My wife has expressed interest in learning banjo, and I thought I would make her  one.  I am planning to use a 10" tambourine and 4 strings (thought about cookie tins for lower cost, but those that I've heard online sound more guitarey, less banjoey).

 

I'm thinking that with the light thin surface and less strength than a solid top (like a guitar), bridge pressure should be less and I should use a shorter bridge.  Am I on the right track and does anyone have a rule of thumb or somesuch on bridge height?

 

Is a tunable head on the tambourine needed, or will a fixed head be adequate?

 

Thanks in advance!

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Yeah, that seems right. If I make a hole on the head/neck side of the cigar box (or drum) about 1 cm below where I would to make the neck level, that should allow enough space to lower the neck angle a few degrees. Should probably get one of those big/long protracters I saw at B&Q. Then I can measure more acurately where 3 degrees is, and then I can get an idea of how far down the hole in the side of the box (or drum) needs to be.

-Rand.

You could do it that way, the tail end might get too closer to the drum head than desired though.

 

The general idea of the method I was talking about is visible here if you look at the uncut line on the left side of the neck blank in progress

 

And the angle is visible here in the side view if you compare the straight line at the edge of the bench to the fingerboard and box area of the rough neck blank.

 

 

If the math I am doing in my head this early morning is correct, 3 degrees would be a 5.2408 % Grade. Therefore you would have a drop of 5.2408mm in 100mm right? or taking it out a little further for more accuracy than is necessary 10.4816mm in 200mm.

It would be much easier in my opinion to make a functional mechanical drawing and just make the angles, bridge and string height just work rather than do triginometry. I prefer not to overthink this aspect and just make it work. Makes my head hurt.

 

Mark

HI Mark,

Yes, I am aware that tilting the neck downward a few degrees could make the tail end of the neck too close to the sound board (drum head) so as to interfere with its vibrating, etc. I was figuring that once I kind of fit the parts together I could see how much of the top side of the tail end of the neck to shave off. Getting too theoretical and mathematical about things like this makes my head hurt too. The idea of converting degrees to some % of grade sounds like an interesting (and fairly simple) way to deal with measuring the neck back set angle. So, I guess I take a look at doing that.

The two photos are great. I remember them from the CBN intermediate builders discussion group discussion you pointed me to yesterday. Did you really make those cuts using a handsaw? If so you have great skill using hand saws. My cuts usually get "off" on one or another angle available to you in this 3D world. Well, I imagine most people are more handy with tools than I am as I am a late starter to wood working. How do you like that Workmate 200 table? Is it worth buying and carrying over to China (where it's probably made but not sold due to China's manufacture for export only policies)? Here in China, most (99%) of the table saws you see are circular saws that have been affixed (nailed?) to a big piece of plywood and set on top of two "home made" saw horses. No blade guards to protect fingers, and none of the fancy features available on most western designed table saws. But I digress...

These days my active project is the second "mid-sized" paddle box 4-string dulcimer-dulcijo hybrid instrument. Applied 2 coats of polyurethane yesterday. Plan to add the frets today, maybe the rest of the hardware on Tuesday, with probably most of the rest of the week as play time with the new instrument.

I have started gathering parts for a drum-based dulcijo (or two). I bought two 9" diameter drums for 28 RMB each (about $4.50 US). They are plain drums w/o drum head tensioning hardware (and without tambourine "jingle-jangles"). I have had this plan of building one in mind for a fairly long time (since seeing a hand-made "two-dowel" drum banjo at a (mostly) used-guitar store in Berkeley (where I bought my new Savannah banjo this past summer)). I'm sure that seeing that hand-made drum banjo is why my mind has become so fixated on using dowels instead of shaving the neck down as we normally do with cigar box guitars. I also have a nice piece of recycled hardwood, likely oak, to use as the neck. It has staple (or headless nails?) in it which I was not able to pull out, but was able to bend back and forth until the broke off fairly flush with the surface. I need to sand it quite a bit to remove the old finish, but it should work out well. I have also used another piece of this wood last weekend to build a more state of the art canjo using geared tuners, real fret wire and a rather innovative arm stock that fits into the crook of my elbow to help me hold the instrument while playing it. Still sounds too tinny for me, but I thought I should try building a better canjo based on what I have learned building stringed instruments over the last year or so. I got my start building canjos, using ukulele tuners, tie-wrap frets and coke cans. I also wanted to to build this canjo to show Dora's (my daughter) music teacher what a canjo was. I've already showed off one of my better stick dulcimers and my mountain dulcimer, which I left in his possession so he could learn more about playing it. Hopefully he can apply his guitar playing skills and when we get back together can show me how to better play the instrument. At that time, I'm sure I'll have another cool instrument for him to play with.

-Rand.

 

Sorry Rand, I just re-read this thread and realized I never responded to your questions. Many appologies.

Yes that neck blank was cut and made fully with those saws in the picture. The entire purpose of the build and blog article was to show that it could be done that way. My next photo build (If I ever get to it!) will almost certainly not be done that way, but it can be done with very nice results. That neck came out very nice and has a very nice feel to it!

