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It's a thingamyjitar

Posted by Fomhorach on April 27, 2016 at 10:09pm in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever

The last build I did was a proper scale length baritone ukulele with 4 strings.. 

The neck I have on my table just now seems to be heading in the direction of a 25" 4 stringed banjo type instrument with 3 strings playable with the 4th string being a drone ending on the 5th or 7th fret and the neck tapering in thinner at the top for the 3 strings... 

What the heck do I call it? What is it going to be? Is there a name for this kind of design?

Any suggestions?

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Tags: Frankenstein, banjo, guitar
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Replies

  • Bristol Blue May 7, 2016 at 11:22pm

    Could it be a "Tinjo" ?  Can't be Bantar, Mr. Wayfinder - Rickenbacker did that in the 60's along with their Banjoline ! 

    What about "Frank" (It's a bit Frankenstein , but also because Frank's a nice name. President Nixon's got a pet hedgehog called Frank) Sorry that got a bit Pythonesque lol :-)

  • Fomhorach May 6, 2016 at 3:04pm

    Its nearly finished as a normal 4 string metal box CBG. I need to fret it and fix a bridge to it. The fretboard is quite nice. I decoupaged it in theme with the box. I'm at work for the next four days so I'll finish it and post it next week.

    Thanks for the suggestions guys

  • JL May 6, 2016 at 1:05pm

    just an idea I saw elsewhere, run 2 decent threaded rods through the tin, bolt a mounting block on each end of the threaded rods, then you can  "bolt-on" your headless neck to one and your tuner-tailpiece to the other.  no stress on the tin and nice neat little round holes.

  • Fomhorach May 4, 2016 at 1:44pm

    It's actually called binned. The bottom "head" wouldn't fit into the tin box without either heavy duty reshaping or cutting massive holes in the box. So it got put into the 'fail' cupboard until I figure out what box would better suit the design.

    In the mean time I will build a simple 25" scale canukuthingy.

  • JL May 4, 2016 at 7:27am

    So FRED is the little cousin to the Chimera?

  • Blues Frog May 2, 2016 at 10:06pm

    The setup sounds like a 3 string banjo. That makes it a strange type of banjo, or stranjo.

    Strangejo

    stringjo

    Fomhorach special?

    OK so have a contest to name it. Winner gets nothing except the knowledge that they came up with the name. And maybe an autographed photo....

  • gary sheldon May 2, 2016 at 10:32am

    Four string banjo?

  • Fomhorach April 28, 2016 at 12:05pm

    It's actually being called "pain in the ass" just now as it's taking far too long to carve. Problem is that it's going inside a thin metal box and I think I've shaped the bridge side tune head wrong to side through the 'yet to be cut' holes. Stupidly I thought it would be better headless to put the tuners down the bottom. I will persevere..

    It breaks the point though..we are sometimes creating new "types" of instruments.. Well, unknown to me anyway.. So what do we call these things? 

    We know a CBG typically has 3 strings with 25" scale length either fretless or headless. With the body of a cigar box type body. But because we're breaking all these rules with typical scale lengths, number of stings etc.. What are they? 

    "It's guitars Jim, but not as we know them" - Benjamin Spock Franklin

  • gary herget April 27, 2016 at 11:05pm

    If we could see it, could help you alot more. Some scratch built banjos are made similar to what you described.

  • the anonymous pick April 27, 2016 at 10:20pm

    Fred ..  call it  Fred .  ;-)

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