good. I never put any sound holes in my gourds. Does that really make it louder?

I had to design a special tailpiece to take the string tension off of the side of the gourd. The gourd on my first gourd banjo started to collapse under the strain.

Would love to hear how it sounds.

Comment by Strumelia on November 8, 2015 at 8:20pm

This looks like a fine banjo!  Gourd banjos should be varied and organic creations, since they are made from big ol' seed pods and skin, after all.

Brian, I put a sound hole in a gourd banjo and it made it about 20% louder.  I was hoping for more than that, but was happy to hear an improvement.

Comment by Brian Kimerer on November 8, 2015 at 9:10pm

My latest minstrel I made with a bent wooden hoop and an adjustable back so that I could play around with putting a "sound hole" in it and then closing it up. I have not finished updating my web page yet, so I can't show you photos of the finished banjo with the back on it, but you can see the beginning of the back on the web site with a bit of acoustic theory about sound holes etc.

http://www.thekimerers.net/brian/minstrel2/back.shtml

I am trying to find time to finish posting the photos, but work gets in the way of banjo these days.

So far I have not been able to detect any difference in the sound with the hole opened or closed, but that could be the shape of the "hole" (which is basically a slot between the hoop and the back).

I am flattered that folks are reading my pages and getting ideas from them.

Comment by Chris Prieto on November 9, 2015 at 3:51am

@strum thank ye :)

@Brian I think it is louder than my other gourd banjo (kit). This one actually has a second sound hole in the bottom of the gourd towards tail since the gourd I used had a thin cracked up spot on the bottom which just kinda blew out while I was scraping it. It was my last one so I went with it. Lil rumble in my belly when I play tho.

I have also had the same issue you describe with gourd buckling under string tension on my gourd banjo kit. I was using a leather strap on that one and I replaced with a block of wood like this one. Super tight fit so it doesn't actually press on the gourd so much and it worked out well.

For this one in addition to using the block style tail piece I made the spike have a sort of mini heel that presses against the gourd. The spike goes from square to round and square part is shaped to fit inside of gourd. I saw in an image Terry Bell uploaded here a while back.

I really like your documentation. Very human tone and I appreciate that you post all the mess ups too. Also being limited to just a few hand tools, I could relate more to your process. Both Pete and Jay suggested getting bad saw but I'm gonna see if I really get into it before I go buying stuff that needs electricity. Part of the allure of making a banjo was just being able to zen out and rough up some wood with my hands while thinking about nothing else.

Comment by Brian Kimerer on November 9, 2015 at 10:28am

@Chris

Ah. I see. Solutions that are not visible in the photo. Very clever. My perch pole is tapered from the neck heel to the end, so it will also wedge into the hole in the gourd. I cut the tailpiece so that it jams onto the wedged pole just shy of the gourd. That way, all of the string tension is taken on the perch pole and none of it on the gourd. I suppose a small gourd can take the pressure, but the huge gourds that I used will just buckle.

I agree about the use of power tools. Just when I am tired enough to wish for a router or a band saw I remind myself why I am doing this at all. It isn't to produce banjos with the least amount of effort.

I recently viewed a video about how Bishline Banjos make their necks. They essentially program an NC machine that just carves it out in a few minutes. It is really fascinating to watch and deadly accurate. But then I say, "Nah", what fun is it to watch a machine carve wood? Never mind the expense of such tools.

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