Mikey was one of my pupils at Royal High. The banjo was his final project on the Standard Grade Craft & Design course. He completed it in March 2013.
The neck of the banjo was built up from layers of pine, with a purple heart finger board. The peg head featured contrasting hardwood veneers.
The rim was built up from twenty-four segments of various species of timber and turned on the wood lathe. Mikey rolled a brass tone ring, soldered its ends and fitted it to the rim. He stretched calf skin over it and fixed the skin in place with furniture tacks: a tack head arrangement.
The rim is held to the neck with aluminium brackets, cast at school.
Inexpensive worm gear guitar tuners were fitted.
High resolution photos of the banjo are available at Royal High CDT department’s Flickr account: