CODE: minstrel
Minstrel Banjo

Minstrel Banjo

Info

Our shop foreman saw a show by Michael Miles and it inspired him to build this beauty. We've had it sitting around the shop for a few years and have finally decided we should offer it for sale. It is quite an instrument. It has a 14" skin head which gives it a big, rich sound that is pretty fun to hear (and feel). The 19" diameter pot is solid cherry, as is the neck. The fingerboard is walnut.

We have it tuned to a Double C tuning but dropped down a 5th to be in the key of F (cFCFG). We have some gut strings on the 4th and 5th string and strings 1, 2, and 3 are nylon. To complete the old-time look and feel we used tapered violin pegs for tuners. We even fashioned special "tuning wrench" to help tune them.

The string spacing is a fairly wide where the neck meets the fingerboard (2-1/2") but is more managable up toward the nut (1-1/4")

Video