Banjolin Restoration

[johnwalser]

I bought this badly warped and terrible looking banjolin on ebay as a project to test my ability to tolerate frustration. Well, it has been a challenge and then some. Go to:
http://home.inreach.com/johnw/bmpage
and see how it came out.
John

[Tom C]

Good job

[jim simpson]

john,
It looks great! Did you find a skin that was sized for it or did you have to stretch a skin? I have restored a couple of mando/banjos with skin heads and each time I've done one, I swear I won't do another. The stretching and fastening the wet skin was the worst part of the restorations.
Congradulations,
Jim

[8ch(pl)]

That's a British Mandolin banjo, any idea who made it?

[TommyK]

Sayyyyyy, That's Purty!
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[johnwalser]

The goat skin head was larger and I trimmed it to size. While stretching the skin was difficult, figuring out how to compensate for warpage was more challenging to me. I had to think (not an easy thing for a mandolin player to do) not how instrument had been originally designed to work, but how to adjust fretboard, bridge and tailpiece heights to create a playable instrument.
There are no markings that indicate manufacturer or country of origin.
Made a nice ebony bridge yesterday afternoon that looks nicer and got rid of a very slight buzz on e string. Banjolin stayed in tune overnight and sounds great this morning.
John