End of an Era for Me

[George Wunderlich]

I am just about to take my last banjo order.  

 

I want to thank all of you for your support over the years.  It has been a great ride.  

 

I will still build, but from today on I will only take an order if I am truly intrigued by the request.  There are still a few banjos I want to build and some period techniques  I never really got a chance to explore.   Some of these will be available from time to time, but I am going to take down my old website and concentrate on exploring new avenues of the building craft.  

 

I hope that as I learn more I can post the information here for all of you to read.  If I find anything earth shaking I will present it at an upcoming AEBG.  

 

Thanks again to all of you for your support! 

[Tim Twiss]

Has anybody tried the beef gut strings yet?

[George Wunderlich]

Beef is actually very good.  Due to the larger size of the animal, the walls of the gut are more fibrous and are stronger.  I have heard them played and they are nice and bright.  They should least well and allow higher tunings at the longer scale lengths.   They should also last a bit longer.  

[Tim Twiss]

Of the others, what do you recommend?

[George Wunderlich]

trebles are what I use.  Lyon is too tightly wound to sound good.  They are really for much larger instruments.  The same with Pistoy.  Diapason are for very long instruments like arch lutes and harp sized strings,  they would be greatly dampening at our vibrating length.