The little Shop Mate table has its uses, I like it for holding peices while I cut/sand/chisel/drill/route etc. sometimes. I have made a few jigs that either are held in its vise opening or using the bench dog holes too. I have other more traditional woodworking as well as mechanics vises that I use when needed too, but again, I wanted to do that project using the basic tools many people have or have access to. To be honest, the Shop Mate's most frequent use is as a portable worktable/stand or miter saw stand outside my workshop as it folds up and transports nicely. But sometimes I just pull up a little low stool I made and tinker with something using it as a temporary table too. Oh and I used to use it to hold doors on edge while I mortised for hinges, but ever since I got one of those Rockwell power jaw vises that has become the tool of choice. Its just so nice to be able to hold something in place and push a foot pedal to engage the vise...... But I digress. Yes I like it. Have heavily used it for over 20 years.

hey guys i am working on a tambourine banjo as we speak. coming together nicely i think. im going with the almost through neck. but still deciding on how im going to fix the timber to the end of the tambo. was thinking of installling some threaded tubing into the neck at the end and running some threaded rod into that with a washer and nut to tighten it all up. now to find some threaded tube. im at the scary stage at the moment. where ive worked really hard to make it good, and i really dont want to stuff anything up from hear on in.

anyway if u want more pic of mine let me know.

hope it helps.

 

ps. if i do another one i would definatly use a hand drum...why?

cos there is no bell thingys to worry about (unless u want them)

the bodies of the drums seem to be deeper and most are made of timber. (my tambo is a plastic/resin of some sort)

and the hole for holding on my tambo is way too big for it to be useful in the building process whereas with the drum u could customise it fully.

 

thanks again

Hi Kyle,

I like how well your banjo neck is shaping up. How did you shape it? Use a spoke-shave?  I need to practice using my spoke-shave a lot more to see if I can shape necks that way. Most of my instruments have necks build up by laminating together thin trim wood. I'm currently using that technique to build a neck for a drum-based dulcijo. I think you'll likely end up cutting off all those jingle-jangle-thingies on the side of your drum. Or, add a bunch more nose makers to make it into something like a cello pogo or devil stick.

-Rand.

 

Good tips and thoughts there Kyle!

I like the logo-tone deaf music. That makes it worth looking for one of those! LOL!

Mark

Hi All,

Just before I had my foot operation, I was working on my drum based 3-stringer. I had it almost done when I realized that I had built it in an air-conditioned room, and that outside this rather dry environment, the skin head the high humidity around here made the skin sag (become looser); so much so that to get tension on it, I had to put in a taller bridge, but this taller bridge was pinning the skin head down onto the neck hollow. Needless to say, this ruined the resonating properties of the drum. Not anticipating this, I carved only 1/4" of wood off the top side of the neck to form the neck hollow to insure my sound board (or drum head) would not come into contact with the neck. Such is pretty standard practice when building cigar box guitars. However, with a drum as the resonator box, it seems like I will have to double (or maybe triple) the depth of the neck hollow. I will also likely have to add wood to the opposite side of the neck hollow to maintain neck strength. I'll get back into this project in about a month, after I regain mobility. Just passing on what I learn...

-Rand.

thanks for the kind comments rand and mark.

Rand, yeah i used a spoke shave and alot of elbow grease with sand paper. it was my first attempt at the spokeshave and am super happy with it so far. im making very slow progress coz i keep ummming and ahhing about the design and its gunna be my first attempt at real fretwire frets and i really dont want to stuff anything up because its come along so well and its taken up so much of my time.

 

cheers

kyle

Hi again, just thought id update progress on my banjo.

here it is. frets are in and fifth string tuner hole is drilled. (no reamer so just jiggled the drill bit round and round and uo and down, Should be able to tap it in with hammer after all staining and whatnot is complete...if not i'll glue the bastard in there)

anyway. wishing i had have sawed the fret cuts, then stained, then installed frets because i now know the stain will gather near frets and stay a little darker. ohh well its a learning curve!

not sure what or how im going to do about the 5th string nut so if anyone has any tips, id love to hear em.

still to come. stain faux fretboard, clear laquer neck,  install 5th string tuner, install 5th string nut, install nut. string up and rock!

pretty excited about it!

Looking very good Kyle!

My banjo has a shorter 5th fret and a small hole with a round peg in it, slotted for a 5th nut. That seems to be the standard.

I have been wondering if anyone ever tried to tap the hole and use a fine thread screw so the height was adjusteable, but then you can adjust the height by making and fitting the peg as needed so maybe I am just over thinking it.

Cant wait to hear it!

Mark

Hey there,

Just finished my Tambourine banjo project! I am so happy with the way it turned out! Its been a long ride but finaly got to play it and it sounds great. Just like an open backer!. i will upload a video when i can play more than 5 consecutive notes.

Thanks for the help and ideas along the way

Cheers

Kyle

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