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I’ve compiled a YouTube playlist, many of the videos posted above are in it and many others have not been posted here yet.
Hello, thanks for joining the forum!
My condolences to you and your family.
Phew I think weedpatch ordered a batch of kits about 10 years ago and we have not touched back since as I stopped offering bulk availability because I can only make one banjo at a time. It just didn’t make business sense to sell through music stores at that time while my online sales were more than enough to keep me busy.I no longer offer those exact kits or prices. Back then I was using plywood for the mountain banjos and they were much more basic in construction. Please check out my offerings here on the site. The quality, construction, materials and playability have improved greatly over the past 10 years and I think they are well worth the price.
For the rest of the year I will have this kit available for sale. The first 20 customers got a very special price! The current price is at $300 now, still worth it in my opinion and still the least expensive kit on the site with the most options and cool features.
Hi Guitango, I’m happy to see you’re kit out together and I’m glad you are enjoying it!
For the fifth string alignment, there could be a few causes and a few fixes.
First, the peg hole might have been drilled slightly inside of where it should ideally belong. That would be my fault, it happens and hey, $150 kit as opposed to $350 so I didn’t spend a lot of time on precision.
Next thing to consider: the nut and bridge spacing. If you bring the nut string spacing in slightly it could open up some space between the 4th and 5th string and get much closer to equal spacing.
Third consideration: the tailpiece could be shifted over to the right about 1/8” and this would also get that spacing more uniform.
Fourth consideration, if your homemade nut and bridge spacing is different (wider) than mine then it could be contributing.
I’m looking at the other customer submitted photo above and see there is a little bit of a string spacing issue but it’s not quite as noticeable as on your banjo. Every banjo is handmade and I hope these little quirks are more charming than annoying.
I hope you continue to enjoy your kit regardless and I’m glad you provided your feedback here for things I can improve in the future.Hi Jordan, if you are still having problems with the skin email me carverbanjos@gmail.com and I can help you with a replacement.
Tips for skin
-watch and rewatch the video I have posted above on attaching a skin to a rim
– pull tight but you should not be straining yourself, the power you need to use is about what it takes to lift up a gallon of milk.
-soak the skin in cool water for at least 30 mins, when ready just pat it dry enough to not be dripping water everywhere.
-always use a line of waterproof wood glue along the top lip before placing the skin. If you varnished the rim you must sand off the finish along the top lip before applying the glue. Using glue is absolutely critical to keeping the skin tight for the life of your banjo.
-the first 4 tacks are the most important and will be placed at 12 o’clock then 6 o’clock, 3 o’clock then 9 o’clock.
Every tack placed after that should repeat that pattern and focus on pulling the wrinkles out with each tack and getting a good even tension on the skin.
-you will have a good hour to work with the skin, don’t rush, don’t worry about it drying out before you get it attached. Take your time.
-allow the skin to dry naturally for at least 12 hours before putting the strings on.
-care for the skin and banjo, don’t leave it in a hot car. Don’t lay it next to a heater vent in your home. Skin tension will fluctuate with humidity but as long as it’s gradual and natural it’s not going to shock your banjoHi Bruce, welcome to the forum! I don’t want to speak for Thomas but I will answer because this forum is pretty slow. I believe he is using the provided nylon strings and probably tuned a few steps below standard. The kit he has is a 12” diy with a fretless minstrel neck.
Hope that helps!Thank you for posting matworsh! I love seeing complete kits, and tbh I didn’t put one of these celebration kits together myself, so it’s cool to see.
Any other questions about the kits? Just post here and I will answer promptly. I’d prefer to answer questions about this kit here in this thread than through email because your question might help another customer out too.
All kits have been shipped. All tracking numbers have been emailed to the email address you entered when purchasing, please check that email!
Thank you everyone for your support and patience. This was a fun experiment and fun way to celebrate. I will probably never offer these kits again at this price but I am considering selling another run of them closer to Christmas this year.
I will post some videos and assembly tips here tomorrow, so check back.16 of 20 orders have now shipped. The first batch should be arriving today. I will ship the remaining 4 orders tomorrow. I am going to work through the emails this afternoon to get tracking to everyone.
Thank you for your patience with this special kit. I underestimated the time it would take to get all of these out and I realize we are approaching one month since they went up for sale.
I will continue to update this thread with some assembly videos over this weekend.Glad you like the kit! No need for glue, but if you want to glue you can go for it, just make sure everything is lined up and straight
Update: these kits will begin shipping out on Monday the 8th. I hope to have every order shipped by the following Friday.
Will be posting videos and assembly tips here throughout next week.
Thank you everyoneThese rims are handmade and vary in size +/-1/4”
Average dimensions are 12” diameter, 2 1/4” tall, 7/16” thick.
I do not recommend this kit with intent of using a tone ring or a standard size drum head/hoop. Besides the dimension tolerances, there is also the non-standard neck to rim joint which may prevent the function of hoops and tension rings etc.9 MB seems to be as large as I can go for file size on the forums. Hoping it’s large enough for pictures and sound clips if not videos. Thank you
I’d do an oil based because the skin will be wet when you tack it to the rim and it could put runs or marks on the water based stain.
Looks great Ian, thanks for sharing!
I’m going to try to raise the size limit on attachments, so maybe you can try to repost that video and it might work.
I’m going to move this post over to the “completed kit builds” thread pinned to the top of this board. Trying to keep all the builds in one thread since it’s a pretty slow forum here.Hey Richard, welcome to the forum!
I don’t recommend steel strings on any of my kits and I’ll explain why. Each part of the kit is selected to work together. Nylon strings are easy to tie to the leather tailpiece and easy to keep in tune with the friction pegs. If you use steel strings you’ll almost definitely need to find a tailpiece that will work since the strings won’t have a good way to attach and can stretch the leather.
Then you may need to upgrade to machine tuners which I didn’t really design these kits for. You’ll see that on the friction pegs you wind the string downward and close to the peghead, you can’t do this with most machine tuners and the string will sit higher on the post, causing less downward tension at the nut and possible string buzzing issues.
Another point to note is that these necks do not have truss rods so they could become distorted or twist with higher tension strings, though I wouldn’t really be too concerned with this as they are pretty sturdy necks regardless. The last point: the drum is a tackhead which means it’s only as tight as you make it the first go, and can’t be adjusted to compensate for higher string tensions at the bridge- in short the skin could start to sag from extra tension.
I chose all the parts to work together in harmony, so changing one small thing could mean you must change several other things to stay in balance.
These are my recommendations and reasonings, but you are free to experiment and try out anything you want because it is your banjo and the main point of these kits is to have a fun hands-on project.
