An easy camping banjo to make I set out to make a really simple banjo that would play well but at the same time cost virtually nothing to make and needing only simple hand tools. I seriously believe you could make this banjo in the backwoods using just a knife and a saw. OK. maybe carving a scroll on the pegbox was going a little far, but I think it adds a bit of style. You can leave that off or maybe carve an animal head instead, but you will need to be a much better carver than me! The drumskin is made out of the plastic from a drinks bottle, the frets are stuck-on pieces of wire, the neck is cut as one piece from any handy stick of wood (I used a piece of ash) and the tuning pegs are carved by hand from a contrasting color of wood. The strings can be nylon fishing line but you get much better volume from wire. Since banjo strings are cheap, you may as well buy a set. Here's how it sounds Blackberry.mp3

Marking out the plan view of the banjo is simple if you draw where the strings will go.
Start by marking a centerline down the neck. That is where the 3rd string will run.
At the 'pot' end, the 5 strings need to be spaced evenly aross the width of the wood, leaving about 1/10th of an inch at the outer edges.
At the 'nut' end, the strings need to be about 3/10ths of an inch apart.
Having found where each string runs, I draw them in on the neck,
Now I can mark where the edges of the neck must be, just 1/10th of an inch outside the strings.
The only complication is the cutout for the shorter 5th string. Make sure that you allow about 1/4 inch of wood above the 5th fret position (It's at 5 inches from the nut)

Note that the pegbox continues the taper of the neck right up to the scroll ( or animal, gargoyle, whatever carving )

Here are the stages in working up the neck:-

Side view. You can see how the rounding of the neck is begun by chamfering the sides evenly.

Plan view: - here, the blank seen from above showing the pegbox slot, notice the slightly wider entrance for the strings at the front end of the slot.

From the back, you can see the detail of the chamfering on the cutout side that leaves an 'unrounded' section of the neck for the 5th string peg.

Closeup of the pegbox and pegs under construction.

From left to right:

1. Peg sawn out roughly. The taper section starts out as 1/4" square.
2. All 4 sides tapered down using sandpaper - about 1/32" is enough
3. Corners rounded off, again using sandpaper (trying to carve with a knife isn't worth it)
4. The peg is slid into a fold of sandpaper and twisted round and round to smooth off the corners.
5. Finished peg shaped.

When it comes to drilling the pegholes, you just need to open each pegbox hole on one side to take the tip of the taper, and on the other side to let the peg slide in all the way. These two different size holes make a perfectly good taper fit that will tighten with use.
For the 5th string peg. drill the smaller hole size , then open it out a bit over halfway down with the larger.

If you are using a particularly hard wood for the neck and the pegs don't 'bite' too well, you can ream out the holes to a better taper by wrapping a bit of glasspaper around a peg and using that as a tool.

The banjo ring or 'pot' is made by glueing together 12 2 inch long pieces of wood with the ends cut at an angle of 15 degrees. This can be done using a saw and mitre box.
When the pieces are cut out, assemble them dry by laying them face down and running a length of stick tape along the back. When you pick it up (carefully), you will be able to bend the whole assembly into a circle and check that it closes into a ring properly.
If not, you will have to trim some of the angles. It doesn't have to be perfect. Glue will fill any gaps and if it isn't quite round no-one will notice when it's complete.

If you feel it's too difficult to make a ring, make it square!

Also shown in the picture is the stick that braces the ring and prevents it collapsing when the strings are pulled tight. It's fancy name is the co-ordinator rod, but it's just a stick 1" by 3/8" and 10" long.
A slot is cut in one side of the ring to accept this stick, which is attached to the neck at that end. The other end of the stick buts against the ring on the other side and is pinned there using a 1" nail (The head of the nail is cut off to make a pin and a hole is pre-drilled in the ring and the stick to prevent splitting when it is inserted)

Now for the banjo 'skin'. Get a large fizzy drink bottle and cut off the top and bottom. Then slit the tube.

I use epoxy glue to fasten the skin to the ring. It is important to smear the entire surface of the glue join so that no bare patches are left. Anywhere the skin is not stuck down to the wood will 'buzz' when the head vibrates.

When the skin is stuck down, it will not be particularly tight. It will still sound, but the tone will be thin. To tighten the skin it needs to be heated, which will make it shrink.
I just wave it over a gas ring (about a foot above), watching to see any wrinkles disappear.
Here's how it sounds when tapped with the eraser end of a pencil Tap Test

Now we have all the important bits, the neck is complete, the skin bonded to the pot and the co-ordinator stick is glued in place.

Now we glue the neck to the pot.

I just use glue. Because of the design, all the forces from the strings are tending to pull the joints together except for where the coordinator stick is glued to the neck. You could put a screw through there for insurance but because the join is at right angles to the pull of the strings, this join doesn't really take a lot of stress.

In this shot you can see how I tied a rope around the neck/pot join and pulled it tight using a scrap of wood as a lever.

You may wonder why the neck is glued on so high above the pot. It's clearly 3/8" above the skin (the thickness of the co-ordinator).
The answer is that this allows a high bridge to be used. The higher the bridge, the louder the instrument (in general) because the strings go down to the tailpiece at a sharp angle and this transmits the vibrations to the drumskin more efficiently.

Now for the critical bit. Fitting the frets.

The frets are made from regular copper wire. It comes on a reel so it has to be straightened before use. You can get copper wire straight very easily by standing on one end and heaving on the other (twist the end round a stick for a handle). When you feel it 'give' slightly, stop. You now have a perfectly straight length.

The fret slots are cut very shallow using a saw that is thinner than the diameter of the wire. I use a small metal hacksaw. It's litle more than a scrape. This groove helps to hold the frets in place during glueing and also provides a small cavity for the glue.

I always use a 'zero'th fret on my instruments. It avoids the complication of getting the 'nut' absolutely right. With a zero fret the string height is firmly set and the nut only needs to prevent sideways movement.

Fret spacings - use my Fret Calculator The scale length you need is 20 (inches).

When glueing, Use a good flat piece of wood to clamp the frets down and put some thin plastic sheet between to prevent the glue sticking. I used a slow setting epoxy for this job. Giving plenty of time to smear the glue into each slot, assemble the clamps and check that none of the frets have slid out of position.
(When the glue is at the stuck-but-not-hard stage, you can take off the clamps for inspection and re-glue any that have moved.)

Getting the glue neatly into each slot is a challenge. I use a length of the fretwire, dip it in the glue to coat about an inch then draw it along the gloove at a very shallow angle like a paintbrush..

The finished fretboard. Just needs a ittle bit of cleaning up.

The tailpiece holds the strings to the pot. It is mounted so that the strings are guided over the head of the banjo without touching the skin. The top edge is rounded to prevent kinking the strings. It also has shallow grooves to guide and hold the strings at a convenient spacing for your fingers

The nut is nothing more than three tiny pieces of wood about the thickness of a matckstick, glued to the neck just behind the zero fret. (The strings are all pulling inwards)

The short 5th string doesn't need a 'nut', it will bite into the surface of the fingerboard as you tighten it. That's why we left a 1/4" of board clear behind the fet.

The bridge

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