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Happy New Year everyone and hoping 2026 to be an excellent year.
I have been making diy banjo kits for about 13 years now. I’ve made a lot of models available with different options on each model and then I’d usually wait for an order to come in and then make the banjo. Obviously this could put me behind pretty quickly when a few orders came in the same day.
I attempted to build up a stock of kits in 2025. I had about 30 complete kits on hand and many necks pre-cut.
I still found myself struggling to keep up with demand as every kit had to be customized with fretwork or a stained rim etc.
So, with all that in mind: I’m approaching 2026 a little differently.
I’m going to make one kit per day. It might be a fretless minstrel tackhead, it might be a fretted Appalachian mountain… when it’s finished, I’ll take pictures of it and make a listing here. If it sells, that’s great. The next day I’ll make another kit, list it, and maybe it will sell or maybe there will now be 2 kits in stock. And on to the next day and the next kit…
The point is, the kit will be complete, packaged and ready to ship before it is even on the website. This will really help me stay ahead of the orders.
I will make one kit per day and will also dedicate the rest of the workday to making a special complete banjo, some art, website improvements, assembly videos etc.
I’m going to stick to this plan for several months at least. If it doesn’t work out for whatever reason I’ll return to taking orders as usual and likely on a delay as usual.
Thank you for all of your support over the years. I have lost count of how many kits I’ve made at this point but it is beyond 3,000 now. I’m looking forward to trying something a little bit different and relieving some of the stress that came with the way I was previously working.Can I order a gourd banjo with the scroll peghead shown in the video? The peghead shown in the photos looks different.
Hello, thanks for posting on the forum!
Currently that is not an option I have available but I’ve been thinking about adding a minstrel neck gourd kit option sometime, probably closer to the end of the year.Since I’m here, I’ll address the original post and give an update. I spent the first 3 months of 2026 selling off a lot of the stock of complete banjos I had and I got a lot of things prepared to sell later. I am now back to taking orders as usual and I have a solid lineup of kit offerings for the year. I feel refreshed and refocused.
I plan to sell another batch of complete banjos as we get closer and closer to the end of the year.
I am considering bringing back a few discontinued kits also maybe even opening up my full collection of nearly every kit I’ve ever offered. This is a big year for me in my personal life and I am looking forward to a lot of things. I don’t have an exact timeline for my product offerings and I don’t like to put too much info out before it comes to fruition. Just keep an eye on the site and you may see things change and progress here throughout the year. Thanks for your support over the years to all of my customers! -Brian
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