Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
Cookie Tin Banjo
zenmonkeyman:
A cookie tin banjo has been on my 2do list for a while now. Finally got on my butt and made one. Who am I kidding, I was sitting down already. Partly inspired by Pete Seeger's passing? Anyways, the banjo was invented by people making do with what they had and could build themselves. The cookie tin was commonly used as a banjo resonator. So believe it or not, this is a legit traditional instrument. I planned on making something that looked half-assed but would (hopefully) sound amazing. I sorta got it backwards haha. Some build info: The cookie tin was full of cookies when I got it for Christmas. I don't remember who gave me this particular one. I have a few. The neck is birch I had cut for a different project and this piece was left over. The nut is carved from a shed antler I found. The inlays are elk hoof from a friend's elk a couple of years ago. The bridge is chokecherry. The pegs are forks cut from saskatoon (serviceberry). The tailpiece is also antler. The frets are #10 copper wire hammered flat and carefully filed. The strings are dacron B50 bowstring, 1, 2, and 3 ply. A couple of coats of boiled linseed oil finish it off.
I wasn't real happy with the sound though. It sounded like what a doubter would expect it to sound like. Pops, buzzes, clangs, and crashes, depending on the note being played. Chords were especially terrible. I noticed the distortion diminished if I kept my pinky finger pressed in a certain spot, though, so after a couple of failed remedies, I decided to bend some brass nails into hooks and mount them through the face as shown, tensed by rubber bands. It was a resounding success, losing none of the volume, but increasing brightness, consistency, and especially sustain. It actually sounds very close to how I was hoping it would sound.
I hope you enjoy! As a project it involves a similar skill set to bowmaking. I only used a belt sander to fair up the fretboard, and a drill and palm sander were the only other power tools I used. Mostly drawknife and farrier's rasp.
mullet:
That is really cool. Do you think the B-50 had anything to do with the crappy sound? Curious what monofilament would sound like.
bowtarist:
Really Cool Man! Is it intonated(sp?) maybe not even a word. From the center of the nut to the 12th fret should be the same distance as the center of the bridge to the 12th fret. I have a friend who makes cigar box ukes. He's always talking about that. just a thought, maybe you already know about that. Nylon uke strings might work too to help the sound. I can send you some for free if interested. I think it looks awesome!! dp
zenmonkeyman:
--- Quote from: mullet on February 06, 2014, 09:52:26 pm ---That is really cool. Do you think the B-50 had anything to do with the crappy sound? Curious what monofilament would sound like.
--- End quote ---
I don't think the B50 had a whole lot to do with it. I made one up and put it on my uke once and it wasn't as nice as a nylon string, a little duller sounding. No I think the real key was the untensioned head. A banjo head is normally stretched, where the tin bottom is merely held in place. Once I put those two hooks in and attached them to rubber bands the head became essentially tensioned. That said, my research led me to find that banjo makers often make use of nylon monofilament fishing line. One guy was using a different make and strength for every string! The fun thing is that they were all different colors, too lol.
--- Quote from: bowtarist on February 06, 2014, 09:54:11 pm ---Really Cool Man! Is it intonated(sp?) maybe not even a word. From the center of the nut to the 12th fret should be the same distance as the center of the bridge to the 12th fret. I have a friend who makes cigar box ukes. He's always talking about that. just a thought, maybe you already know about that. Nylon uke strings might work too to help the sound. I can send you some for free if interested. I think it looks awesome!! dp
--- End quote ---
Hey, thanks for the offer, but I plan on getting some proper strings on my next trip into town, but I'm pleased with the sound now so I'm in no panic ;) The frets are laid out by an Excel spreadsheet I downloaded. All I had to do was enter the distance from the nut to the bridge and it spits out the numbers. And it's easy to put the bridge in the right spot because the string center point harmonic should be directly over the 12th fret, which is easily checked.
Thanks guys!
Cameroo:
Hey Monkeyman, that's cool and all, but you can't just post something like that without at least a sound clip ;)
Very cool project, I like the hammered copper frets. Great example of making use of what you've got!
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