the ugly banjo

Comment by Paul Draper on November 25, 2011 at 12:13pm

This reminds me of the banjo Kyle Creed made for Fred Cockerham, with the Formica fretboard.

Comment by Strumelia on November 25, 2011 at 12:27pm

Yes, this was a reproduction of Fred's banjo, designed by Ray Alden and made by Jim DeCava.  Ray had a series of I believe about 10 of these "Cockerham Model" banjos made.  Ray used to visit and play with Tommy and Fred and was quite familiar with the original banjo (which is now stored in the Smithsonian), Ray said he was able to handle and examine it many times so he felt well able to design a reproduction.

It plays and sounds like a dream!  I find formica to be really nice to play on- smoother and slide-ier than ebony but warmer than metal or Corian.

Comment by Paul Draper on November 25, 2011 at 12:41pm

Wow!  And you're lucky enough to own one?  I'd love to hear it!

Comment by Carl Anderton on November 25, 2011 at 1:38pm

That formica would come in handy if I spilled my margarita while jamming... 

Comment by Trapdoor2 on November 25, 2011 at 2:37pm

I've played one of the reproductions...and really liked the feel of the formica. Too bad they're so ugly! ;-) I tried to find a good source for formica but the real thing is hard to come by in small quantites.

Comment by Bart McNeil on November 25, 2011 at 3:32pm

Formica can often be found in small amounts by checking with anyone who installs kitchen counters, or works on kitchen stuff...  I would think and as scrap it aught to be free or very cheap. personally I would not want the entire banjo neck and headstock to be covered but the formica covered fretboard should give you the sound benifits as opposed to wood. Some formica patterns are not quite as ugly as you might suspect.... close though...

Comment by Strumelia on November 25, 2011 at 3:41pm

If any of you is interested, I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago further detailing how I wound up with this banjo:

 That's some banjo.

 

And I will have an interesting and happy new chapter to add to this banjo story in about 3 more weeks.    :)

Comment by Paul Draper on November 25, 2011 at 4:05pm

Great story!  

Comment by Ian Bell on November 25, 2011 at 10:16pm

I have a red Hohner button accordion covered with a similar. but iridescent, material that I've heard referred to as "mother of toilet seat". We should get them together.

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