Stuart was one of my pupils at Royal High.  While in sixth year he worked on this banjo as part of the ’16 Plus’ initiative. Between November 2011 and March 2012, he spent an hour working on it, one afternoon a week.  He got about two thirds of the way through the build before leaving school.  Months later, when he hadn’t popped in to the department to finish it, I completed it. That was in 2013.  I now have the banjo at home and it’s one of my favourites to play.

The neck is a tropical hardwood with a contrasting tropical hardwood peg head veneer.  The rim is block built, from twenty-four segments glued together and turned at the wood lathe.  It is mostly made from ash and walnut.  A brass tone ring, rolled and soldered at school, sits below the stretched calf skin.  The skin is held in place with furniture tacks: a tack head arrangement.

Aluminium brackets, cast at school, combine with hardwood wedges to hold the neck to the rim.

The instrument stand is made from 4mm birch plywood.  Its components are a friction fit, and easily dismantle for transportation in an instrument bag. Bicycle rubber inner tube has been glued to the plywood, to prevent the banjo being marked by the stand.

High resolution versions of the photos are available at Royal High’s Flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdtlog/sets/72157633115744027/