Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on April 10, 2011 at 2:04am

The first thing you should do is search CBN (Cigar Box Nation) for banjo plans using the sites built-in search engine. You could also do the same with Google or other search engine. The kinds of questions you may need to answer in advance is whether you are planning a tenor banjo or a 5-string banjo. The tenor is simpler to build in that it only has 4 strings with each string routed to its own tuning machine on the headstock. With a 5-string banjo, the neck needs to be wide enough for a 5th string and its tuner sits to the side at just above the 5th fret (as I recall). This can complicate your build a bit. Other questions you may want to ask yourself is whether you plan to use a skin head drum build into your cigar box or not, or alternatively, a metal resonator cone which would give it a more twangy banjo sound. You will likely want to use standard banjo strings to keep you instrument sounding more like a banjo than a guitar. These are probably most (if not all) the concerns that would differ between a CBG and a CBB (Cigar Box Banjo). Be sure to check out photos and videos of peoples CBBs to see what you like, and then steal their ideas. That's what most of us do.

 

Good luck with your builds.

 

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on April 10, 2011 at 2:35am

I went through my bookmarks on Banjo topics and found a few links to building banjos which may be of interest. With a cigar box banjo, you don't really have to worry about building your own drum resonator. Instead just focus on the neck and the scale length, especially how the neck length may change with a rectangular cigar box as your resonator instead of a round drum resonator. Well, anyways, here are those links...

Some Links for Building Banjos...

0.) Wikipedia: Banjo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo

1.) Song of the Great Lakes' "Build A Banjo"
http://www.songofthegreatlakes.com/banj.htm

2.) "Building A Banjo" by Jon Tirone
http://europa.spaceports.com/~fishbake/banjo/banj.htm

3.) "How (not?) to Make a Banjo"
http://rutlandhs.k12.vt.us/jpeterso/banjo/make1.html

4.)"A homemade but very playable open back banjo"
http://www.datatransform.demon.co.uk/index.html

5.) "Web guide to constructing a basic 5-string Banjo"
http://www.angelfire.com/music2/construct/page1A.html

6.) "Building a Gourd Banjo"
http://clawhammerbanjo.com/instruments/gourd/gourdbuild/gourdbuild....

The more you learn about banjos, the better you should be able to adapt the CBG to being a CBB.

 

P.S. Also check out canjo based banjos. There should be some on CBN as well.

 

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Bear on April 10, 2011 at 4:40am

I've built a multitude of 5-string cigar box banjos. You can see pix of some of them on my page if you find them useful. I have no tips other than to jump in and learn by doing. The great thing about cigar box instruments is that there are no rules or standards. You can build something very simple or more complex. It's whatever you want to do, and you learn and improve with each instrument.

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Permalink Reply by Bo diddly on April 10, 2011 at 6:17am

thanks guy im going the tenor route for now till i get better at building

 

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 10, 2011 at 8:01am

Just finished making a Banjo - used a sawn down drum basically, very pleased with the result!

full photos here...(-;

 

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/ol-roundy-in-the-workshop?conte...

 

.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on April 11, 2011 at 3:58pm

Nice banjo, Steve. And a good idea to use the drum. Maybe I'll have a go at one of these before the year is up.

I wonder if there is a Banjo discussion group on CBN? Maybe one should be started. Any volunteers? Maybe we could call it "The Banjo Consortium", since we already have "The Canjo Consortium".

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on April 13, 2011 at 11:17am

My build called 'Gold Tooth" is basically a banjo, just w/o the 5th string. 4 strings tuned to an open G so you can play banjo chords on it. Pics on my page if you want to see it.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on April 13, 2011 at 7:33pm

Great idea - i found standard banjo tunings much more useable, completely different animal from a CBG and should be played as such.

Rand Moore said:

Nice banjo, Steve. And a good idea to use the drum. Maybe I'll have a go at one of these before the year is up.

I wonder if there is a Banjo discussion group on CBN? Maybe one should be started. Any volunteers? Maybe we could call it "The Banjo Consortium", since we already have "The Canjo Consortium".

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on April 13, 2011 at 11:47pm

Check out the Tenor Guitar group here. If you're planning a Tenor Cigar Box Banjo, but not planning to use a skin head, then you're really looking to build a Tenor Cigar Box Guitar. Basic guidelines: about a 23" scale length, tenor guitar strings, tuned CGDA like the traditional Tenor Banjo.

Bo diddly said:

thanks guy im going the tenor route for now till i get better at building

 

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Kennedy on May 28, 2011 at 2:56am

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/003-winchester-twist/next?conte...

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